Gamified walking app: turn your neighbourhood into a game

What happens on a Stepwars walk?

Choose an outing, start tracking in the iPhone app and walk where access is permitted. The map shows nearby territories, but it does not choose a safe route for you. Follow a familiar loop or an accessible street you want to explore.

GPS measurements help validate movement. Results depend on accepted distance within cells, rather than your phone’s step count. You can pause; there is no need to extend an outing to finish an objective. After synchronisation, read the captures and any rewards in the result screen.

• Compare walking games
• Prepare your first outing

A reason to go outside beyond the step total

A pedometer describes a day. A gamified walking app adds an objective to an outing: explore, collect, advance a campaign or see a map change. The purpose is to give a few streets a concrete meaning without making every journey a competition.

Stepwars follows this idea with hexagonal map cells. Validated distance contributes to capture; eligible outings earn XP and Kip coins for the camp. This page describes its mechanics, not a comparative app trial or a promise that everyone will experience the same motivation.

Four ways to give outings continuity

Exploration invites you to look differently at nearby streets. Progression turns eligible distance into XP and levels. Collection adds badges and outfits. Goals offer optional distance missions and a weekly rhythm.

A free outing without a mission remains possible. The game does not automatically convert all the steps in a day; tracking has to be explicitly started.

Capture your neighbourhood cell by cell

Capturing a cell takes ten validated metres accumulated inside that same cell across outings. Ten metres is the capture threshold, not the width of a hexagon. A short pass can contribute to a later capture.

Dividing a two-kilometre route by ten cannot predict 200 captures. Results depend on which cells you cross, distance accepted inside each and earlier progress. The map is neither a safety guarantee nor permission to enter: an inaccessible cell can wait.

• Capture rules and examples

An evening loop, a useful journey or a weekend outing

For a short loop, the optional Petite escapade mission proposes 250 metres. Rewards can begin at 200 validated metres on an eligible outing. A walk to work can also contribute when you start and finish tracking explicitly.

At most three outings are rewarded in a UTC day, with at least 30 minutes between rewarded starts. A longer weekend walk can cross more cells without multiplying rewards indefinitely: distance XP is limited to 50 and Kip coins to 100 per eligible outing. Capture and rewards are separate results.

Your camp and explorer develop over time

Kip coins upgrade the initial shelter into a cabin for 300 coins, then into wood-and-stone shelter for another 600. They are game currency without monetary value. An eligible 600-metre outing gives 60 coins; 1,000 metres reaches the 100-coin limit.

Alex and Maya are the explorers shown in the wardrobe. Éclaireur, Cartographe, Nocturne and Botaniste outfits accompany progression, along with the Premier pas, À votre rythme, Habitude en chemin, Cartographie and Horizon élargi badges. These names are the French interface labels.

The campaign starts with walking milestones and then a territory chapter. New captures can progress that chapter without requiring a loss of cells. No nearby players are needed for these personal objectives.

GPS validation and privacy

Imprecise or inconsistent measurements can be rejected. Tunnels, network interruptions and iOS constraints can affect tracking. Use the synchronised result, rather than a step total or local route line, to understand what was accepted.

Precise GPS points are used temporarily to validate movement. The latest precise server points are removed when an outing is paused, finished or abandoned. A limited local buffer handles some interruptions; it is not unlimited offline storage. Cells, distances, results and progression remain associated with the account and can reveal places you visit, even without a complete route history.

• Privacy policy and data retention (French)

Check app access before you leave

Stepwars is intended for iPhone; Android is deferred. This guide does not announce public App Store availability. The planned subscription is €4.99/month or €39.99/year for the same features, with a three-day trial for eligible new subscribers, followed by automatic renewal unless cancelled. Purchase activation remains under verification. Check current access with the creator before preparing an outing; a web account alone does not confirm an iOS download, subscription or access.

• Ask the creator about current access (French)
• Plan your first Stepwars walk

The app in pictures

These screenshots come from the iOS interface running in a simulator. The map uses a test location; the camp is shown in a verification preview. They illustrate the interface, rather than a real outing or a week of progress. The pictured app interface is in French.

Frequently asked questions