Run an Empire (And Get off your Computer!)

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#1

Well, I’m here today with my first kickstarter advertisement: Run an Empire! The concept itself is pretty cool. You put your smartphone in your pocket, and jog laps around any place: a friend’s house, a grocery store, your school. Then, you’ve captured some territory. Congrats! Now, you can run across that territory some more to make it more stable, so that other people won’t run across it and take it from you.

Run an Empire is also a game that motivates you to exercise more. Don’t procrastinate when you’re eyeing your expanding pauch, do something about it! :smile:

Here’s the page: Run An Empire - The Real-World Territory Control Game by Pan Studio —Kickstarter

(I have nothing to do with this project, I simply posted it on the ol’ Discourse. Sorry for the confusion everybody!)

7 Likes
#2

Hehe, this is brilliant! The idea seems simple, yet fun, and the results could be beneficial as well! Now if only I had a smartphone…

1 Like
#3

umm… wow! @Swift_Cube, this is brilliant! :smile:

we’re heading out, but I will absolutely check this out in more detail when I get back… at first blush though, I love the idea! :+1:

#4

I was looking at this on Friday instead of doing work. It looks like the sort of thing that would motivate me. A sort of single player multiplayer AR game with cool graphics the only problem for me is the Android support. I think it was mentioned as a stretch goal.

#5

Wow, this is amazing!

But, what if someone uses a Car or something like that? The App won’t know the difference between running and driving. This may be a problem when greedy players want the most land without actually working out.

EDIT: Oh wait, I read the FAQ.

#6

well now i only need an iPhone

#7

Or a Google Device (It’s one of their stretch goals).

#8

In the end, it’s still a server that takes the data. You could, with some effort, write something that just sends fake data to the server every day/all the time. If you’re not going overboard with it (i.e. not running around 24/7 at 80 km/h), then there’s no real way of detecting the cheat.

#9

Cool idea, I will probably pick it up when it comes out.

#10

For anyone like EpicDwarf who stumbled across the obvious problem: Car, plane, bike etc. hacking, here’s the reply from the FAQ:

"There are two ways we can minimise cheating/ denial of service by people using bikes, cars etc:

The first is by monitoring player speed. Any players that appear to be travelling at unrealistic speeds will be flagged for consideration.

The second is by using the phone’s accelerometer as a pedometer - so player movement with an unrealistic gait can also be flagged and investigated."

1 Like
#11

Also this could be used to track gang related turf wars.

#12

What…? Can you explain?

#13

YAY! Finally I have something to tell me where my territories borders are!

#14

Oooooh… This intrigues me very much! I will definitely get this!.. When I have a smart phone… Whenever that may be.

#15

I don’t understand why Android is the stretch goal and not the other way around. Android has the market share of devices (be it by a small margin) in the west. Globally android is by far the leader. Secondly Android is less expensive to develop on having only a one time $25 cost compared to $99 annually with Apple. Also with Apple, if Apple doesn’t like your app they can pull it at any time, like if for example it competes with something that they come out with down the road.

I understand there is extra costs to port the app from one OS to another once it is developed, but I believe you are going backwards with your choice of which to start on. There are more people using Android in the world than IOS.

I really wish people would use business logic instead of personal preference when making business decisions. You have a slightly better chance of getting backers if you start on android, as right now android users are taking a risk that you don’t meet your stretch goal. I would be one of these people. I would back this project now if it was reversed. If you meet your stretch goal I will back it.

I really like the idea. I have seen another Kickstarter that was similar, not territories, but a real world GPS, MMO, treasure hunt type game. I don’t know if they got funded or not.

1 Like
#16

It would seem that most of the backers agree with you, have a look at the commetns section of the kickstarter.

By the way, it seems that everyone has been confused by me. I did not make this game and am not affiliated with it whatsoever. I just posted it on the Discourse, and I’ll edit the post a bit so that I won’t get sued and more people won’t get confused :(!

Well, I’ve certainly learned the lesson of typing my words better. :stuck_out_tongue:

2 Likes
#17

haha! I know I certainly thought you were a part of the campaign! :smile:

but no harm, no foul… you’ve sent the campaign some prospective backers, so it’s all good … :wink:

3 Likes
#18

Well, that’s what matters in the end!

1 Like
#19

I can see it now “Local man stabbed to death for jogging inside of perpetrators " empire” "

1 Like
#20

Yes, but hopefully there’ll be some laws against it… :wink: