Add Gameplay to Your Workout With City of Epic

Linking exercise with smartphone or iOS-based devices seems like a match made in heaven. Right now, however, most implementations of this idea get by with bolting a few basic gamification principles (badges! social media!) onto an exercise log. Not. Very. Fun. City of Epic is coming at the problem from a different direction, building gameplay […]

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City of Epic

Linking exercise with smartphone or iOS-based devices seems like a match made in heaven. Right now, however, most implementations of this idea get by with bolting a few basic gamification principles (badges! social media!) onto an exercise log. Not. Very. Fun.

City of Epic is coming at the problem from a different direction, building gameplay directly into the exercise plans. You're not just building up strength to jog around the block: you're preparing for the zombie apocalypse. As Katherine Ramos puts it on the company blog, City of Epic is:

tackling this issue [of motivation] starting with augmenting activity with fleshed-out game dynamics and story line. We’re also adding in-game features to help players stick to their goals, such as cooperative challenges with friends, surprise “attacks” that encourage trying new activity, and regular in-story fitness tests to monitor progress.

Here's a trailer for the game:

(I would pay a lot of money to see the "grad students" challenge. How hard could it be?)

Much like Epic Win, City of Epic functions as a simple RPG, adding simple avatars and stories to things that you have to do anyway. As Kelly Maguire has observed, a huge challenge for exercising is that the first couple of months are really hard, since it takes a while to see results. This is a way to fight through that: a ubiquitous, browser-based game (for starters) that will ultimately be implemented as mobile apps and will integrate with Nike+, Adidas miCoach, and more.

The game is still in development, and is currently soliciting support via Kickstarter. Backers who participate at the $25 level will be getting invites to an avatar creator soon in addition to a beta invite, and there are a variety of goodies available for supporters at different levels. City of Epic is currently over 50% funded, with about two weeks left in its campaign.

Details are somewhat light at the moment, although it could be interesting. That said, if having $35 automatically deducted from my checking account every month for a gym membership doesn't provide motivation, I'm not sure an app is going to get it done.