MythWalker Interview: Crafting an Authentic Geolocation Gaming Adventure

Jesse: I’m Jesse Snyder, Creative Director of MythWalker at NantGames. I’ve been making games for practically my whole life, but a little over 20 years professionally. In the past, I’ve worked on Halo and Call of Duty titles as a designer and director. I’m best known for creating and adding a zombie mode to Call of Duty, which is still being developed today. After many years working on AAA FPSs, I felt like I had done enough and wanted to switch it up. I have a special place in my heart for mobile games, especially geolocation games, and it felt like a fun-to-play fantasy RPG with plenty of depth that needed to be made. Introducing, MythWalker!

Jesse: Every encounter is played on a level that is based on real-world data. That “biome” is subtly shown on the World Map. If you’re near a forest, you’ll end up playing in more forest levels and run into more enemies that live in the forest. If you go near the water, you’ll end up fighting in water-themed levels against pirates, crabs and eels, for example. We have nine total biomes players can explore, along with multiple levels within each biome to discover.

Weather is also a factor and changes, per instance, so if it’s raining outside, it’ll rain at the combat levels in addition to the World Map, Hyport (the town hub), the minigames, and so on. Gameplay elements change based on weather and biomes. Overall, we try to bring as much of the geo data into the game as possible and make it reflect what’s happening around you. We take this concept much further than every other GPS game out there, and there’s a lot more we have planned for the future.

Jesse: We use Open Street Maps (OSM), which is a publicly accessible platform that provides the bulk of our game data. They have a pretty cool website worth checking out. We also use MapBox to render and deal with the OSM data. Beyond that, we have a bunch of secret sauce stuff we do to wrap it all together and make a cohesive game experience. For example, MythWalker uses real-world points of interest to turn into resource-gathering minigames and then themes them based on terrain data local to that point of interest.

Jesse: I always wanted to make a geolocation game that wasn’t another game’s IP with geolocation glued on. Essentially, I wanted to make a geo game built from the ground up with an original story and innovative mechanics that were purpose-built for geolocation and mobile gamers. Really, it’s a pure geolocation game inside and out at all levels. When we started developing MythWalker, the idea of a parallel world was one of the first obvious concepts that stuck. The central idea is that there’s an alternate fantasy world that “breaks through the veil” into Earth and that both worlds influence each other. If you’ve ever watched “The Never Ending Story,” then you’ll understand where our inspiration comes from.

We’ve poured a ton of effort into the world-building aspects of Mytherra and how it connects back to Earth. Every narrative element and gameplay mechanic players encounter has at least some string of attachment on Earth, which reverberates into Mytherra. Can Earth exist without Mytherra? Mytherra couldn’t exist without Earth, obviously… right? Without spoiling the story or any long-term plans, we have a lot in store here which is pretty exciting and unique to the genre and games in general.

We also know that MythWalker is a mobile game, and not every player is playing for deep narrative implications, but we’ve put the work in for people who want that kind of experience and if they’re willing to pay close attention. For example, The Child speaks directly to the player and about the game, but take notice of how she interacts with other characters or how other characters speak to you and your heroes.

Jesse: One of NantGames’ objectives is breaking this idea that geolocation games need to be rigid in terms of where you play. How many times have you been annoyed that a gameplay element was just out of your reach? Have you ever played a GPS game where it was raining outside or too hot and prevented you from playing? Maybe it’s too dark or late to walk around outside.

One of the first questions we got when designing MythWalker was, “How will a terminally ill child play your game?” Accessibility to the genre was always a focus for us, and of course, we wanted to incorporate any mechanics into the world-building. So we came up with special characters called “Navigators” who are reflections of you, the player in Mytherra. They allow for free movement on the World Map at the press of a button and consume “Portal Energy” using a “Tap to Move” feature. We refresh players’ Portal Energy daily, so they should always have at least a bit to play with. Players can also earn Portal Energy by completing quests or by spending some in-game currency if they really need it.

Jesse: Earth and Mytherra were once totally separate, but for some reason, they are bleeding into each other. This shouldn’t be happening; hence, The Child is now breaking through the veil and calling out to the Dreamers of Earth to figure out what is going on and put the pieces back together. Suddenly, players are thrust into a situation where the citizens of Mytherra are under attack, and players are being asked to save them. “What exactly is going on here? How are these worlds connected?“ is the question we want players to constantly be asking about the narrative and world-building. Essentially, we’re being intentionally muddy in how Mytherra and Earth are connected, and the clarity and revelations that come from engaging with MythWalker are a big part of the experience.

Purely in terms of visuals, we use a lot of “floating island” motifs. For example, when players enter combat, it’s displayed as if the world collided and were frozen in time. Other places, like Hyport (the town hub), are fully intact. Think of places that are more “broken” and are in need of healing, and places that are more intact are in need of protection.

The more obvious connection point is Hyport, the town hub and port city of Mytherra, where players meet various characters and engage with them at their places of business. We wanted to create a sense of “place” for Mytherrans to inhabit that players can easily access. Hyport exists fully in Mytherra but is under assault. Players will meet Gem Stanna, who helps craft and upgrade their gear, as well as Madra “Mads” MacLachlan, who runs a shop and sells various items to aid players on their quests. Both Gem and Mads ask heroes to help them on various quests (in addition to The Child). At any point, players can tap a button which takes their heroes out of Hyport and back to the world map of Earth, so it’s really fast and seamless for the player.

Jesse: Players in rural areas are also of high importance to us. Many of us have been in this situation personally, and we’ve seen the complaints from fellow gamers. While Tap-to-Move was our initial solution to this, we felt like it wasn’t enough. We added a “Portal” mechanic to MythWalker, which we felt was our final piece for the accessibility puzzle. Essentially, each player can drop up to three Portals, which can be accessed from Hyport (the town hub) and travelled to at will.

Players can replace any existing portal with a new one. This gives players the tools to, for example, drop a portal in a high-density POI area or a special biome they want to return to. Maybe you’re on a vacation at Disneyland. You can drop a portal there and go back whenever you want. Travelling through a portal costs a small amount of Portal Energy, but players also get a free amount of movement after passing through that portal before using up their Portal Energy again.

Jesse: MythWalker is a gamer-focused game made by gamers and game developers. Creating an innovative and fun geo-gaming experience is our sole focus, so any data we acquire is used only to improve the game. We’re also heavily privacy-focused. The game can be played co-op, but for example, players can hide themselves on the World Map if they choose.

Jesse: MythWalker is really only similar to other geo games in terms of presentation of the World Map, meaning the map interface will feel familiar to geo gamers, and there will be things on the map with which to interact. Beyond that, practically everything is a gameplay-focused improvement. For example, MythWalker has no inventory limits and features full character customization, all of which are free. Gameplay is far more complex than tapping on enemies or simple swipe mechanics, we have active real time combat that features multiplayer co-op for up to three players. This allows parties to coordinate their movement and abilities in combat.

Abilities are tied to weapon types (there are two per class), which are available based on the class they chose (Warrior, Priest or Spellslinger) and what level they’re at. MythWalker features a full crafting system for hundreds of pieces of gear, which include skill-tree-like branches for upgrades. Minigames that exist at points of interest are skill-based and become easier when your pickaxe is upgraded. Basically, every corner of the game has been built from the ground up with consideration of “What is the most fun here? How can this be more of an RPG?” as the main questions we answered. Players are often surprised about the depth of MythWalker and the considerations we offer players that are rarely found in other mobile games, especially geolocation games.

Jesse: Geolocation games hold a special place in our hearts. They’re unique: They require GPS, which means they’re really only meant for mobile devices, but they stand apart from all other mobile game genres. It’s as if GPS games are their own platform. There also hasn’t been a truly immersive geolocation fantasy RPG with a deep gameplay-focused approach that caters to both hardcore, mid-core and casual players. We’re not really interested in gimmicks like augmented reality mechanics disguised to collect user data for non-gameplay purposes.

If it doesn’t improve the gaming experience, then we’re not interested. However, we’ve set up a world that very intentionally blurs the lines between the digital world of Mytherra and the real world of Earth. RPGs and fantasy games, in particular, are unique in the levels of immersion players end up in. MythWalker, at its core, is a fun-to-play geolocation game, but for players willing to go down the rabbit hole, they’ll find there’s a lot to uncover. We have a lot planned for the future, and this is really only the beginning for all the MythWalkers out there.

Jesse: It was a bit buried in some other answers, but we do feature three-player co-op for players who happen to be playing near each other. We have a lot of future plans in this vein, so stay tuned!