Our watchman reports "Land ahoy! Clouds are clearing up and we can indeed see land!"

Below us, a completely new and unexplored continent unfolds.

A panicked voice sounds from the message tube "Captain, our engine is failing. Our ship is going to burn!"

After several minutes of silence, the Captain finally replies "Okay, I got this. We are going to land safe, but it will be harsh. Hold onto yourselves!" Then, we crashed...

The airship sure didn't make it, but other that that, we, our gear and supplies made it pretty well. Crawling outside we could see a lush and completely wild land...

What would you do here? I know what I'd do. I would run. And I would explore!

Runners Grinders will come in the form of an mobile game mainly targeted towards Android phones. It uses GPS extensively to map your real world position into an in-game position.

The game takes place in a fantasy world on a recently discovered continent. You play as Hjalte, a young and strong spirited cartographer. You set out to explore and map the new world. To explore and travel in the game-world, you need to move in the real world! As you start moving in the real world, you will explore the game-world accordingly. The game will automagically generate a landscape with roads that resembles the routes you've moved in.

The generated landscape contains a variety of nature and places to visit - villages, cities and dungeons are all just a few examples. As you run along a path and pass by one of these locations the visit gets stacked as messages. When you have finished running you can open up the message tab and play through all your visits.

When you play through a visit of any location the game will play like any oldschool RPG. Here you can speak to characters, gather and turn in quests. By helping characters you help the villages to grow and in time they will turn into cities. Of course, turning in quests will give you lots of rewards in the form of trophies and achievements!

So, do I really have to run to play this game?

Not necessarily. Of course, the game is all about motivating exercise, but if you just go out walking that's really enough! The requirement is that you physically move between the locations in the game.

We are still undecided about this, but we might add running specific missions. This could be anything from being chased by a monster to running fast enough to catch a thief. Of course, you should not miss any of the story by walking, but it's good to make it even more fun to run! What do you think?

We will also make sure to add a "travel-mode", which means that you can untie yourself from your actual GPS coordinate. You'll need to generate a map in the standard mode first, but once you have that you can play on the same map from anywhere in the world. You could even play from a treadmill!

Nope, you will not be able to travel by car. The game will only let you play if you move under maximum running speed. We might make it possible to go by bike as you find a special item in the game. The possibilities are endless! This brings us to the next point.

What are your thought?

We are very open for your thoughts and ideas about the game. It's part of the reason why we're doing this campaign!

Is there a gameplay feature you would really love to see? Is there any problem you think we need to solve? Let us know and leave a message at the comment section!

We need you! :)

If we're gonna be able to work on this full time, we need your help to support our time. We have some savings but it's just not enough. Reaching our funding goal of $6000 will make sure one of us can work full time as well as covering all our other expenses, such as maintaining a website and licensing theme music.

If we reach our goal we can promise to release a beta version this coming spring. That way you can start running during the whole season. The beta will be very playable but will lack all the planned content and final polish.

Even though it's not critical, we aim to exceed the funding goal. If we gather the double amount, things will really start to happen. We can then hire someone to make continuous ports to iPhone. We can free up more of our time and even hire in an additional artist which will raise the quality of the release and its amount of content substantially. We could license a lot more music, a full album of scores fitting the theme of the game.

If we don't receive enough funding we will have a hard period ahead. We won't be able to keep up the pace and the release will probably be delayed a year. We intend to complete the game anyway and will try to manage, so don't be afraid that you would fund a project that just dies away!

Your rewards

Of course, a fine deed will not be left unrewarded! There are different reward levels ranging from the very tiny amount of $1 up to $1000. All the perks will reward you with unique achievement badges, such as an golden idol. These will be visible in all online affiliations of the game such as the support forums.

We hope the different perks are explained well enough in the field to the right, but if something is unclear, don't hesitate to ask!

Choose them wisely and remember that this campaign is the only chance to fetch these perks.

Other Ways You Can Help

Of course, if you like this game but cannot fund us you can help by spreading the word. This is highly valuable and will help make the game known not only for the campaign itself but for when it actually will release!

However, if you plan on buying the game we still recommend you fund at least the 6 dollars to get the game, because it may cost more at release.

Surely you have friends that might really need this game. You should let them know about this game, for their own good! We're happy to say the benefits are mutual - Not only will you help us that way, but you'll also help your friends getting healthier.

The story behind Runners Grinders

The story of this game begins in this summer, at a computers club. A revolt was on the way, some of the nerds inhabiting the place was actually beginning to exercise and it was spreading like a virus! In the mind of one of them a devilish plan was taking form - A game that would cause any nerd to start exercise!

Actually, this idea maybe wasn't so bad after all. Exercise is a good thing, right? I mean, even though it might be boring and hard to find motivation for, it's not a bad thing. Why not make it fun then? Games with quests, items, levels and achievements can offer an severe amount of motivations, so why not use that potential? This was the thoughts that brought this game to life.

The project started out with just one of us working on it - Fredrik Andersson, which is the one writing this. When I first got the idea I hadn't heard of any game like this before. I found the idea so good that I felt I had to start a company. It was my responsibility to make this game! I was currently occupied by studying for an engineering degree, so I started working on this game in my spare time. The game required more and more of my time and focus. I realized it wouldn't work out to do both and decided to work on this full time!

Since I decided on working full time, the plan looked much more solid which let me recruit two good friends that's actually studying game development.

Keep updated!

We hope you've enjoyed our campaign so far! Have a great day, and take care of your health and spirit!