Show HN: Fit Owl. The game that tricks you into excercising

During that pandemic lockdowns last year, I had a thought that there could be a lot of people around who are struggling with hypodynamia being under stay-at-home order, unallowed even to go for a short walk. Some may try to invent/borrow/adapt physical excercises for home use, but most - don't. And even those who does that, they are having probably the same old issue from pre-pandemic times of making a habit out of excercises, which is quite challenging.

So I thought, is there a way to help them do (motivate them to do!) at least some very basic workout procedures, like running or squatting? Then I thought about computer games: they are catching and engaging, so why not to try to weld them both? What if there's a game that is controlled directly by a gamer doing various kinds of excercises? I mean - not by pressing buttons to control the game, or by filling the questionnare "how many squats I've just done?", but by actually doing some physical action that is interpreted as some in-game intent. Modern smartphones are jam-packed with various sensors and it shouldn't be hard to find a few motions, that could be detected in a real-time to control the game course. Isn't it?

Well, probably I'm not the most skilled search engine user ever, but I didn't find anything that fits the description. There were/are (probably) great games such as Zombies!Run, PokemonGo, etc.., but their appoach is totally different. They make you move, indeed, but they (probably) don't make you move fast and intense enough to count that as a workout, and you definitely can't play them at home only (and I'm not sure you can control the game actions with your direct actions either).

Seeing no suitable product that exploits your idea usually means two things: either someone had already tried it and failed miserably (if nobody wants to play games with a controls like this in reality), or (less likely) that nobody have tried. So, I decided to implement a game with the said characteristics myself and see what happens.

Fit Owl, the game you see under the link [1], is a disguised gamification of two physical exercises - running and squatting, because this is how a player controls the protagonist, - by really doing this actions (they are classified and tracked by smartphone's sensors in a real-time). The game is a 2D side-scroller where a player-controlled bird (an owl) flies over infinite procedurally-generated landscape full of various obstacles and tempting challenges. When the player runs (while holding the phone in his/her hands, obviously), the Owl accelerates to fly faster horizontally, when the player do a squat - the Owl gains height. So you basically have to do some sort of workout to play in it (I use it all the time to perform warmups before a real training).

Some more tricks: every Owl's action costs her some energy/stamina, which is limited. The stamina could be replenished by two ways: either by Owl's own metabolism slowly exchanging her body weight to energy, or when the Owl eats something during a flight. In the latter case there's a challenge though: if she ate too much, she will start to gain weight, because eaten food energy will be metabolized into fat tissue. The game goal is to help the Owl lose enough weight so she'll be able to fulfil her dream to fly high above the Earth, which is achievable, provided you are sufficiently familiar with the game mechanics, in about 3-5 minutes timespan.

At this moment the game is more like a prototype/MVP to test the waters and to see if someone would like the concept of controlling a game while excercising. So please don't judge too strictly the visual style or the lack of sound. It's just a beginning and much more will be implemented and improved if it proves to be worth doing. The only question now is would I be able to pay my bills if I will continue to do what was planned?

So, I'm eager to get and will be insanely grateful for a feedback on it! What do you think of the game and the game concept? What do you think should I improve in the first place?

[1] https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=cardio.workout... (I hope that the price less than a price of a cup of coffee isn't too much for a game that helps to stay fit and healthy, but you say that!)

Sincerely, Aleksey "Arech"