Last weekend I finally made the first step in building my next pet project.

I've postponed this point as much as I could because I was trying to enjoy my free time after releasing my puzzle game.

But if you're anything like me, you know how hard it can be to have ideas stuck in your brain and not doing anything with them.

So, here we go again...

Building an app to stimulate exploration

"So what will you be working on?", you might ask.

Well, thats easy, I'm going to build an app that motivates people to go out and explore their environment.

The origin

The first seed for this idea has been planted in my mind back in 2016, when I joined the Pokémon Go hype.

We lived in a part of the city that I was not really familiar with. My son (then 2yo) would join me on my Pokémon adventures which resulted in a fun father and son hobby.

Another benefit of these adventures was that the PokeStops (locations in the game where you could collect items) were often conveniently place at playgrounds and other interesting places.

We found hidden gems within a few kilometers from our house that we probably would have never found if we hadn't explored every single street in our neighborhood.

Here I started thinking about an app that shows you the hidden gems around you.

Not much later I stopped playing Pokémon Go because it just wasn't good enough and got boring. Also my own idea started to fade away. My son and I still did our occasional exploration though, we didn't need Pokemon Go for that anymore.

A few years later...

This year I rediscovered Pokémon Go thanks to my second son who is really into Pokémon.

We bought 'Pokemon Go Pikachu!' for the Nintendo Switch and discovered that you were able to transfer Pokémon from Pokémon Go to it. So I downloaded Pokémon Go again en found out it has changed a lot! There was so much more to do!

Short after I was hooked again. This time my youngest son would join me on my adventures and he is playing the game as well. Together we conquer the world of Pokémon, often while walking the dog.

We also moved to a new village last year that had all kinds of new hidden gems for us to discover, so this was just great!

Holiday

This summer we went on a holiday. We'd spend a week on a campsite.

Of course my son and I had to do our Pokémon hunts there as well and by doing so, we quickly learned the cool places of the campsite.

This re-sparked the idea I've had back then. But with a stronger urge to really make something out of it this time.

So what could I do to give people the same feeling of discovering new places and learning about their immediate surroundings?

Location based games

My idea is to allow people to create and play location based games.

Pokémon Go and Geocaching are great examples of location based games, but they require quite some dedication to play.

My idea is to use smaller games, games that can be played and finished within a few hours up to a week(?).

For my MVP (Most Viable Product) I'm planning on supporting just one type of game, which is a treasure hunt.

I already have more ideas of different games, but it's important to not over do it so the project doesn't become to overwhelming.

The idea is not completely new, and some treasure hunt apps exist. This is actually great since the amount of downloads and the feedback they have tell me there is a potential userbase for my app!

I also think I have enough ideas up my sleeve to make this app standout and hopefully get many people to enjoy it!

So what do you think? Do you like the idea?

Until the next DevLog! Bye!