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At this year’s Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki we once again ran our Very Big Indie Pitch competition – a speed-dating style event that we regularly take to shows around the world. It offers developers a chance to get their games in front of expert judges, gain valuable feedback, and maybe even a prize!
For a glimpse of what The Very Big Indie Pitch is all about, we sat down with Not A Cult CEO Sami Pentt to talk about its game WalkScape, which came in third place at the VBIP in Helsinki.
Want to get involved in the Big Indie Pitch? Check out our website to see where the next BIP will be and to apply.
Tell us a little about yourself and your indie studio. Who is in the team, and what are their inspirations?
Not A Cult is, well, not a cult! Instead we are a small indie studio based in Helsinki, Finland, and we are currently four members strong! The company was built around our first game, WalkScape, and it differs from most other indie gaming ventures by being 100% community funded.
The whole story began in fall 2022, when our founder Schamppu (Sami Pentti) was looking for a game that would encourage him to walk more. He wasn’t quite satisfied with the games that already existed, so he landed on the only rational conclusion of building one from scratch.
Schamppu kept periodically posting on Reddit about his project, slowly gaining more and more attention and during the first winter Maxchill (Emils Mednis), our Latvian pixel art superstar, joined the team. Soon after that the project started getting funding through Patreon and Buy Me a Coffee, and before summer 2023 was over Schamppu officially set up a company. Thus, Not A Cult was born.
Over the following year an American game designer, community manager and data wizard called Floursifter (Kyle Flanegin) and I, Finnish programmer Myzozoz (Markus Holopainen), additionally joined the team, completing our current line-up.
Although Maxchill and Floursifter work remotely from their home countries, we are all united by an uncompromising attitude towards quality and doing things The Right Way. Being community funded has allowed us to keep full control of the company, something which we are eternally grateful for.
Tell us about your latest project that you pitched at the competition.
We pitched our first and so far only game, WalkScape. It’s a fantasy MMORPG for mobile, where the only way to progress is to walk in real life. Whenever walking and mobile games are mentioned in the same phrase, thoughts tend to turn to Pokémon Go and the like, but our game offers some novel variations.
First of all, we don’t use GPS, only the pedometer, meaning that the game never knows or cares about where you are walking. In addition to respecting the player’s privacy, it means that the game works perfectly well indoors and for example on a treadmill. We really just want you to move those legs.
Second, you don’t need to use the phone while exercising. Instead, you choose what your character works on and then go for a walk or run. After you’re done, you can come back to check on the progress you made and what rewards you earned!
Finally, the game does not, and never will, contain ads or microtransactions. After we launch into open beta sometime in 2025, the game will have a free-to-play mode and a subscription mode. Players can play in free mode as long as they want, but to unlock all areas, features and content, we ask for a small, flat subscription fee every month. For those who have ever played RuneScape, this monetisation model will be quite familiar.
With all these things combined, we are making a game, where the more you play, the better you feel. Since the game doesn’t reward for spending more than a few minutes per day at the screen, it lets you spend more time on those things that are most important in life, and because it rewards physical exercise, it’s a great way to encourage yourself to literally go the extra mile for your personal health.
And if the game sounds too much like a fitness app for your liking, don’t worry. On top of the core mechanic we are building a rich multiplayer roleplaying experience, where you can specialise your character in the skills you want, adventure through the world of Arenum by yourself or with other players, hunt for treasure and trade with other players and so much more.
WalkScape is currently in closed beta (applications are accepted in waves) and will launch into open beta during the second half of 2025. For more info, check: https://walkscape.app.
How hard is it to survive as an indie developer?
Extremely. For an outsider it might seem that there’s a lot of indie companies out there these days that “seem to be doing ok”, but the truth is that those who make it represent the tiniest tip of the iceberg. T
hat being said, it’s rare for indie companies to truly crash and burn and instead, they seem to most often just fizzle out and silently suffocate under the constant pressure of fighting for attention in a supersaturated market. But luckily for gamers, the world is filled with dreamers like us who are willing to face impossible odds to become the next rock stars of the video game world!
Being community funded, Not A Cult represents the tiniest fraction of the tiniest tip of the iceberg. There is no repeatable pattern on how to achieve this situation, and we haven’t failed to realise how lucky we are. Another thank you to our amazing supporters!
How was your experience pitching as a part of the Very Big Indie Pitch?
Intense. Five minutes is a very short time to sell your idea, especially when you know nothing about the counterpart’s background or previous knowledge. Just when you feel like you’ve gotten up to speed, it’s time to swap tables.
However, nothing beats that feeling, when you notice the shift in stance and expression on the listener’s face, as they’re just starting to figure out why they should be excited about what you’re trying to sell them.
What do you feel you have gained from these experiences, and what do you still hope to gain?
When developing a product inside your own bubble, you start taking many ideas for granted. “Of course this will work!”
It’s good to pitch to people who come from a vastly different background, because they can make you re-examine the most fundamental pillars of your project, which you maybe haven’t thought of in ages yourself. It’s also not possible to be too experienced in pitching and talking to people.
What are your hopes for this game in the future, and do you have any plans for any future projects?
We expect WalkScape to scratch an itch that many players are feeling these days. Especially people of our own age, who are working full time, maybe have a family and plenty of things to do in their spare time.
These are people who still want to play video games, because that’s what they’ve always done, but don’t have the time to do so much anymore. In the recent years awareness of the dangers of excessive screen time has also increased, which has made some more averse towards games that are large time sinks.
Enter WalkScape, which in its simplicity solves those issues. You can play as much as you want, without increasing your screen time, and the more you play, the better shape you will be in. And all of this, while exploring the exciting world of Arenum.
WalkScape is a large game and we expect to work on it for several years still, while slowly growing the studio. There has been no talk of future projects, but time will tell!
Want to show off your exciting new game? We host Very Big Indie Pitch events throughout the year, so be sure to keep an eye out on our events page for an event near you.