ExoWorld

The real world is the game. Walk to reveal it, discover hidden adventures, and create journeys for others to explore.

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ExoWorld

The real world is the game.

ExoWorld turns ordinary walks into exploration.

As you move through the real world, you reveal your personal map, discover hidden Adventures, unlock location-based Artifacts and stories, earn XP, and gradually build a world that reflects where you have actually been.

But ExoWorld is not just a walking tracker.

Every Explorer can also become a creator: record a route, add Moments, stories, quizzes or discoveries along the way, publish it, and let other people experience the same journey.

Why I built it

Most outdoor apps are built around one of two ideas:

  • track where you went
  • find a route someone else created

I wanted something that connects both — and makes the real world feel worth exploring again.

The goal was to create an experience where walking somewhere new feels meaningful.

Instead of looking at another fitness dashboard, you see your world physically opening up around you.

A path you actually walked becomes part of your personal map.

A place someone else discovered can become an Adventure for you.

And a simple walk can become something another person wants to experience.

What ExoWorld does

  • Reveal the real world by physically exploring it
  • Discover Adventures near you
  • Follow routes created by other Explorers
  • Unlock hidden Artifacts and location-based Moments
  • Experience stories, quizzes and real-world challenges
  • Gain XP, levels and progression
  • Record your own routes
  • Add discoveries along the way
  • Publish Adventures for others
  • Import GPX routes
  • Explore your lifetime progress and health history
  • Use Apple Watch and Live Activities while walking
  • Compare progress through local and global leaderboards

The core loop

Discover → Walk → Reveal → Unlock → Create → Share → Explore again

The more you move, the more of your world becomes visible.

The more people create, the more there is for everyone else to discover.

How I built it

ExoWorld is a native iOS application built in Swift and SwiftUI with a modular architecture.

The app uses:

  • Mapbox for the interactive world, route rendering and clustering
  • Core Location for live movement and route recording
  • HealthKit for health and workout history
  • Live Activities for glanceable walk progress
  • Apple Watch integration for active Adventures
  • FastAPI for the backend
  • PostgreSQL/PostGIS for spatial data
  • background synchronization for trips, progress and map reveal
  • AI-assisted publishing tools for creators

One of the most technically challenging parts was the fog-of-world system.

The revealed world must stay geographically stable while zooming, panning and switching map styles, while still updating immediately as the user walks. It also has to remain fast after hundreds of kilometres of recorded movement.

The final system separates durable exploration state from the visual reveal layer, allowing the map to remain smooth while preserving the user's explored world.

Another major challenge was keeping route recording reliable across:

  • background execution
  • poor GPS accuracy
  • interrupted sessions
  • offline periods
  • synchronization
  • reverse traversal
  • checkpoint proximity detection

The app is designed so that the phone can spend most of the Adventure in your pocket rather than demanding constant interaction.

What I learned

The biggest lesson was that exploration only feels magical if the technology disappears.

A map reveal that jumps during zooming, a checkpoint that triggers late, or a recording that loses state immediately destroys the illusion.

A large part of the project therefore became less about adding features and more about making location, rendering, synchronization and interaction feel completely natural.

I also learned that gamification works best when it reinforces real behaviour rather than replacing it.

XP, Artifacts and progression are there to encourage people to walk somewhere new — the real reward is still discovering the place itself.

What's next

ExoWorld is designed to grow into a global exploration platform.

Future directions include:

  • smarter trip planning
  • richer creator tools
  • more community-created Adventures
  • improved regional exploration statistics
  • Android support
  • deeper travel and discovery features

The long-term idea is simple:

Make the real world feel unexplored again.

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