WOW | Devpost

WOW — Walk Our World was inspired by a simple observation: most people already know that walking is more sustainable, but knowing that does not always change behaviour. Many sustainability solutions focus on carbon statistics, dashboards, reminders, or guilt, which may inform users but do not necessarily make them want to come back. We wanted to make sustainability feel less like homework and more like a game people would genuinely enjoy. That led us to create WOW, a mobile-first city-building experience where real-world walking powers progression. Users walk to unlock nearby areas of Singapore, earn City Coins and XP, and use these rewards to build and customise their own version of the city. Iconic Singapore landmarks remain recognisable, while surrounding greenery, public spaces, infrastructure, and decorative elements can be personalised. Users can also visit their friends’ cities, compare how differently they have developed the same areas, and even donate selected infrastructure, creating a social loop that encourages repeated use.

We built WOW as a mobile-first web application using Next.js, React, TypeScript, Tailwind CSS, Lucide Icons, local state, and mock location data. Since this was a hackathon MVP, we deliberately focused on creating a polished end-to-end experience instead of overbuilding the backend. The main user journey allows a player to start a walk, complete a route, earn rewards, reveal new areas, customise their city, and visit friends. One of our biggest challenges was balancing sustainability with fun. If we focused too heavily on carbon emissions, the app risked becoming another eco-dashboard, but if we focused only on gaming, the behaviour-change element could become unclear. We therefore centred WOW around one specific behaviour: encouraging users to walk for realistic short journeys instead of automatically choosing motorised transport. Carbon savings are still tracked, but as a secondary metric rather than the main reward.

Another challenge was creating a system that could stay engaging beyond the first few uses. Simple badges and step counters can quickly lose their novelty, so we added multiple layers of progression, including map exploration, area unlocking, City Coins, XP, city customisation, collection, and social interaction. Every walk contributes to something persistent, which gives users a reason to keep exploring. Through building WOW, we learned that behaviour change is not simply an information problem. People often already know what the better choice is; the harder part is making that choice rewarding enough to repeat. We also learned the importance of scoping during a hackathon. Rather than trying to build an entire live Singapore map with a complex backend, we focused on a smaller, polished experience that clearly demonstrates the concept. Ultimately, WOW is built around one idea: most sustainability apps reward you with statistics, while WOW rewards you with Singapore.