List of Gamification Fitness Games for Summer 2015
From new year’s resolutions to workplace challenges, weight loss is a constant topic around the water cooler. Unfortunately, for many people, despite their obvious health benefits, fitness activities are also among the least fun ways to spend your spare time. Mobile app developers have taken notice, and developed gamification fitness apps that allow users to exercise and lose weight while being immersed in game base narratives and mechanics. Here are a few of our recent favorites:
Gympact
It’s a cruel concept: you set a gym or workout goal each week and if you don’t reach that goal, you have to pay other users who have reached theirs. The app revolves around the conviction that there’s no better motivation than losing (or making) money when it comes to weight loss.
Zombies, Run!
For a bit more innocent fun, award-winning novelist Naomi Alderman created this well-known fitness app that creates a digital environment which adds a story to your workout. Zombies, Run 3 just came out this year, featuring a number of story lines that all involve rescuing civilizations from zombies while collecting virtual items like batteries and medicine.
NexTrack
Perhaps the most traditional “game” of the fitness apps in this blog post, NexTrack turns your workout into a game where you can earn points and move between levels. Before you know it, you’ll want to keep working out just to keep getting to the next level.
Get On Up
Now here’s a new app that hasn’t even been released yet, but is already gathering buzz among fitness app users and experts. Get On Up is created by the makers of Pulse, an app that measures your heartbeat and translates it into music. It promises to measure your workout rhythm and match the music currently playing on your phone to that rhythm. No more jogging out of sync with the music you’re listening to – according to the developers, Get On Up will even adjust the speed of upcoming songs to ensure smooth transitions.
Gamification fitness apps have come a long way since being simple calorie counters or step calculators. By turning their offers into games, app developers have devised a way to turn an often-despised activity into a fun way to pass time.
