Violence is never the answer. That is to say, it used to be It’s funny when I open the walking app and tap one edge The editor slipped on the banana peel again with his baseball bat. Afterwards, I continued home peacefully. After a while, one of my fellow writers hit me more than once, but twice With their own baseball bats. I wasn’t actually angry, but it did prompt me to take a walk around the block so I could fight back against them.
In short, this is trampler — An iOS app that encourages you to beat, cheat, and outdo your friends (or colleagues) in a race Looney Tunes-Like race.
The app is the creation of designer Soren Iverson. You may know Iverson from his “Insanity UI” design series, in which he released conceptual application mockups with features that no one asked for but secretly wanted. For example, this Slack screenshot shows a coworker messaging you on a national holiday and receiving a call from the SWAT team. In all these works there is a hint of absurdist whimsy.
That wonderful idea is there trampler, also. Some of them have a cartoony, meme-like art style. Iverson said that was intentional. The app’s art was created by Jim Soper, who created the Looney Tunes and cuphead show. Instead of using a profile picture, you can create a Stomper avatar. (exist edge, a disproportionate number of us decide to have purple-red skin. Everything feels like an app from circa 2015, but with a hint of irony.
This wouldn’t be Iverson’s project if trampler It’s not twisted in some way.
“Often the work I do is turning things upside down or just questioning a core principle,” Iverson said. edge. “What if the step count could be messed up by someone else? It’s really weird. [because] It defeats the purpose in a way.
The end result is something like Looney Tunes meet Mario Kart. When you “match” you can pick up items to disrupt your friends. You can send fake shortcuts to friends to cut their step count in half for 30 minutes. Some rockets can propel you 1,000 steps forward without you actually taking the step. A baseball bat knocks you back 500 steps. Bananas have a 50% chance of knocking you back or pushing you 500 steps forward.
As a fitness technology reviewer, looking at step counts is an interesting thought experiment. Like anyone, I’m guilty of getting too obsessed with metrics that don’t really matter. Sometimes I pout and say my last move counts trampler Does not reflect what I actually do in real life. But it also made me question why it was so important to get credit when I achieved my goal of being more active.
Iverson said the ultimate purpose of the game is to connect with friends. It’s not the same as answering the phone, but it’s a low-effort, easy way to check in. I laughed when a colleague texted me as I was pacing my office over a troublesome draft and said, “Please, stop moving.”
trampler Still new, just launched last week. Even so, Iverson and his co-founder Josh Rozin have big plans for the app’s future. rogin told edge An Android version is in the works, much to the relief of the Android faithful. He also noted that the team is discussing a potential single-player version of the game. Both men disagreed with the road map beyond that, but Rozin said trampler Has “enormous potential beyond fitness.”
Whatever the future holds, I’m enjoying it trampler” A bit of a crazy way to compete. Sometimes, when I get a notification that someone has wrongfully uploaded my Stomper avatar, I’ll rot on the couch, scrolling through TikTok. Sometimes this inspires me to go for a walk so I can get my revenge. Other times, I’d giggle because they were joking: I planned to run four miles the next day. Regardless, I’m taking these steps – and maybe having some low-risk fun.
