A Broadstairs dad-of-two has created an intriguing free walking game full of folklore-inspired creatures, hidden stories and adventures to claim territory and leave Beacons for future Wayfarers.
Mark Harris, who is a systems engineer and has previously built cyber security games, says his latest invention is inspired by fantasy worlds and the folklore creatures of British legend.
The Hidden Realm app, which is free, is available on Google play store, with an iPhone version currently under review and a Wear OS companion app also in development.
Mark, 45, said: “I’ve built The Hidden Realm, a free-to-play, privacy-first walking game inspired by Britain’s landscapes, history and folklore.
“The idea started with a simple question: what if going for a walk could help us discover more about the places we are walking through?
“The game is deliberately designed to get people away from their screens rather than glued to them. You start a walk, put your phone in your pocket and enjoy the journey — with friends, family or on your own. When you finish, the Realm reveals what you encountered along the way.
“A major part of the game is uncovering the forgotten history of the places we walk through. That could be something significant that happened centuries ago, a building that has long since disappeared, or discovering that somewhere completely ordinary today once had a very different purpose.
“The content grows from where people actually walk. When a Wayfarer explores somewhere with little or no existing lore, it creates an opportunity for that area to become part of the Realm. The historical material is researched and checked, the location confirmed, and the resulting story is added for future players to discover.
“There is also much more to the game: players belong to one of three Wards and can capture virtual territory, leave Beacons for other players, encounter more than 40 folklore-inspired creatures influenced by the environment, weather and time of day, and work together to unlock the mysterious Book of Forgetting.
“The project has been built independently from Thanet, and the local connection is particularly important to me. A lot of the early content comes from places around Thanet and Kent, including stories connected to locations that many local people will recognise but may never have known the history of.”
Mark says privacy is core to the design. Route data is automatically deleted after 72 hours, walk start and end points are deliberately fuzzed, and individual player routes aren’t made public.
Mark built the app within three months using AI conversations with multiple AI systems. This involved Mark describing what the Realm should do and working with AI to bring it to life, rather than hand-authoring the codebase.
Mark says the creation was inspired by many things, one being the aim of getting his children, aged seven and 10, outdoors and away from the constant phone and iPad screens.
He said: “My kids have got tablets and live in a world where everything is at your fingertips digitally, I wanted them to go outside. We have had a glorious summer and this gives us a reason to get out and about, looking at a grass verge and wondering if one of the creatures is there!”
Find the website: https://thehiddenrealm.co.uk/
Find the Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/TheHiddenRealmGame
It’s really a shame that the images are AI generated. I do a lot of walking and this seems like it would have been a fun thing to play with friends, but it’s a pass from me because of the ‘art’. I can see a case for generating the code perhaps, but I know local artists who would have been all over a project like this.
Interesting concept and I like the idea that the app is privacy respecting, although if even the maker can’t verify the codebase, how can anyone be sure it actually is privacy respecting?
Would be very cool if this was Open Source code, then potential players could verify the app is privacy respecting. Something people take for granted and then its too late.