where it's going
What a walking RPG could be, if you kept building it.
already in the game
Everything on this list is built, tested and in the hands of players today. The roadmap below is what gets stacked on top of it.
Everything past this point is unbuilt, and none of it has a date. Grimtread is built by one person, and this page exists to show the shape of the ambition rather than a schedule. Everything below is an idea that has been thought through and written down. Some are nearly designed. Some are a paragraph and a hunch. Things will be cut. Things not on this list will arrive instead. Read it as a direction, not a delivery.
the loot
The itemization model is Diablo and Path of Exile: most of what falls is forgettable, and the exceptions are what you play for. Right now the game has rarities, affixes and crafting. That's the floor, not the ceiling.
The drops that change how you play rather than how big your numbers are. A unique is exciting when it does something no rolled item can: a piece that raises your resistance ceiling past where anyone else can reach. Not when it has a name and better stats. Each one designed as a trade, never a strict upgrade.
Diablo II's system, specifically: items drop with sockets, gems and runes slot into them, and the right runes in the right base spell out something far beyond the sum of its parts. A second progression axis that needs no new creatures and no new places, because the walking already makes the drops.
Today a hammer and a sword are the same object with different numbers. Making the base type mechanically real means the kind of weapon you carry matters, and it opens the door to gear with real identity: a shield that only a fighter wants, a focus that only a mage does, without locking anyone out of anything.
The bench can already salvage, reroll and upgrade, but a reroll rolls everything at once and hopes. The version worth building lets you go after the stat you actually need, so a fire-resistant chest piece is something you can work toward rather than wait for.
A mage currently loots a greatsword and equips it perfectly happily. Nothing is broken; it just reads wrong. Wands, staves, off-hand focuses and robes exist so a caster looks like a caster. That is a fantasy problem rather than a balance one, which is exactly why it's worth fixing.
the fights
A creature today is a stat block and a counter-attack. The interesting version is one where losing teaches you something about what you fought.
Kits of distinct, telegraphed abilities: a heavy wind-up, a defensive brace, an elemental special. A fight then varies by opponent rather than by stat total. The creatures that favour the evening should fight differently, not just look different.
Physical is the damage nearly everything deals, which makes it the one worth subdividing. Split it and armour stops being a single number. A mace becomes the answer to the thing your sword can't cut, and the weapon in your hand becomes a decision.
Instead of a creature always being the same rarity, roll it when you meet one, with the difficulty, the rewards and the artwork all changing with the roll. The same idea as item bases, pointed at the bestiary.
Gear can already lend a fighter an element. The deeper version lets you spend progression to reach one deliberately, so answering a resistant enemy is a build decision rather than a lucky drop. A mage gets a physical option for the same reason.
the world
The sun already changes what you meet. It shouldn't be the only thing that does.
Pick where the walk takes you before you set out: a ruined keep, a bog, a desert. Then meet the creatures that belong there. The light still changes them on top. Your street doesn't change; what you're walking through does.
Sometimes what crosses your path is a chest rather than a creature. A reward that asks nothing of you, for the walks where you can't stop and look at your phone, which is most of them.
The core promise is that the game happens while you walk. Putting the distance, the fights resolving themselves and the warning that something is stalking you onto the lock screen makes that real without you ever opening anything.
Currently silent. Hits, crits, loot and level-ups have obvious moments to land on, and an ambient loop for the walk itself. That is the kind of thing that turns a systems demo into a place.
the walk
It's a role-playing game that happens to be powered by walking. That second half deserves building for on its own terms.
A distance to aim at today, and a reason to come back tomorrow. The more interesting version adopts the goal you already set in your phone's own fitness app, rather than asking you to keep two numbers in your head.
The question worth answering is whether the game actually gets people walking. The app already records how far you go each day, so the honest version of this reads your own trend back to you, on your own device, and is willing to find out the answer is no.
What kind of movement you did could change what your character becomes, without ever changing how strong they get. A deliberate line: the moment real fitness buys power, the game starts rewarding people for being able to do more, and that's a different game than this one.
Treadmills and hallways already count, but indoors the app leans on step counting, and steps are a walking-specific proxy that leaves out anyone who doesn't take them. Outdoors has never had this problem, because distance doesn't care how you move. Closing that gap indoors is on the list, and it is a real gap, not a rounding error.
Eleven creatures are painted so far, each with a portrait for both lights; the rest of the roster is waiting its turn. More creatures, more places, and eventually artists and animators rather than placeholders. The current art is a stand-in and is treated as one.
the part that isn't a feature
These aren't planned. They're already true, and they constrain everything above. When a feature on this page conflicts with one of them, the feature is what changes.
Creatures change with the light, and the rewards do not. Rarity is settled before the hour is even considered, so nothing out there is rarer or richer once the sun drops. You are never nudged somewhere you'd rather not be for a better drop.
Progress comes from distance, not from landmarks. There are no gyms, no stops, no places you have to drive to. A rural road and a city block pay exactly the same, which is not true of most games in this genre.
Nothing decays because you took a week off. A game about building a healthy habit should not punish you for the days life got in the way. That is how a habit becomes a chore, and then an uninstall.
A stroll and a run pay exactly the same per mile. The game counts the ground you covered and never how fast you covered it, and outdoors it has no idea whether you walked, pushed or rolled. There is one ceiling, at 25 km/h, and it is there to rule out car journeys rather than people.