World of Yakala

From the home page of the Yakala game the player can open the Yakala World, which is a 3D representation of the real world.  We do this by taking vector data representing the real world map and converting it into 3D terrain, water, roads, buildings, etc.

When the Yakala World is open, there is a panel at the bottom left of the screen that keeps track of all the results from the beginning to end of each World session.  The results include the distance walked/run and the counts of each rarity of monster collected.

Monsters in Yakala are not actually found, but rather generated.  What this means is that Yakala does not place monsters at specific locations where the player finds those monsters by going to those locations.  In Yakala, monsters are generated for players on an individual level randomly based on the distance they walk or run.  This means that if you and a friend are both in the Yakala World while walking side by side, each of you will have different species of monsters randomly appear on the map at different times.

Since the monster generation is based on distance walked/run, the player is not limited by his or her environment.  For example, playing Yakala in an urban location has no advantage over playing in a rural location.  Further, this means that the player could play the game to its fullest even in a small radius region, such as by walking the same short path repeatedly.  As long as the system is registering a distance walked or run, monsters will be generated.

The system also uses step data to verify that the player is traveling on foot, so driving, biking, or any other travel method will not result in monsters being generated.

A newly generated monster appears with a white ring around it.  To collect the monster, you must tap on the it, at which point its rarity stars increment the count of that rarity in the panel below.  Once the monster is collected, the ring will disappear, and the monster will remain on the screen for about one more minute until it also disappears.  During this minute, the player can press and hold on top of the monster to open a popover that displays the monster’s rarity.

In Yakala, when a monster is collected, it is not yours yet.  Further, the monster you tapped on will most likely not be the monster you battle later.  Rather, you will battle a random monster that has the same number of rarity stars as the one you collected.  This is because in Yakala you can choose to battle at a later time, so if you knew which monster you would be battling ahead of time you could prepare an unfairly advantageous team accordingly.

Yakala has a unique concept called the Monster Queue in which monsters are stored until you battle them for the opportunity to capture them.  This is so that the player can do fitness or activity like walking or running without interrupting their exercise, and then it is up to the player when to do the battles.  The Queue section has more detailed information on this.

In the scenario that you lose connection while the map is open, we automatically give you the monsters that were on the map that you were unable to tap to manually collect.

We are currently expanding and improving the types of data we can represent, so in the future we could have different biomes and buildings depending on where you are located.  If you have any suggestions feel free to write to us in the comments.