Farwalker · Stillcraft

What's inside

Everything Farwalker does.

The real world

5,580 towns from Natural Earth joined by roads that keep to land, sea lanes across the oceans and a few real bridges and tunnels, the Øresund and the Channel Tunnel among them.

Steps move the traveller

The phone's own step counter, even with the app closed. Open it after a day out and the traveller catches up.

Coins, trains and ships

A coin per km walked. Take a train from anywhere on the road to a station ahead, or a ship from the port where the road meets the sea. Walking never crosses an ocean.

The passport

A stamp for every country crossed, each with its own shape and ink. The seven parts of the world fill in, and 22 ends of the earth wait: Cabo da Roca, Nordkapp, Cape Horn, Cape Dezhnev, the South Pole.

The engraved atlas

Hatched seas, ripples along the coasts, hand-coloured borders of the countries stamped, the red line walked and the railway in black and white.

Where the traveller is

The local time there and the real weather, from Open-Meteo or MET Norway. Only the traveller's coordinates are sent.

The journal

Each night: in which town, or on the road between two, on the train or at sea, with the borders and the ports of the day.

Any goal

Search any town, country or cape in English or Russian. See the length of the way, the sea in it, the countries on it and the days on foot at your pace.

Screens

Captured in Farwalker.

Farwalker: The atlas — **The atlas**The road underfoot.

Farwalker: The world — **The world**The way so far.

Farwalker: Close up — **Close up**Towns along the road.

Farwalker: The passport — **The passport**A stamp for every border.

Farwalker: The journal — **The journal**Where each night was.

Farwalker: Where to? — **Where to?**Countries nearby and ends of the earth.

Farwalker: Setting out — **Setting out**From your own town.

How far is it

Way	Length	On foot at 6 km a day
Moscow → Saint Petersburg	about 800 km	4–5 months
Moscow → Lisbon	about 5,000 km	2 years and more
Lisbon → New York	5,900 km by sea	400 coins, 9 days aboard
Round the world	40,000 km and more	a journey of years

Get it

Get Farwalker.

Install

Version: v1.0.0
File: Farwalker.apk
Requires: Android 9.0 (API 28) or newer, a phone with a step counter. No Google services needed.
Permissions: Physical activity, for the step counter; notifications, for news of the road; internet, only for the weather where the traveller is. No account, no ads, no analytics.
License: MIT · maps: Natural Earth · fonts: Cormorant, PT Serif

Download the APK on your phone.
Open it and allow installs from this source when Android asks.
Pick your town, allow step counting and choose a goal.

Nothing is lost for a day at home: the traveller rests in town and goes on with your next walk. Steps and the journey stay on the phone.

Download APK All releases

Build from source

JDK 17+ (Android Studio's bundled JBR works) and the Android SDK. Kotlin, Jetpack Compose, DataStore, WorkManager; the world is built by tools/world.py from Natural Earth, the atlas is drawn in code.

git clone https://github.com/bigdevwhale/farwalker.git
cd farwalker
./gradlew testDebugUnitTest assembleDebug
./gradlew assembleDebug -Pdemo              # app.farwalker.demo: five months from Moscow
./gradlew testDebugUnitTest -Prender --tests '*RenderArt*'   # every screen to PNG, EN and RU
python tools/world.py                        # rebuilds the world from Natural Earth

Good to know

Questions people ask.

Does it count steps with the app closed?

Yes: the phone's step counter keeps counting, and the traveller catches up when you open the app. Only a reboot loses the steps since the last reading.

Isn't the train cheating?

It's a choice. Walk every kilometre if you like; or walk to earn tickets and see more of the world. Every coin is still a kilometre you walked.

How are borders drawn?

As Natural Earth draws them. States are the 195 members and observers of the UN; the other lands with their own outline get a stamp too.