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Launch HN: Quell (YC S20) – Immersive gaming and combat workout

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71–80 of 142 posts

Re: Launch HN: Quell (YC S20) – Immersive gaming and combat workout

#71
post #58

Looks cool indeed. I guess I need it more in office hours, lol

Hey there, Martin from Quell here. Thanks for giving us a look. Glad you like the sound of Quell! And if I understand your last point correctly, I can say that as it continues to develop, it's becoming more and more of a cathartic way to let off some steam...

Re: Launch HN: Quell (YC S20) – Immersive gaming and combat workout

#72

Do you have any plans to allow 3rd party development for the hardware? From my experience with VR, this looks like it could be really fun but get old quickly without some variety. Also, how are you doing the tracking? I don't see any external sensors mentioned, is it just IMU based? Because anything less than perfect sub millimeter motion tracking has become unacceptable these days.

Hi, Martin from Quell here. We're definitely keen to open up the platform to 3rd-party developers, as well as continuing to develop the core game to keep the product engaging over time.

We are indeed using IMUs to track the player's movements, and agree that high-accuracy motion tracking is one of the keys to making the experience really compelling and immersive. It's been a blast so far to feel the experience improve with each iteration of the game and software!

Re: Launch HN: Quell (YC S20) – Immersive gaming and combat workout

#73
post #4

So not the existing, moderately popular VR game called Quell? https://store.steampowered.com/app/534230/Quell_4D/

Hi, this is Martin from Quell—looks like fun! We realised that Quell is not necessarily a unique name, but felt that it captured the spirit of what we were doing too well to pass up on. A little competition never hurt, right?

Re: Launch HN: Quell (YC S20) – Immersive gaming and combat workout

#74
post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Check out our stretch goals - if we can get past $2m by 27th September then kickboxing mode is coming for you ;)

Can you post a link to those? Maybe it's me, but I cant find them on the kickstarter page.

Hey! There's no way to share a direct link to a section of the KS page unfortunatey, but it's section 12, right after the "Reward tiers" :)

Re: Launch HN: Quell (YC S20) – Immersive gaming and combat workout

#75
post #25

> High Impact Exercise I think you're using the wrong words there. "High Impact" workouts in the fitness world mean they are harder on your joints and tendons (think crossfit/hiit vs low impact like spin cycles). Since you aren't punching anything and you're not jerking your body around, I'd imagine this is more mid-impact? https://www.humana.com/prevention-and-care/healthy-living-an...

They're looking for "High Intensity" (the HI in HIIT)

That's true, thanks for the input! :)

Re: Launch HN: Quell (YC S20) – Immersive gaming and combat workout

#76
post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hi there, Martin from Quell here. Thanks for sharing these insights! To your first point, you're right—this is definitely not true for everyone. As a keen cyclist, I can say that getting out on my bike is definitely something I look forward to, too (less so now that London has returned to being one big puddle, but still)! We'll look into adjusting this to be more open-minded. You're also correct that, at present, it'…

You're welcome Martin, happy to help out. I'm curious if you have thought of having something like a burpee as one of a few different 'dodges' to move things toward a full body workout and activate the legs more? I'll also second the idea of selling the harness separately. I think something like that + VR could be a big hit. I also wonder if you have considered creating a lower body harness to add resistance to the l…

Absolutely! We're planning to implement movements like burpees to give users the possibility for High Intensity full body workouts! We've chosen not to do Vr based on user feedback: people seem to not like it. They find it cumbersome, heavy, sweaty and annoying, and we want to provide a seamless fitness gaming experience! We will still explore porting to VR in the future, of course! :)

Regarding lower body workouts, we'll start by adding sensors to the legs if we reach that specific stretch goal. We'd love to add resistance too, if it's feasible! :)

Thank you for your input!

Re: Launch HN: Quell (YC S20) – Immersive gaming and combat workout

#77
post #56

I guess this might be an effective way to get someone into working out, but ultimately it's just a gimmick similar to those late-night products that generally don't do much. I'm a bit of a fitness buff, I've been working out pretty my whole life. I guess the things that jump out at me that are off: 1. I wouldn't personally say 'we hate working out'. That to me is the wrong message. Working out is rewarding and worthw…

I'm not a fitness buff because I hate working out. I'm not overweight (perhaps slightly underweight) and it's hard to convince myself on any given day to do a thing I hate doing because it can't feel like a "win" until 3 ~ 12 months from now. I got excited about this concept reading OP's description, but the video makes it look like it's resistance band exercise for the arms, and nothing beyond that. I guess my ideal…

Hey! We're absolutely looking to implement full body workouts. With our tracking sensors, we will add exciting game+fitness features such as having to squat, do burpees etc in order to avoid the enemies or perform certain in-game actions. This will provide for a much more exciting experience, with a full-body, effective workout!

Re: Launch HN: Quell (YC S20) – Immersive gaming and combat workout

#78

I absolutely LOVE this. Really considering backing the kickstarter. Some thoughts I had off the top of my head: - This seems feels like a good use case for VR to have something totally immersive. Not sure how steady VR headsets are these days though... - Are there mechanics to "level up", like an RPG? I think that type of structure motivates a lot of people to keep playing and "grinding" - What about P2P? It seems ha…

Hey! :)

Thank you so much! Lovely to hear that you're interested in backing us!

To answer your questions: - We're definitely interested in porting Quell to VR later down the line. However, we chose not to for now, because our users just don't like exercising with it. They say it's cumbersome, heavy, sweaty and unsteady.

- The game is a fully-fledged story-based game with RPG elements. We totally agree that it's absolutely key to have this, to make sure our users love exercising with Quell, and don't get bored of it!

- P2P is also in our plans! It's not going to be one of our first features, but we're working to make it happen later down the line - it would be super exciting.

Let me know if you have further questions, super happy to reply :)

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