As if we nerds didn't already have enough advantages over the general population. /jk
srsly this is a great idea and a great price point; I'd buy it
Launch HN: Quell (YC S20) – Immersive gaming and combat workout
81–90 of 142 posts
Re: Launch HN: Quell (YC S20) – Immersive gaming and combat workout
#82As if we nerds didn't already have enough advantages over the general population. /jk srsly this is a great idea and a great price point; I'd buy it
Thanks, great to hear you like it!
Re: Launch HN: Quell (YC S20) – Immersive gaming and combat workout
#83Saw a similar Product, but with direct impact training. A partnership with https://joinfightcamp.com/ might be a great thing, especially, if you added sensor pads for the feet to record leg kicks.
With your product, I'm reminded of Wii Boxing.
Re: Launch HN: Quell (YC S20) – Immersive gaming and combat workout
#84Yay, more screen time. So 200$+ minimum. We bought some boxing gloves and connected 3 car tires and hung them from a tree branch and even a pole for indoor use. Tires were free and the pole was free. The cost of the cement was "dirt" cheap. The tires can take a beating from anything you want to train with. Swords, hammers, hands, you name it.
This feels like a gimmick for cash.
Re: Launch HN: Quell (YC S20) – Immersive gaming and combat workout
#85So 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?
> A little competition never hurt, right?
Optimism is fine, but realistically, yes, competition over a name for another video game can definitely hurt you.
Re: Launch HN: Quell (YC S20) – Immersive gaming and combat workout
#86Looks good, good luck with it! I know for me I'd get pretty bored with doing just one thing (here, boxing, Peloton bike riding, etc.), even if the online "experience" varies things. Also, while it's good for burning calories, it's just hitting (har!) one set of muscles. I'm doing a broad range of exercises through a streaming video service, including various weights/resistance training, and a yoga/tai-chi/pilates cla…
Thanks! After the past few months with our heads down it's been so great to share what we've been doing with the world! Variety is absolutely something to shoot for. Personally I've always been big on 'adventure' sports - I find that the distraction from the fact I'm working out allows me to have fun, and still stay (reasonably) fit! Not so easy to do when I'm back around home though - all these activities require ti…
If you're still reading comments :-) I remembered a few other things Les Mills does that are great.
They have a lot of training videos, several for each class of exercise they do. They're in-depth, and really show you the form.
They add tips to the actual work-outs, so you're constantly reminded of good form.
They have alternatives to most of the exercises, so you can modify them if you have (e.g.) knee problems, or aren't up to full push-ups, etc.
They do good cool-down routines at the end of most videos, and have a number of cool-down-only videos you can watch for the others. Not everyone thinks highly of post work-out cool-down/stretching, but a lot of the people who seriously study exercise recommend it.
Re: Launch HN: Quell (YC S20) – Immersive gaming and combat workout
#87I think this is a tough concept. It looks kind of fun, but I don't think I'd believe people will pay $200 up front and then $120/year to play this game. My big concern is that you're not clear on where this falls between an exercise service and a fun video game.
* Multiplayer boxing is fun, but it's not going to be that much different than wii boxing or whatever VR equivalents are out there now. It's definitely not a noteworthy exercise tool.
* peloton sells a lifestyle w/ live classes. You're selling a video game. I think it's misleading yourselves to think about this as a subscription product because I don't think you'll be able to do much in the way of interesting content over time. You're much closer to ring fit adventure. Your main competitors, if released right now would be Fitness Boxing on the Switch and BoxVR. I don't know these games, but they turned up on a quick google. Reading through some of the other comments of people who are optimistic about this concept, they don't seem to know about these titles either, which is probably cause for concern.
* Making it a fantasy story based game is fun... but now you're locking in your target market to people who like those kinds of things and decisively not doing an "exercise" or "hardcore" aesthetic. I'm concerned that's not a big overlap with people who want to pay for an exercise service. Ring Fit adventure is kind of close to this and it sold 4 million units, so its not a BAD decision, but its a stark contrast to all of the value props that something like peloton pushes
* you say gesture recognition. I think a lot of people are expecting hand tracking and will be disappointed. I'm concerned you added spells because there's just not enough variety on the punches.
* doesn't look like you have any people with game dev experience on the team.
* kickboxing is a fun stretch goal but realistically I see nothing but difficulty in implementing that.
* I think it will be difficult to make a boxing game that people want to play every day for a long time. You said hundreds of enemies in your video. I think that's highly unlikely to happen. That's a huge huge challenge for any game dev shop. Judging from the clips, I don't think you really know how the game works. That is, how the player chooses what actions to take, and what creates the difficulty. Off the top of my head, the ways you can make a boxing game are puzzles / patterns (punch out), rhythm, ring fit-just-do-reps-and-follow-prompts style, and then something dynamic like wii boxing. Which of those can you choose and make a game that is compelling enough to play every day? Wii boxing sounds enticing but its really quite difficult to make a substantial game out of this. BoxVR and Fitness Boxing are rhythm games from the look of it.
Re: Launch HN: Quell (YC S20) – Immersive gaming and combat workout
#88I am a couch potato who is eating and lazing myself towards an early death... but I've played VR games and found myself only noticing how exhausted I was when the game ended, as opposed to exercise, where I hate what I'm doing when I start and it only gets worse from there.
VR might be the mindhack that dramatically improves public health.
Re: Launch HN: Quell (YC S20) – Immersive gaming and combat workout
#89Why is a YC company, perhaps the kind of company with the most access to capital, on Kickstarter? I get that it's free capital but it's a terrible look. I will wait until you have something to ship, or if YC underwrites you and says that they will refund Kickstarters if you fail to deliver.
Re: Launch HN: Quell (YC S20) – Immersive gaming and combat workout
#90Love the idea, and I'd be very much interested in trying this out. Having done a little bit of boxing, it's a pretty good full body workout. It's hard to say how the resistance bands would feel compared to a punching bag though. Also: how do they work for different punches like uppercuts? How would you track blocking? How accurate is the position tracking? The tracking animation notably only measures one dimension (e…
I also love this idea, and the body harness looks like a very innovative approach. I agree with many of the concerns OP mentions, especially the need for a variety of engaging games. The demo game feels a little too cartoony for my taste, would love to see more titles in different styles. Another concern I have is how can it help reinforce proper posture, body positioning, and footwork? I realize this is very difficu…
Thanks for the feedback, and you've raised some great points.
We're absolutely on-board with the idea of multiple games - we have the launch title being developed (that you've seen in our current artwork), and others in mind. Out of interest, what would be your preferred style of game for combat fitness? We've had some good discussions around this in our Discord server.
To your concerns re: body posture and movement; you couldn't be more right about the importance of getting these aspects right. We have experience both within our team and our advisers covering everything from international boxing to prosthetic design - we are taking the ergonomics and science very seriously for this exactly reason.