What is The Hidden Realm?

A game that gets you moving

The Hidden Realm is a location-based folklore-inspired game played in the real world. Your everyday walk, the school run, the dog walk, the lunchtime stroll becomes an expedition into a living world layered over your own neighbourhood.

But beneath the streets, paths and places we know today lies a forgotten world of history, stories and folklore. From your walk, The Hidden Realm reveals what has been here before the people, places and events that have shaped the ground beneath your feet.

The Realm itself grows from the journeys of its Wayfarers. When players explore somewhere with little or no existing lore, their walk can open the way for new stories to be researched, verified and added for future players to discover.

As you move, the veil between worlds thins. Creatures emerge along your path. Embers collect in your wake. The ground you cover becomes yours to claim or to lose to a rival Ward.

There is no treadmill. No leaderboard of steps. Just the old roads, the new footpaths, and the forgotten world waiting quietly beneath the places you walk past every day ready to be discovered.

See the Realm

Your ordinary walk. A different world.

The app quietly records your journey while the realm turns the places you walk into discoveries, encounters and territory.

Walk

Your real-world route becomes the path through the realm.

Discover

Creatures, lore and Embers emerge from the places you pass.

The Hidden Realm territory and Ward screen

Claim

Your footsteps help your Ward hold ground across the map.

Get the App

Reasons to lace up

Walk. Discover. Belong.

🦌

Walk & Discover

Every journey reveals creatures, earns Embers, and peels back the veil over your local area.

🕯️

Plant Beacons

Plant a Beacon along your route. Fellow wayfarers can pass through it, harvest its Embers and strengthen the realm.

🗺️

Claim Territory

Every path you walk claims invisible tiles for your Ward. Walk consistently and your Ward's colour spreads across the map.

⚜️

Build a Ward

Join The Omen, The Echo, or The Hush. Pool your walks with fellow wayfarers and shape the realm together.

Choose your side

Three Wards. One Realm.

The Wards compete for territory, but every Wayfarer is helping uncover the same hidden world.

The Omen

THE WATCHERS

Those who look for what is coming. Bold, observant and always searching beyond the obvious.

The Echo

THE REMEMBERERS

Those who listen for what remains. Drawn to history, memory and the traces left behind.

The Hush

THE KEEPERS

Those who notice what others miss. Patient, quiet and drawn to the hidden places between things.

The Realm, Tonight

Every Pin a Story

A glimpse of the wider realm — creatures stirring, lore waiting in the ground, Beacons burning and Wards spreading across the land.

The Hidden Realm live map showing lore fragments and creature encounters scattered across southern Britain

The realm as it stands.

The Heart of the Realm

The Book of Forgetting

One book. Three wards. Every wayfarer, filling the same pages.

The book already exists, whole and complete — its chapters laid out in order, gathered under the realm's great themes: the Fracture, the Creatures, the Beacons, and more. But its pages are sealed. The world forgot what they hold, and the realm will not reveal them until they are earned.

Every seal is broken by walking. A chapter of the Creatures opens only when wayfarers have stirred that being from the veil enough times. A chapter of the Beacons yields only once enough have been planted across the realm. No single walker can reach these thresholds alone — and no single Ward.

The Omen, The Echo, and The Hush walk as rivals across the map, yet every encounter, every Beacon, every fragment of lore counts toward the same shared total. Without knowing it, they are unsealing the same book together.

Open the Book of Forgetting

If you take anything from this game, I hope it isn't the creatures themselves. I hope it's the excuse to take the long way home.

Mark, from Chapter 0 of The Book of Forgetting

Discover the Realm

The Wayfarer's Almanac

Creatures, lore, wards and field notes. Everything the realm has revealed so far, gathered in one place.

Open the Almanac

For local businesses

Put your business on the map. Free.

I'm inviting local shops, cafés, pubs and makers to appear on The Hidden Realm's game map at no cost. Players earn Embers by walking near you, so more walkers pass your doorstep.

📍

Listed on the map

Your business appears as a real place in the realm for players to discover.

🔥

Embers for walking near

Players earn Embers as they walk near your location, a reason to explore your street.

🚶

More footfall

Walkers pass your doorstep as they explore, with no fees or contracts.

The veil awaits.
Step through it.

The Hidden Realm is live on Android and iOS. Download the app, record your first walk, and begin discovering what has been waiting quietly along the paths you already know.

Available now on Android and iOS.

Updates, new areas and local business news:

Questions from the Veil

Frequently Asked

The Hidden Realm is a location-based folklore walking game. You use the app on Android or iOS to record real-world walks, which are processed by the game to award Embers, spawn creatures, and unlock territory mechanics on the web hub. Think of it as a living map game played across your neighbourhood, where every walk counts.

Embers are the realm's currency, earned by walking. The further you walk, the more Embers you accumulate. They're used to join a Ward, switch Wards, purchase items from the Hearth shop, and unlock Deep Archive lore. Embers can also be earned by passing through allied Beacons placed by your ward-mates.

Creatures are folklore beings that stir from the veil as you walk. They are discovered automatically when your walk is imported. Each creature is added to your Bestiary, and encounter them enough times and they bond with you, becoming available as a Companion.

Beacons are territorial markers placed along routes you have genuinely walked. After completing a walk, you have 10 hours to plant a Beacon at a point along your route via the web hub. It burns for 48 hours by default, radiating a 100 metre zone. Ward allies who walk through your Beacon receive its Ember pool, while you earn Resonance when an ally harvests it.

Every street, path, and open space in the realm is divided into invisible tiles. When you walk through a tile, your Ward claims it. Walk consistently and your Ward holds ground; neglect it and rivals can take it back.

Wards are the realm's three factions — The Omen, The Echo, and The Hush. Your walks, Beacons, and Resonance contribute to your Ward's standing. Territory is shown on the map as a subtle colour wash.

Lore fragments are pieces of the realm's hidden history — short folklore texts rooted in real places. Some are unlocked by walking through the right place; others can be unlocked from the Deep Archive. Collected lore appears in your Lore tab.

Sigils are marks of distinction awarded for deeds in the realm. They are earned — not bought — and can be displayed on your Beacons.

The recording app runs on both Android and iOS. The web hub works in any modern browser on desktop or mobile. You need both — the app to record walks, and the browser to manage your Ward, Companions, and Beacons.

Yes. GPS route data is stored at approximately 11 metre precision. The first and last few minutes of each recorded walk are not stored, protecting your home and destination. Route data is used only to power game mechanics, by default is removed after 72 hours and is never shared with third parties.

The Hidden Realm is currently in early access. The foundations of the game have been created, but the world is still growing. Features are actively being developed, and player feedback helps shape what gets built next.

A Walking Game
for the Real World

A game that gets you moving

Your ordinary walk. A different world.