GameWalking

You walk in real life to walk in game.

Put your phone in your pocket and walk around your room. Your character walks in Death Stranding, Minecraft, or any WASD game. Your phone's pedometer detects each step, fires a UDP packet at your PC over WiFi, and the PC taps W.

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How it works

One step in your room is one keypress on your PC. Nothing goes through the internet — the phone talks straight to your desktop over your own WiFi.

flowchart LR
    A["🚶 You take a step"] --> B["📱 Android<br/>StepDetectionService<br/>TYPE_STEP_DETECTOR"]
    B --> C["📡 UDPSender<br/>sends ASCII 'STEP'"]
    C -->|"UDP :9000 over LAN"| D["💻 Windows<br/>UDPListener<br/>background thread"]
    D --> E["⌨️ KeySender<br/>pyautogui keyDown/keyUp"]
    E --> F["🎮 Character moves forward"]

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The entire protocol is one datagram carrying the four bytes STEP. That's it — no handshake, no session, no acknowledgement. A dropped packet just means a missed step, which is why UDP is the right choice here rather than TCP: a late step is worse than a lost one.

What's in the repo

GameWalkingAndroid/     Kotlin app - detects steps, sends UDP
  app/src/main/java/com/example/gamewalking/
    MainActivity.kt            IP + port entry, start/stop, permissions
    StepDetectionService.kt    foreground service, sensors, wake lock
    UDPSender.kt               DatagramSocket, fire-and-forget "STEP"

GameWalkingWindows/     Python app - receives UDP, presses keys
  main.py               entry point, GUI or --no-gui console mode
  udp_listener.py       threaded socket listener, step counter, status
  key_sender.py         pyautogui key press with configurable hold time
  gui.py                tkinter control panel, tray icon, live log
  config.py             gamewalking_config.ini read/write
  build_exe.py          PyInstaller build to a standalone .exe
  firewall_setup.bat    adds the inbound UDP 9000 rule

docs/SETUP.md           the long-form setup, gaming and troubleshooting guide

Step detection

The Android service uses three strategies, in order of preference:

Sensor	Role
TYPE_STEP_DETECTOR	Primary. Fires once per step, lowest latency
TYPE_STEP_COUNTER	Backup. Registered alongside; fires on cumulative count increase
TYPE_ACCELEROMETER	Fallback for phones with no pedometer — magnitude delta over a threshold of 12f, debounced to one step per 500 ms

It runs as a foreground service with a PARTIAL_WAKE_LOCK, so detection survives the screen turning off and the phone going in your pocket.

Quick start

1. Windows side

git clone https://github.com/moeezalam/GameWalking.git
cd GameWalking/GameWalkingWindows
pip install -r requirements.txt
python main.py

Then, as Administrator, allow the port through the firewall — this is the single most common reason nothing happens:

netsh advfirewall firewall add rule name="GameWalking" dir=in action=allow protocol=UDP localport=9000

Or just right-click firewall_setup.bat → Run as administrator.

In the app: Start Listener, then Activate Key Sender.

Find your PC's LAN address with ipconfig — the IPv4 address on your WiFi adapter, something like 192.168.1.100.

Prefer no Python on the gaming machine? python build_exe.py produces a standalone GameWalking.exe via PyInstaller.

2. Android side

Open GameWalkingAndroid/ in Android Studio, plug in your phone with USB debugging on, and hit Run. Or Build → Build APK(s) and sideload the APK from app/build/outputs/apk/debug/.

Grant Activity Recognition (step detection) and Notifications (the foreground service) when asked.

Enter your PC's IP, leave the port at 9000, tap Start Step Detection, pocket the phone.

3. Play

Launch your game, make sure its window has focus, and walk. The desktop app's step counter should climb with every stride.

Full walkthrough with per-game notes and troubleshooting: docs/SETUP.md.

Configuration

Settings live in gamewalking_config.ini, created next to the app on first run and editable from the GUI.

Section	Key	Default	Meaning
NETWORK	port	9000	UDP listen port
NETWORK	buffer_size	1024	Receive buffer
CONTROLS	forward_key	w	Key pressed per step — change for arrow-key or racing games
CONTROLS	key_hold_duration	0.05	Seconds the key is held down per step
CONTROLS	step_duration	0.1	Loaded and saved, but currently unused — key_hold_duration is what governs the press
GENERAL	debug_mode	false	Log every packet received
GENERAL	minimize_to_tray	true	Hide to system tray instead of closing

Console mode, no GUI:

python main.py --no-gui --port 9000 --debug

Known limitations

Stated plainly, because they'll shape whether this works for you:

• Same WiFi network only. There's no relay, no cloud, no NAT traversal. Phone and PC must be on the same LAN.
• No authentication. Anything on your network that can reach UDP 9000 can move your character. Fine at home; don't run it on public WiFi.
• Forward only. One step maps to one forward keypress. Turning, strafing and running still come from your keyboard and mouse.
• Some games ignore synthetic input. pyautogui injects OS-level key events. Most games accept them, but titles using raw input capture or kernel-level anti-cheat may not — test in a single-player game first, and be aware that automated input can violate the terms of service of multiplayer games.
• One-way protocol. The PC never replies, so the phone can't tell you whether the packets are landing. Watch the desktop step counter instead.
• Windows-only receiver. The listener is portable Python, but the firewall script and the packaging are Windows-specific.
• Battery. A foreground service holding a wake lock and reading sensors at SENSOR_DELAY_FASTEST will drain your phone faster than normal.

Contributing

Clear, self-contained places to help:

1. A macOS and Linux receiver — the listener is plain Python; it's mostly the key-sending layer and firewall docs that need porting
2. Pace-based movement — hold the key while the step rate stays above a threshold, instead of tapping per step, for smoother walking
3. Auto-discovery — mDNS or a UDP broadcast so you never have to type an IP address
4. A shared secret in the packet, so a stray device on the LAN can't drive your character
5. Two-way status — let the PC acknowledge, so the phone can show "connected" instead of guessing
6. Gamepad output — emit a virtual controller axis via ViGEm so analog-movement games work properly
7. Rename the package from com.example.gamewalking before anyone ships this to a store

License

MIT — see LICENSE.

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Walked a kilometre in Death Stranding without leaving your room? Star the repo.