Regular readers know that we’re pretty big fans of the RNPG (role-non-playing-game) Godville (Free). The quick gist of the game is that you create a hero, and he goes on many adventures, completing quests and fighting enemies, all on his or her own. It’s a passive game so you only need check into Godville whenever you feel like it. The most basic level of interaction required is to hop in and resurrect your hero should they fall in battle, but even then, it’s not really required. Your hero can still live on for eternity in the afterlife, mumbling to themselves that you never came to help. Being a God is tough!
Anyway, it trips me out when I check into the stats page of Godville and see my hero has been doing his thing for 59 months. That’s just shy of 5 years that I’ve been non-playing this game. It’s crazy! Given the passive nature of Godville, ever since the Apple Watch arrived on the scene, we couldn’t help but feel like it would be a perfect fit for your wrist. Apparently the makers of Godville thought so too, because as of yesterday the game has been updated with Apple Watch support.
There’s a Glance screen that’ll give you a quick overview of your hero’s status, and like all Apple Watch Glances, it’s slow to load and pretty useless. The little Godville Apple Watch app itself is quite awesome, though. You can read the last several diary entries from your hero, scrolling through them using the digital crown. You can also scope out what your hero has in their inventory, and even send and respond to messages from your Godville friends list. Coolest of all is the Remote feature, which let’s you Encourage or Punish your hero right from your wrist. The best feature of all though is the ability to actually give your hero voice commands using the Apple Watch dictation feature. Talk down to your hero right from your wrist. It’s the future!
It’s crazy that the more than 5-year old Godville is probably also now the best Apple Watch game available. The nature of the game is a perfect fit for wrist gaming, and even given the limited abilities developers have in this first iteration of Watch OS, the Godville watch app offers a lot of cool functionality. Later this year when Apple releases the next version of Watch OS with native app capabilities, I’m sure Godville (and every other Apple Watch game and app) will be even better and more useful than they are now. Still, if you’re a Godville nut like us and have an Apple Watch, definitely enable the new app and start handing down Godly commands from your wrist.
