Use your own feet to walk through Death Stranding, The Witcher 3, and more with this nifty app

Death Stranding
(Image credit: Kojima Productions/505 Games)

A new app called STEPL maps your real-life steps into in-game movement, letting you walk through your favorite game worlds with your own two feet.

The 1.0 version of STEPL recently launched, and it's very simple. You download an app from the Microsoft Store on Windows, and you download a companion app on the Google Play Store. (No word yet on compatibility with console games, or an iOS version of the app.) Then you just start walking with your phone in your pocket, and the app will translate your movement to key presses on your PC.

So basically, as long as you're walking, your computer believes that you're pressing the 'W' key. That means that the app only works with PC games, but with functionality that simple it's compatible with basically everything on the platform.

STEPL's devs have an example video showing a number of games in action. You can Death Stranding as a literal hiking simulator, or walk all the way across Velen or Skellige in The Witcher 3.

You still need a controller or keyboard at hand to turn left and right or make use of any of your other abilities in-game, so this probably won't be the way you'll want to, say, finally do that Cyberpunk 2077 playthrough you've been meaning to get to.

But as the app's creator explains on Reddit, "this app can motivate me to work out every day, even if it's just for 15 minutes, since I play games sitting for many hours instead or forcing myself to work out." 

STEPL costs $5, but you can get a three-day free trial to try it out. You can check out the official site for more info.

You can easily turn most of the best PC games into workouts now.

Dustin Bailey
Staff Writer

Dustin Bailey joined the GamesRadar team as a Staff Writer in May 2022, and is currently based in Missouri. He's been covering games (with occasional dalliances in the worlds of anime and pro wrestling) since 2015, first as a freelancer, then as a news writer at PCGamesN for nearly five years. His love for games was sparked somewhere between Metal Gear Solid 2 and Knights of the Old Republic, and these days you can usually find him splitting his entertainment time between retro gaming, the latest big action-adventure title, or a long haul in American Truck Simulator.

Read more
Official image of the Nintendo Switch box art for Ring Fit Adventure, with a pink GamesRadar background.
I loathe exercise, but Ring Fit Adventure is such a joy that it deserves to be on your gaming radar even after you grab a Switch 2
Screenshots of Baby Steps for Big in 2025
"Death Stranding was a huge inspiration for us!": More than an evolution of QWOP, Baby Steps is stumbling along its own path
Ring Fit Adventure ring-con
Nintendo's forgotten fitness game is the only workout that could get me moving - and it's just dropped to a record-low price
A Meta Quest 3 next to an Nvidia GeForce Now logo, separated by an orange line
Nvidia's cloud gaming service is coming to VR headsets, but you'll only be able to play flatscreen games
Avowed screenshot of a female godlike with treebark antlers, mushrooms decals on her face, and light pink hair with a bow on her back
Avowed's simple solutions to common RPG problems means I can just get lost in the fantasy of its combat and world
Elden Ring Nightreign screenshot with three players battling an explosive creature
Elden Ring streamer who beat Shadow of the Erdtree with her mind is already preparing to annihilate Nightreign in the most sci-fi way possible: "I haven’t touched a controller in ages"
Latest in Games
Assassin's Creed Shadows cinematic screenshot
I've found my Assassin's Creed Shadows playstyle, thanks to this clip of Yasuke smashing dudes with a huge club instead of sneaking around
World of Warcraft housing
World of Warcraft's new housing system lets you decorate without the floating hacks I've been using in Final Fantasy 14 for 11 years, and I weep
two aliens firing miniguns
4 years after shutting down, this dead sci-fi MMO is being brought back to life, but there's no word on its canceled TV show tie-in
A decorated purple car speeding head-on down a road in Toyko Xtreme Racer
Tokyo Xtreme Racer is a novel throwback to classic PS2 racing games like Midnight Club, and I can't get enough of it
The Legend of Vox Machina
If you're craving more D&D after Baldur's Gate 3, Critical Role is "hard at work" on a video game – and it'll be unveiled "any day" now
Elden Ring DLC Shadow of the Erdtree
"A lot of the joy is in the difficulty": After spending 400+ hours dying 15,000 times in a painful Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree run, streamer admits challenges have "ruined normal gaming" for him
Latest in News
Assassin's Creed Shadows cinematic screenshot
I've found my Assassin's Creed Shadows playstyle, thanks to this clip of Yasuke smashing dudes with a huge club instead of sneaking around
World of Warcraft housing
World of Warcraft's new housing system lets you decorate without the floating hacks I've been using in Final Fantasy 14 for 11 years, and I weep
Gemma Chan in Eternals
Eternals star Gemma Chan is hopeful she'll return to the MCU someday: "There's unfinished business there"
two aliens firing miniguns
4 years after shutting down, this dead sci-fi MMO is being brought back to life, but there's no word on its canceled TV show tie-in
Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) in Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery
Netflix wants Daniel Craig to join the cast of Greta Gerwig's Narnia movie – but it's not certain if he'll take it
The Last of Us
The Last of Us season 2 trailer breaks HBO viewing records, becoming the network's most-watched trailer