u/Jero9871

A - It motivates you to move and keep active with workouts because every real calory you burn charges a virtual battery and powers your city. If you are lazy the lights go out and people will move out.

Actually it might be just a glorified activity ring app, but I hope it will motivate people to move more. In the beginning it is really simple (a walk around the block is enough to power your city for the day) but once you get more inhabitants you need to workout much more to keep the lights on and the people happy.

B - It is a unique approach to motivate you to stay active. With the whole city you have much more than a simple step or workout counter. You can even set taxes for your people to gain credits and build things like schools or a hospital. And if you have too much energy you can just burn it with fireworks and stuff. It is pretty simple and in it's core it is a activity tracker app.

C -

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/lightson-move-to-build-a-city/id6780607028

The app is 100% free, no ads and no in-app purchases. I built on it for a long time and used it for myself to motivate me and now I thought I just freely share it with the world. If it helps anyone I am happy.

I would be very grateful for any feedback.

The App has 19 reviews in the store so here is the transparency section:

My name and address, privacy information and everything can be found directly here:
https://www.freewar.de/apps/lightson/privacy.html

LightsOn turns your real-world activity into a living city.

Every active calorie you burn - walking, running, working out, or just moving through your day - flows straight from Apple Health into your city's battery. Keep it charged and the lights stay on: new residents move in, the streets come alive, and your town grows. Let the battery run dry and the city goes dark - residents pack up and leave.

It's a cozy, idle city builder where YOU are the power plant. But to be fair, to call it in idle game is a bit strange as you cannot idle for a long time or your residents may leave. But it's incremental nonetheless.

HOW IT WORKS

• Your active energy from Apple Health charges the city automatically - no manual tracking, it just works in the background.

• Lights on -> residents arrive and your town thrives.

• Battery empty -> blackout, and people start to leave.

• Real workouts earn bonus credits to spend on upgrades.

• Build a factory that produces parts for bigger and better upgrades.

• Your city keeps running while you're away - come back to see how far it grew.

FREE & PRIVATE

• Completely free - no ads and no in-app purchases.

• No tracking and no data collection - your health data never leaves your device.

It is just a personal hobby project, but I would love your feedback. I would love if it motivates some people to move more, or do more workouts.

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/lightson-fitness-city-game/id6780607028

AI disclosure
Been working on this game for quiet some time and now used AI to cleanup the code. Also used generative AI to improve the interface and to implement the backend communication to the apple watch (you do not need an apple watch for this game, but it is better for tracking).

LightsOn turns your real-world activity into a living city.

Every active calorie you burn — walking, running, working out, or just moving through your day — flows straight from Apple Health into your city's battery. Keep it charged and the lights stay on: new residents move in, the streets come alive, and your town grows. Let the battery run dry and the city goes dark — residents pack up and leave.

It's a cozy, idle city builder where YOU are the power plant.

HOW IT WORKS

• Your active energy from Apple Health charges the city automatically — no manual tracking, it just works in the background.

• Lights on → residents arrive and your town thrives.

• Battery empty → blackout, and people start to leave.

• Real workouts earn bonus credits to spend on upgrades.

• Build a factory that produces parts for bigger and better upgrades.

• Your city keeps running while you're away — come back to see how far it grew.

FREE & PRIVATE

• Completely free — no ads and no in-app purchases.

• No tracking and no data collection — your health data never leaves your device.

It is just a personal hobby project, but I would love your feedback.

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/lightson-fitness-city-game/id6780607028

Game Title: LightsOn - Fitness City Game

Playable Link: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/lightson-fitness-city-game/id6780607028

Platform: iOS

Description:

LightsOn turns your real-world activity into a living city.

Every active calorie you burn — walking, running, working out, or just moving through your day — flows straight from Apple Health into your city's battery. Keep it charged and the lights stay on: new residents move in, the streets come alive, and your town grows. Let the battery run dry and the city goes dark — residents pack up and leave.

It's a cozy, idle city builder where YOU are the power plant.

HOW IT WORKS

• Your active energy from Apple Health charges the city automatically — no manual tracking, it just works in the background.

• Lights on → residents arrive and your town thrives.

• Battery empty → blackout, and people start to leave.

• Real workouts earn bonus credits to spend on upgrades.

• Build a factory that produces parts for bigger and better upgrades.

• Your city keeps running while you're away — come back to see how far it grew.

WHY YOU'LL LOVE IT

• A real reason to move: every step and workout has a visible payoff.

• Relaxed, no-pressure idle gameplay — perfect for short bursts.

• A charming isometric city that's entirely yours to grow.

• Clean, dark design that's easy on the eyes.

FREE & PRIVATE

• Completely free — no ads and no in-app purchases.

• No tracking and no data collection — your health data never leaves your device.

Free to Play Status:

• [ x] Free to play
• [ ] Demo/Key available
• [ ] Paid (Allowed only on Tuesdays with [TT] in the title)

Involvement: Main Developer

The app is:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=de.intercyloon.realtimechess

and yeah, it's another chess app but with a different approach. It's completely free, no ads or in-app purchases as it is just a hobby project (I actually wanted to play chess with my daughter so I coded the app).

How did I get the users? Actually I have other projects where I could advertise it, so that start helped. And I optimized keywords and well, many people search for chess in the playstore. One thing that gets me many downloads is the friend invite system (where you get XP for getting friends to install the app).

A few things that are critical: I support even old android phones (SDK 24 which is Android 7.0). And I get a lot of positive reviews but also negative reviews and those negative reviews are almost always from people with SDK 30 or less.

Another thing about those old phones: They will rise your ANR and Crash Rate (my actual ANR is 0.4, so just below the limit, but only because of those old phones).

Retention rate is okay but could be better, I have around 2000 active players per day. But if you have live matchmaking that is not very much.

Around 70% of the users never play online but only against the AIs or using the Adventure Mode, which is interesting.

All in all, compared to other apps here, it's still small, but feels great to me nonetheless. If you have any questions, just ask away.

If you have any ideas how I could improve the app, I would be grateful.