Migrating from Gather Town to WorkAdventure

WorkAdventure and Gather Town are two comparable platforms offering 2D virtual spaces where users can interact, move around, and communicate in a retro video game style.

Spatialization is a key feature of both platforms: you can only see and hear people who are close to you in the virtual space.

In this article, we’ll walk you through how to migrate from Gather Town to WorkAdventure:

• Why you might want to move away from Gather and why WorkAdventure is the best alternative
• The key differences between both platforms
• Step-by-step tips to ensure a smooth transition

If you want to dive in the details directly, please check the video below that is explaining “how” to migrate maps. If you want to now “why”, read below.

Why migrate from Gather Town to WorkAdventure?

The trigger: Gather 2’s new pricing

If you are reading this before 15 September 2025, chances are you are worrying about two announcements that come with “Gather 2”:

• The free plan disappears.
• Paid plans double in price – from $7 /user/month to $15 /user/month – and the billing model changes from concurrent users (capacity) to monthly active users. Depending on your use-case you may have to pay for far more seats than before.

On top of that, Gather 2 focuses almost exclusively on the “virtual office” scenario and drops several event-oriented features that made Gather popular for conferences.

In contrast, WorkAdventure offers a generous free plan (up to 15 concurrent users) and a more affordable paid option (€10 per user/month). We’re committed to supporting not just virtual offices, but also events, conferences, and community use cases.

You will keep using WorkAdventure because…

The price might be what brought you here; but what will make you stay is WorkAdventure’s philosophy.

WorkAdventure is way more customizable, more open, and more community-driven.

• More customizable: We try to make WorkAdventure as customizable as possible. You can create your own maps, with your own assets and your own characters. You can host those on your own domain name, with your company logo. You can run WorkAdventure in “white label” mode, where it is completely rebranded with your own logo and colors. You are not in a “WorkAdventure” space, but in your own space.
• More open: WorkAdventure is an open project. You can read the code, contribute to it, report bugs, and request features.
• More community-driven: WorkAdventure is developed by a small team, but also by the community. We listen to our users and we try to implement the features they request. We are not a big company with a big marketing budget, but we are passionate about what we do and we want to make WorkAdventure the best platform for virtual spaces.

Differences between Gather Town and WorkAdventure

So what are the main differences between Gather Town and WorkAdventure? Here are some of the key points:

Audio spatialization

In Gather Town, audio spatialization is based on the distance between players. The closer you are to a player, the louder you hear them.

In WorkAdventure, we opt for a bubble system to materialize spontaneous conversations. While some might see this as a limitation compared to Gather Town’s approach, we believe it’s actually an improvement because it enables users to establish clear boundaries between participants and non-participants. Only those inside a discussion bubble can hear and participate in the interaction, and it’s also possible to lock the bubble so nobody else joins the conversation, reinforcing your privacy.

Currently, one limitation of the bubble system is the 4-person cap. Larger discussions can take place in meeting rooms, which have no participant limits. (This cap will be lifted in the September 2025 release.)

Smoother movement

In Gather Town, the movement is based on a grid system. You can only move in 4 directions (up, down, left, right) and you can only move to the next tile. This can be a bit limiting and can make the movement feel a bit robotic.

In WorkAdventure, we use a free movement system. You can place your character anywhere on the map, at the exact pixel you want. You can move in any direction, and you can even move diagonally. Plus, WorkAdventure characters (we call them “Wokas”), run a bit faster than their Gather Town counterpart 😉.

Map editor

Part of the experience of using a virtual space is to be able to move around in a space that is tailored to your needs.

Using pre-made maps

Both Gather Town and WorkAdventure offer a set of pre-made maps that you can use to get started quickly. If you’re currently using a Gather Town template, we recommend choosing a similar pre-made map in WorkAdventure as your starting point.

Once you have picked a pre-made map, you can customize it to your needs using the inline map editor. You can move furniture, define interactive areas, and add your own assets, just like in Gather Town.

Creating your own maps

If you want to create your own maps from scratch, then Gather Town and WorkAdventure are quite different.

Gather offers an inline map editor called MapMaker that allows you to create a map including ground and walls. Gather 2 will make moving walls and furniture around easier. By contrast, WorkAdventure does not feature a built-in MapMaker. Instead, you will need to use an offline third-party tool called Tiled to create your map.

Tiled takes a bit of time to learn, but it is an extremely powerful tool that allows you to create complex maps with absolutely no limitations. So if you are coming from Gather Town, you will have to learn how to use Tiled before you can create your own maps in WorkAdventure. Once you’ve learned it, you’ll be able to build far more complex and customized maps than what’s possible in Gather Town. Hopefully, we have a bunch of videos and tutorials to help you get started.

Migrating to WorkAdventure

So let’s review step by step how to migrate to WorkAdventure.

Step 1: Create a WorkAdventure account

The first step is to create a WorkAdventure account. Simply click the “Register” button on the WorkAdventure website and fill in the form, or simply click the button below.

As part of this process, you will be asked to choose a default map. You can choose any map you want, and if you want to provide your own map, you can do so later.

You will also be asked a “Company Name” and a “World Name”. Be mindful of these; they will be used to create the URL of your map.

The URL of your map will be https://play.workadventu.re/<organization-name>/<world-name>/<map-name>.

Later, you can decide to host your map on your own domain name, but for now, you can use the default one.

Step 2: Share the link to your map with your users

Once you have created your map, you can share the link to your map with your users. Simply share the URL of your map and your users will be able to access it. As an alternative, from the administration dashboard, you can invite users by email. Users declared in the administration dashboard are called “members”. Members can be granted special rights based on “tags”.

Step 3: Customize who can access your map

By default, your map is public and anyone can access it. You can restrict access to your map in the “Authentication” menu of the administration dashboard. You can choose to only allow members to access your map, or to force users to log in before accessing your map. For advanced users, you can also decide to connect WorkAdventure to your SSO (Single Sign-On) provider, so that users of your company can log in with their company credentials.

Step 4: Customize your map

Now is the time to edit your map. If you are using a pre-made map and are happy with the layout, you can customize the furniture using the inline map editor.

The entity editor tool allows you to add objects on the map (table, chairs, etc.) or even to upload your own assets.

The area editor tool allows you to define interactive areas on the map. Use it to add meeting rooms, to set up personal desks or to create zones that open a web page when entered.

If you already put in the effort to create your own Gather Town map, you can use the Tiled editor to recreate your map in WorkAdventure. Be sure to check out our documentation to learn how to use Tiled.

One little trick: in Gather 1, the MapMaker allows you to download the background and the foreground of your map as PNG files. You can use those files as a starting point for your Tiled map in WorkAdventure. From a Tiled map, you can load the background and foreground images as tilesets and select all tiles and drag them to the map in 2 custom layers (background and foreground). The video below explains how to do this in details if you are interested.

However, be aware that Gather explicitly forbids reusing their assets in another product (section 2.4.1 of their Terms and Service). It means that if you can import the background and foreground in Tiled, you need to replace any tiles provided by Gather before publishing the map to WorkAdventure. In general, please be sure you have the right to use the graphic assets you use in your maps.

Step 5: Integrations

Just like Gather, WorkAdventure offers integrations with other tools. Don’t hesitate to set up the Google Calendar integration or the Outlook add-in to automatically invite users from your Calendar app.

Using Teams? You can also use the Teams integration to synchronize your Teams status with WorkAdventure and to integrate Teams conference rooms in your WorkAdventure map.

We even have an upcoming Discord integration.

Step 6: Set up chat rooms

WorkAdventure also comes with a powerful textual chat system so that you can leave messages to your colleagues, even if they are not online.

Just like in Slack, you can create channels and invite users to those channels. We call those channels “Rooms”. Because we care about your privacy, those rooms can be “end-to-end encrypted” so that only the users in the room can read the messages (even the WorkAdventure administrator team cannot read them).

Tip: We recommend not enabling end-to-end encryption in your first rooms.

When end-to-end encryption is enabled, you have to set up a “secret key” that is used to encrypt the messages. Each user is responsible for its key and if a user loses its key, it will not be able to read the messages in the room anymore. If you come from Gather Town where there is no such thing as end-to-end encryption, you might want to start with rooms without end-to-end encryption. It will be easier for your users.

Step 7: Hey! Where is the desktop app?

While Gather Town offers a dedicated desktop app, WorkAdventure relies on a web alternative: a Progressive Web App (PWA).

To install the Progressive Web App, you will need to open WorkAdventure from a PWA-compatible browser like Chrome or Edge.

From Chrome, click the “…” buttons in the top right corner, then click “Cast, save, and share” > “Install page as app”.

Once you have installed the PWA, you can launch it from your desktop or from your applications menu. It will open WorkAdventure in a separate window, without the address bar, just like a desktop app.

Step 8: Mobile app

Unlike Gather Town, WorkAdventure does not have a mobile app. You can still access WorkAdventure from your mobile browser, and even install WorkAdventure as a Progressive Web App on your mobile device. That being said, we don’t expect WorkAdventure to be used on mobile the way it is used on desktop.

On the go, you likely don’t want to be disturbed every time a colleague walks by your virtual desk. Instead, you can use the Element app to be notified each time someone sends you a textual message in WorkAdventure.

Wondering what Element is? Element is a chat app that allows you to communicate with your colleagues. Think Whatsapp or Slack, but open source and with end-to-end encryption. It is based on the Matrix protocol, which is also used by WorkAdventure.

Element is our recommendation for a mobile app that works well with WorkAdventure. You can use it to receive notifications when someone sends you a message in WorkAdventure, you can chat in WorkAdventure chat rooms and you can even receive messages from visitors that come at your desk when you are not online.

Next steps…

Done?

Congratulations! You have successfully migrated from Gather Town to WorkAdventure. You can now start using your new virtual space and invite your users to join you.

It’s also time to explore the other features of WorkAdventure that are unmatched by Gather Town.

For instance, you can upload custom avatars and custom companions (in case you prefer a shark instead of a dog).

You can also play with our upcoming “Bots” feature, which allows you to create interactive characters powered by AI and chat with them (with voice!). They are pretty impressive, give them a try!

If you are a developer, you might be interested in taking a look at our map scripting API, which allows you to embed scripts inside your maps to create interactive experiences. Thinking of building a virtual escape room? This is how you do it.

There are really many more, and this article is not meant to be exhaustive. We recommend you take a look at our documentation to discover all the features of WorkAdventure.

Finally, don’t hesitate to come and say hi in our virtual office, or in our Discord server. We are always happy to help and to hear your feedback.