Habitica

Habitica
Logo of Habitica.
Founder(s) Tyler Renelle
Industry Internet
Website habitica.com

Habitica is an online time management application.[1][2][3] Unlike most time management programs, Habitica takes the form of a role-playing game.[4] It was created and is run by OCDevel. Habitica is an open source project.[1][5]

Concept

Four sections on a screen, with items below each: Habits, Dailies, To-Dos, and Rewards. There is a health bar above.
A screenshot of the gameplay of Habitica as of December 16, 2013.

Previously known as HabitRPG, Habitica was designed as a self-improvement web application designed to help the player keep track of and remain motivated[6] by overlaying game mechanics onto a player's life goals.[7] Renelle was inspired by the self-help books The Power of Habit and The Now Habit in designing the application.[8] The earliest version of Habitica was a Google Docs spreadsheet with colour-coded cell formulae.[9]

The game is laid out in the form of an RPG, in which the player collects items such as gold and armor to become more powerful. Rewards are achieved through maintaining real-life goals, in the form of Habits, Dailies and To-Do's.

Habits

In Habitica, Habits are long-term goals which are utilized to change a person's habits.[1][10][11] These "habits" can be set to either 'good' or 'bad', or both. For example:

If a user completes a positive habit often, it will turn green. This signifies that they are doing a good job following their habit. On the other hand, if a user performs a negative habit often, it will start to turn red and do increasing damage to their health. When players accrue enough experience points, they gain a level, which restores their health.

Dailies

Habitica uses Dailies to track habits that the user wants to complete in a known, scheduled, and repeatable fashion.[1][10] Dailies are completed through the form of a check box: the user sets their Dailies in advance, and checks off what they have completed in their day. Completed Dailies give the user experience and gold; Dailies that fail to be completed by the end of the day result in a loss of health.

To-dos

To-dos are one-time tasks that can be added or deleted at the user's desire.[1][10][11] When a user completes a to-do, they gain experience. The to-do then disappears (it can later be found under the 'Complete' to-dos tab). Unlike Habits and Dailies, if a large amount of time passes without a user checking off their to-dos, the user will not lose health: the to-do just becomes more valuable over time (it gives more experience and gold once completed).

Role-playing aspect

A major part of Habitica is the role-playing aspect. A role-playing game is one in which a player takes on the role of another person or character. In Habitica, the user takes control of a character that they design themselves. The user can level up and unlock new features. However, upon death various items and a level are lost.

In reviewing the site, Alan Henry wrote for Lifehacker that "while it doesn’t offer the advanced features that many other to-do apps have, it’s certainly a blast to use, and really addictive".[12] Kelsey Adams wrote for CNET that Habitica (then known as HabitRPG) 'had [her] at RPG', and describes 'how much more compelling a game can be than reality to those of us whose brains are bent that way'.[13]

Character

The player can customize their own character (also known as an avatar) using various customization options such as hair, skin color and shirts. The armor and swords that a player buys when equipped also provide an attribute bonus. Some of the art in Habitica is sourced from BrowserQuest.[14]

Levels

Depending on how well a player completes their Habits, dailies, and To-Dos, they either gain experience or lose "health". When a player obtains enough experience, they gain a level, but losing all their health will cause their character to die, and be set back a level. The higher the level the player is, the more features they have access to.

Currency

When a player completes a habit, daily, or to-do, they gain silver or gold, depending on the difficulty of the task. Silver is worth a fraction of gold: 100 silver equals 1 gold. Gold and silver can be used to buy rewards - which can either be user-defined, real life rewards, or equipment that can give boosts in-game.[8]

Pets and mounts

When checking off items, sometimes the player will receive an item. The items that can be found are eggs, color potions, and food. The player can combine these to collect a set of 90 pets, which they can display beside their avatar, and 90 mounts, which their avatar can ride.[15]

Social accountability

Players can band together in parties to complete quests. Players can also join guilds and participate in challenges made by other players, where the person with the most consistency in performing a task wins an achievement. The class system is another feature adding complexity to the role-playing aspect of Habitica.

Mobile application

There is also an official mobile application for Habitica.[2][3][5] The mobile application was promised if the $25,000 Kickstarter fund goal was reached.[5] In July 2015, a new iOS app was released named "Habitica", and it was revealed that the site would be renamed to match.[16]

Kickstarter

Starting on January 11, 2013, Tyler Renelle started a campaign on fund-raising site Kickstarter to improve development of the application with a goal of $25,000. The goal was surpassed: $41,191 was raised by a total of 2,817 people.[17]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Pot, Justin (21 February 2013). "HabitRPG Makes Improving Yourself Actually Addictive". MakeUseOf.com. Retrieved 16 December 2013.
  2. 1 2 Whitwam, Ryan (16 August 2013). "[New App] HabitRPG Turns Your To-Do List Into A Real Life RPG". AndroidPolice.com. Retrieved 16 December 2013.
  3. 1 2 King, Jr., Bertel (August 21, 2012). "HabitRPG Review: Successfully Turning Real Life Tasks Into A Game, Bugs And Janky Controls Included". Retrieved November 29, 2013.
  4. ↑ "HabitRPG: Because doing the dishes sucks less when there’s treasure involved". 20 August 2013. Retrieved 17 December 2013.
  5. 1 2 3 Chavez, Chris (16 January 2013). "HabitRPG turns your real life to-do list into an online role playing game". Phandroid.com. Retrieved 16 December 2013.
  6. ↑ Dachis, Adam (January 16, 2013). "HabitRPG Turns Better Behavior into a Game of Survival". Lifehacker. Retrieved November 21, 2013.
  7. ↑ Behrens, Andre (11 June 2013). "Gamification Done Right". The New York Times. Retrieved 30 January 2014.
  8. 1 2 Renelle, Tyler (2013-09-18). "HabitRPG - Don’t Forget Custom Rewards". Blog.habitrpg.com. Retrieved 2014-01-30.
  9. ↑ http://www.lifehacker.com.au/2015/01/behind-the-app-the-story-of-habitrpg/
  10. 1 2 3 Iaccino, Laura. "HabitRPG: Gamify Your Life – Because IRL Is Boring.". Retrieved November 29, 2013.
  11. 1 2 Sachtleben, Amanda (9 October 2013). "App review: HabitRPG rewards your good habits". Idealog.co.nz. Retrieved 17 December 2013.
  12. ↑ Henry, Alan (17 March 2014). "Five Best To-Do List Managers". Lifehacker. Retrieved 4 April 2014.
  13. ↑ http://www.cnet.com/au/news/habitrpg-helps-you-win-at-life-and-zombie-cactuses/
  14. ↑ Renelle, Tyler (2013-07-09). "HabitRPG - BrowserQuest Hangout Thurs 7/11 @7p EST". Blog.habitrpg.com. Retrieved 2014-01-30.
  15. ↑ Renelle, Tyler (2013-11-12). "HabitRPG Tutorial #2: Pets & Mounts on Vimeo". Vimeo.com. Retrieved 2014-01-30.
  16. ↑ https://habitrpg.com/static/old-news
  17. ↑ Renelle, Tyler. "HabitRPG by Tyler Renelle — Kickstarter". Kickstarter.com. Retrieved 2014-01-30.
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