HabitRPG

HabitRPG

Founder(s)	Tyler Renelle
Industry	Internet
Website	habitrpg.com

HabitRPG (often called Habit or habit) is an online time management application.^[1][2][3] Unlike most time management programs, HabitRPG is played like a role-playing game.^[4] It was created and is run by OCDevel. HabitRPG is an open source project.^[1][5]

Concept

A screenshot of the gameplay of HabitRPG as of December 16, 2013.

HabitRPG was created to help a person manage their everyday "habits", "dailies", and "to dos",^[6] by overlaying game mechanics onto a player's life goals.^[7] Renelle was inspired by The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business, The Now Habit: A Strategic Program for Overcoming Procrastination and Enjoying Guilt-Free Play, and The Power of Full Engagement: Managing Energy, Not Time, Is the Key to High Performance and Personal Renewal in creating HabitRPG.^[8]

Habits

In HabitRPG, habits are long-term goals which are utilized to change a person's habits.^[1][9][10] These "habits" can be set to either 'good' or 'bad', or both. For example:

• a predefined habit is "1h productive work". This is a positive habit: if a user has an hour of productive work, they will gain experience and gold.
• a predefined habit is "Eat junk food". This is a negative habit: if a user eats junk food, they will lose health.
• a predefined habit is "Take the stairs". This is a positive and a negative habit: if a user does take the stairs, they will gain experience and gold. If they don't take the stairs, they will lose health.

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

Dailies

HabitRPG uses Dailies to track habits that the user want to complete in a known, scheduled, and repeatable fashion.^[1][9] 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 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][9][10] 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). The goal of this system is to encourage users to complete to-dos that they have been putting off.

Role-playing aspect

A major part of HabitRPG 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 HabitRPG, the user takes control of a character that they design themselves. The user can level up and unlock new features. However, they can also die and lose a level.

Character

The player can customize their own character (also known as an avatar). The character can look like the user in real life, or whatever the user would like their character to look like. The armor and swords that a player buys can be displayed on their character. Some of the art in HabitRPG is sourced from BrowserQuest.^[11]

Levels

Depending on how well a player completes their habits, dailies, and to-dos, they either gain or lose experience. When a player obtains enough experience, they gain 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. For example, 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, colour 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 appear to ride.^[12]

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 HabitRPG.

Rewards

In HabitRPG, Rewards are prizes for the completion of Habits, Dailies, and To-Dos. Depending on how much gold and silver a user has, they can buy different Rewards. Users can create their own rewards and change the prices of their rewards. For example, a predefined Reward is 'Cake' for ten gold. When a user has ten gold, they have the ability to buy the reward of cake. This means that in real life, they are allowed to eat cake.

Mobile Application

There is also an official mobile application for HabitRPG.^[2][3][5] The mobile application was promised if the $25,000 Kickstarter fund goal was reached.^[5] The goal was easily surpassed: $41,191 was raised by a total of 2,817 people.^[13]

Bertel King Jr., a reviewer for AndroidPolice.com, criticized the application. He called the controls 'janky', and reported a number of bugs he found.^[3]

See also

• Gamification
• Motivation

References