#gamifying

Who doesn't love a little whimsy in their life? Nobody, that's who. That's why I'm working on making the most boring things fun, it's a win win situation. I know a lot of people gamify with apps like Finch or Habitica, but that isn't really enough for me. I need something in the real world that will prompt me to start, not just a point system that I can put out of sight and out of mind.

I'm still in the process of enacting these, so the system may change, but I'm having a lot of fun with it and I wanted to write about it in case someone else gets some ideas from it.

XP and reward system

Since I don't play TTRPGs or anything like them, I really have no reason to do this other than I saw it and it seemed fun. But basically I have 'skills' (daily life task categories) that I'm earning points towards, and when I reach certain levels I get myself a little, or big, reward. Rewards are relevant to the topic and go from things like having a bath to things like buying something from a French clothing brand I like. I keep track of it in a notebook, which doesn't seem like it would work but so far it's been fine.

Skills

self care --> Character Maintenance

fitness --> Strength

socialising --> Charisma

going out on my own --> Wayfinding

studying --> Arcane Mastery

writing my book --> Lore Crafting

learning French --> Foreign Tongue

discipline/doing things I don't want to do --> Resolve

problem solving, especially technical --> Tinkering

chores --> Castle Restoration

practicing Judaism --> Divine Alignment

personal finance --> Prosperity

Whenever I hit milestones in these (for example, going somewhere outside the city on my own), I'm going to get myself a little award of some kind. I haven't decided yet if it'll be coin-like tokens, merit badges to put on an item of clothing or a blanket, or stickers to put in a special book. But definitely something like that.

Decisions --> minigames

Decision fatigue is real, and I'm easily tired, so I've made some fun ways to reduce that mental load, while also giving me a little dopamine hit to get me through the execution of the task.

Spinning a wheel in the morning to determine what kind of shower I'm going to have (quick, normal, everything).

Workout dreidels. I've assigned the letters on the dreidels to body parts (core, upper body, legs, full body) and types of workout (mobility, flexibility, strength, balance). I was gonna use D4 dice for this, but I have a bajillion dreidels so yeah.

A dartboard for where I go on my walks to. There are 12 options on 2 rings, the outer ring being free (or almost free) stuff and the inner ring being paid. I'm not very good at darts so it works out.

A dress up game to pick outfits. It's literally so fun and all I had to do was draw all my clothes on separate layers in an art program. It's not super polished or anything but it does the job and saves me having to put all my clothes back in the closet.

My adventure box

My "weekly" (though it hasn't really worked out that way) adventures are things like going rock climbing, birdspotting, or clubbing with my sibling. I put them on slips of paper, and whenever I feel like I need some adventure in my life I draw one out. It then goes on the wall facing the foot of my bed until I've finished it.

My housework sticks

A bonus to having teachers as parents is that they can bring home stuff from their jobs, like, say, a bunch of popsicle sticks that I can write all my housework tasks on and track my Castle Restoration points with. I've outsourced the decision making to my dad, who has more spare time and is a lot more vocal about the house being tidy than my mum, so all I have to do is do the things and get the points.

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well I like the idea of a bingo card bc it’s fun and the idea of always working to be better (gross) so I kinda combined the two, and I present new years bingo !

**I def saw this on Pinterest and did my own version, but it’s been so long I can’t remember**

this will be my third bingo card I’ve made for going into the new year, and it’s been fun ngl. I draw these out in procreate and just write down things I either know are going to happen or things I’d like to do next year, but it’s lot less pressure than being like “I’m going to eat healthy” or something else vague and consuming. Anyways, I just finished making my card tonight c:

my 2024 card is here too for moral support and the sake of progress, some of these are covered for privacy/personal sake. Anyhow, fun times so I wanted to share 🫶🏻

Struggling with habits? Learn how to use points, rewards, and levels to gamify your routine for lasting change! Huge Thanks to Lean and Maren for joining in as guests and sharing their insight! Inside you'll find:

Understanding Gamification

Benefits of Gamifying your Habits

Why Gamification Works for Habit Formation

The Psychology of Gamification

Gamification and Neurodiversity

Tools and Apps for Gamifying Your Habits

Tips for Choosing the Best App for You

Potential Pitfalls of Habit Gamification

The Takeaway

I wrote a chores chart that's disguised as a single player TTRPG. unfortunately, I am not great at illustration, so until I have found someone who's able to provide the art I want, I'm subbing in Muppets as monsters to slay, it's fine

if anyone wants the PDF of this silly chores chart DM me and I'll send it to you!

next steps: hire an illustrator (in the works), touch up typography, make a blank-but-fillable PDF version, make a half-sheet version for work nights

Recorded at GSummit SF 2013

Exceptional games like SimCity, The Sims and Spore have set the standard for blending real life with games. They've managed to simplify super complicated concepts (like urban planning) while maintaining the dynamism and interrelations that help educate and entertain hundreds of millions of people worldwide. What lessons can we take from these games -- and decades of experience designing for fun -- to create engagement for large audiences with complex models and issues? How can we make simple everyday interactions more compelling and use them as teachable moments to energize society? Can everything really be fun -- and what are the secrets for balancing detail and simplicity? Join game design legend Will Wright as he re-imagines how the world becomes a more fun and engaging place, sharing his vision for the future and powerful design insight.

One of the most phenomenal experiences of GSummit SF 2013 happened with Will Wright’s keynote talk. As the creator of SimCity and countless other games and simulations, Wright’s talk goes deeply into games’ and their effect on us as humans in society and what that means for gamification in the grand scheme of things.

He touches on the lessons can we take from games — and decades of experience designing for fun — to create engagement for large audiences with complex models and issues? How can we make simple everyday interactions more compelling and use them as teachable moments to energize society? Can everything really be fun — and what are the secrets for balancing detail and simplicity? Check out Will Wright’s full talk as he re-imagines how the world becomes a more fun and engaging place, sharing his vision for the future and powerful design insight.

Be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel to get our latest gamification videos and talks. You can also download a copy of this presentation by downloading it here.

Link to presentation:

What is Gamification?

Gamification is the process of turning daily routines and habits into games. 

Why Gamify?

Gamification allows you to create systems which incentivize you to do your work. Many people struggle with doing basic, yet necessary, tasks and habits when they can’t see an immediate reward. This is the reason why so many people struggle to keep their diet, regularly workout, get a good night’s sleep, and engage in other healthy and productive habits. On the one hand, they know they should do these things, but if the reward is far in the future, it can be hard to incentivize yourself. On the other hand, people enjoy things that bring them instant satisfaction or reward. Many people enjoy shopping because of the instant gratification. Students might be willing to study the night before an exam, because they will soon get back a grade, and if the grade is good, they feel like their work paid off. 

How our brains naturally gamify

When we are children, our brains are constantly thinking of ways to make things more fun. For example, whenever my classmates went to the cafeteria in elementary school we played “the floor is lava”, jumping to and from the colored floor tiles and making sure not to touch the white floor tiles. This made the boring process of walking to the cafeteria fun.

As you got older you might have started rewarding yourself for tasks you don’t want to do. Young adults often use food, alcohol, naps, and even Netflix as rewards. These rewards motivate us. 

While there is some benefit to using a reward system such as the ones listed above, they can quickly get out of hand, and border on unhealthy. You might say your reward is 1 episode of Netflix, but next thing you know you’ve binged the whole season. Or your reward is a bowl of ice cream but you eat the carton. It is extremely important to use these rewards sparingly.

1. Habitica

Habitica is a general gamification app which allows you to gamify all different areas of your life. It is highly customizable and feels more like a traditional video game or roleplaying game (RPG). There are 3 general categories of tracking on Habitica: habits, dailies, and to-dos. The distinction between the 3 is a bit confusing, but in general, habits are things you might do more than once a day, dailies you do once a day, every day, and to-dos are one-time tasks. The habitica rewards include health points and coins to buy things for your digital character. Habitica has a social accountability feature which allows you to team up with friends (real life or virtual) and hold each other accountable. In general, I found Habitica fun, but overly-complicated. 

2. Sleep Town

Sleeptown is an app to gamify your sleep, and more specifically your sleep hygiene/routine. Sleeptown is designed to help you sleep better by encouraging you to go to bed and wake up at the same time on a regular basis. You set these times and can also set an alarm through the app. If you meet your goals you get to build buildings. In general, the application is nice but still has some glitches. It is not ideal for people who can’t or don’t regularly go to sleep and wake up at the same times, such as college students who have varying class schedules or people with irregular work schedules.

3. Forest

Forest and Sleeptown are owned and made by the same people. Forest happens to be my personal favorite gamification app, and is designed to gamify your time. Specifically to gamify time spent away from your phone and encourage you to spend less time on your phone and more time enjoying life. On Forest you set a timer (time you are going to stay off your phone) and plant a tree. If you navigate away from the app (aka if you start playing on your phone) your tree will wither and die. I like to use Forest when studying or doing homework. Forest also lends itself well to the Pomodoro Method or the School bell method. You also earn coins when you are successful and these coins can be spent to get more rewards. Add me on Forest: [email protected]

4. SuperBetter

Superbetter allows you to gamify your health and your resilience. It focuses on both physical and mental health by making suggestions of “powerups” “quests” “bad guys” and “allies” and allowing you to add your own. The designer of Superbetter also has done two Ted talks and written a book about her philosophy and why she believes that gamification can make us all healthier and live longer.

5.Life RPG

Life RPG is very similar to Habitica in that it qualifies your entire life, Life RPG helps you turn your to-do lists and tasks into a series of “missions” and “sub-missions”, sort your missions by “skills”, “energy level”, and gain reward points.

Bonus: Pokemon Go

Many people might not consider Pokemon Go a gamification app, but I feel that Pokemon Go gamifies fitness and walking. Many people now feel incentivized to walk to find pokemon, and feel rewarded by finding them.

I am doing a new thing with my kitchen pantry that contains all of my shelf-stable ingredients and that is what I call operation empty the cabinet. I take out an item from that cabinet and I ask myself two questions:

Is it still good?

Do I still want it?

If the answer to both questions is yes then I’ll need to actually find any recipe or use for that item to finish it off this week. If that means I might need to buy a couple of other ingredients to do so, then I try to buy the smallest quantity of that item as I can so I am not amplifying the problem. I have so much stuff up there that I can’t really buy anything new because I have so much stuff that is just clogging up that cabinet. The first to go will probably be the pasta because it is ridiculous that I have had that stuff up there so long. Also, since I have pasta sauce and mozzarella cheese already, it makes sense to choose that first because I don’t need to buy anything else to use that item. Goodbye, gnocchi.

Anyway, once I have made the thing I need to ask myself one final question:

Do I need to get it again?