Hey y’all.

I’ve struggled with productivity for the past decade. Slowly over time I came to realize that I may have ADHD (undiagnosed at this time) and ironically it felt like the worse combination given the dreams and ambitions I had in my head. I read probably every book there is to read on productivity and procrastination to little avail.

Ive also always loved video games since childhood and the thought occurred to me: Why does work feel so difficult yet playing a video game feels so relaxing and effortless?

And that started out a project for me: I set out to turn my life into a video game.

The result so far is www.skyward.app

And since developing it, it has been the most productive and intentional four months of my life.

Here’s the core things that make it work for me:

XP for completed quests:

The first thing I learnt is great game design gives you a clear sense of progression for everything you do while real life isn’t so clear cut. So the core loop is: What if life had a sense of progression for everything you do. In Skyward everything you do gives you XP so you can see you life moving forward with the tiniest of tasks.

Breaking down tasks:

After alot of experimenting I realized I was more productive when I broke down tasks into it tiniest steps. Like really embarrassingly small. So I set out to make that a core feature of the app: That breaking tasks down earns you XP just like completing it (but in smaller amounts).

The results for this was two fold:

1. I found myself getting started on tasks and procrastinating way less because as I broke down tasks I realize the first step was way easier than I thought.

2. When I actually sat down to work, so much of the steps would be laid out before that it made getting things done a much more relaxing affair.

Multiplayer - Body Doubling:

A huge component of alot of games is multiplayer. What if real life had multiplayer when getting stuff done? So I built a multiplayer section where you join a session and for 25 minutes you both say what quest you are embarking on, and the XP is shared by each player when a quest is done.

I joined with someone from the UK and we would “quest together” for the entire day, sharing our goals, dreams and ambitions and the results for on our productivity was amazing.

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The app isn’t finished (far from it) and it’s not on the app stores yet but it’s live and fully usable on web (desktop and mobile). I’m sharing for for feedback and for people who want to use this, and be part of a community that shares and supports one another in our dreams and ambitions. If this sounds like something you’d want, check out www.skyward.app and join r/skywardgame.

DM me if you’d like to play together!

Would love to hear what you think and what can be improved and what you wish something like this did.

I work in a startup as a product management intern, our app mainly focuses on B2B payments via Credit Cards, now we have a reward system that reduces the convenience charges on these payments, but from my research I've found that there's not enough awareness of this reward system.

I'm trying to understand if there's a way we can use the principle of gamification in our app to create more awareness of our reward system, while also ensuring it makes users transact more.

I personally thought of using mathematical formulas and algorithms that determine how much reward a user gets based on how much they transact in a fixed time period.

Users get these rewards everytime they transact.

Wondering if there would be anyone being able to build a gadget that is so unique and new on the market of both fitness and games, its a push up gadget that is able to detect push ups, giving feedback such as count of reps BUT also, gamified which means a screen on the product, that shows you going up and down while doing push ups which can be a bird in flappy birds going up and down therefore motivating the user to keep going. I

It's not "what game format should we use?" or "what's the prize?"

It's: "what do you want people to do differently after this experience?"

The projects that fail almost always start with a format or a mechanic and work backwards. The ones that work start with a behaviour change and ask what's the minimum game structure needed to produce it.

This sounds obvious but it's surprisingly rare in practice. Most briefs we receive describe a format ("we want a quiz") or a feeling ("we want it to be fun") rather than an outcome ("we want new hires to understand our product range well enough to have a client conversation in week three").

The format question is much easier to answer once the outcome is specific. And the measurement question, which most teams struggle with, almost answers itself.

What's the most specific outcome brief you've ever received for a gamification project? And the vaguest? 

Imagine you suddenly became part of the Habitica dev team.

• What features would you improve?
• What systems would you remove entirely?
• What new mechanics, progression systems, or social features would you add?

I’m interested in both small QoL fixes and larger design changes. Anything from UI/UX, classes, quests, guilds, the tavern, rewards, cosmetics, onboarding, mobile app, progression, balancing, monetization, gamification, or long-term motivation systems.

Curious what you guys thinks Habitica is missing — or what’s holding it back.

Hi everyone,

I’ve spent the last few months developing Zenith, an app for adults struggling with impulsive behaviors and chronic stress.

Unlike simple meditation apps, Zenith is based on CBT (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy) and ACT. It’s built to be an active tool you use in the moment when you feel an urge.

What’s inside: * SOS Protocol: A 4-phase breathing and cognitive strategy to "break" the impulse. * FocusScore: A composite metric to track your mental clarity. * Gamified Growth: 18 unique badges and level systems to keep you engaged. * Privacy First: Everything is encrypted with AES-256 and stored on your device (BIP39 backup).

The status: I just hit the "Closed Test" stage on Google Play Console and I need 12 committed testers for 14 days to unlock the production release.

The Deal: If you can test the app and give me honest feedback, I’ll give you Premium access for life.

How to join:

Please join the group: https://groups.google.com/g/zenith2app

And download the app: https://play.google.com/apps/testing/com.zenith2.app

Thanks for helping a solo dev!

I don't actively scroll this page to often but everytime I do or on my feed, I see someone showing 5-7 screenshots of a gamification app just made with AI with the basic concepts of gamificaton, points, ranks, leaderboards.

Its so surface level slop, or am I missing a trick to grind miniscule karma, if thats the case, surely it's inefficient?

Is it just me or am I missing something?

Hey r/factorio!

I just released my first mod and I'm looking for testers and feedback.

The idea is simple: what if Factorio's production chains could teach you how the human digestive system works - learning passively while playing?

You mine raw food (Schnitzel deposits - yes really <3), process it through a full digestion pipeline - Mouth, Stomach, Small Intestine, Large Intestine (assembler with new recipes) - and break it down into Glucose, Amino Acids, Fatty Acids and waste products. Every recipe has a short biological explanation so you learn without realizing it.

What I'm looking for:

• Does the production chain feel logical and fun to build? is it way too easy, would you like more detail and more steps?
• Are the biological descriptions accurate and easy to understand?
• Any bugs, balancing issues, or missing recipes?

I have seen many posts about this (or a similar) idea, but i couldn't find one that was actually made - if you know one, let me know!
Also what other topics would you find interesting to learn by playing?

here is the link: https://mods.factorio.com/mod/Digest-ED

💡 Tip: Start with /cheat mode to explore the full pipeline quickly before building it properly.

This is an early version — planned features include more food types, deeper biological detail, correct ratios of items and uses for waste products.

Would love to hear what you think! 🙏

Hi, I'm building a gamified focus timer that aim to encourage behavioral changes. I'm stuck on deciding how this mechanic should work out, so I really need your opinions and feedback / preferences on this !

The concept is after each focus session you done, you receive a flower and you have to manually plant them in a pot, then the next morning it would bloom and you can harvest to earn coins to buy stuffs.

So I'm wondering if I make the planting & harvesting as a superb satisfying 'tactile' experiences would it motivate you to keep focusing more and coming back the next morning to harvest?
What do you guys think about this? Or would you refer auto-plant/harvest for you?

https://preview.redd.it/6bf2qgk3gl0h1.png?width=1635&format=png&auto=webp&s=8460f7d3cf5c35e2023f459274aa7b6c3a657105

Been obsessed with gamification for a while now and kept thinking:
why does it only exist inside apps?
Points for opening the app. Streaks for logging stuff. Badges for tapping buttons.

None of that changes your actual behavior in the real world.

So I built SecondaryMission. The idea is simple: every week you get real-world missions across different areas of your life. Bravery, social connection, unplug, local explorer, Body & Movement, finance, etc. You complete them outside the app, log them, and earn XP toward your next rank.

The progression goes from Amateur to Eternal. Each rank requires more points and harder missions to get there.

Free gives you 3 missions per week across 4 categories. Premium opens all 10 categories, 7 missions per week, and a weekly Legendary mission that actually pushes you.

The interesting thing I noticed while building it: people respond way better to "complete this mission" than "build this habit."

The framing alone changes how they approach the task.

Would love to hear from people who've worked on gamification projects. What mechanics have you seen actually change behavior long term vs just create short term engagement?

if you want to check it out:

Live on iOS: SecondaryMission: Real-Life RPG (App Store)

Early Access on Android here Early Access — SecondaryMission

Here's the story of ReLIFE Habits and what I took away from making a gamified platform