Habitica

Habitica, formerly HabitRPG, is an online task management application developed by HabitRPG, Inc.[1][2][3] It was founded on January 30, 2013. The application uses the format of a role-playing game to organize tasks.[4] Habitica is an open source project.[1][5]

Habitica
Type of site
Task management
Available inMultilingual
FoundedJanuary 30, 2013 (2013-01-30)
OwnerHabitRPG, Inc.
Founder(s)
  • Tyler Renelle
  • Siena Leslie
  • Vicky Hsu
URLhabitica.com
Content license
Written inJavaScript

Concept
Primary Habitica gameplay screen as of July 1st, 2021

Habitica is a self-improvement web application that uses game mechanics to assist users in structuring their behavior.[6][7]

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-Dos.

Habits

In Habitica, Habits are long-term goals that are utilized to change a person's habits.[1][8][9] These Habits can be set to either 'positive', 'negative', or both.

For example:

  • A predefined Habit may be "1 hour of productive work". If a user records an hour of productive work on the Habitica app, they will gain experience and gold; this is a positive Habit.
  • A predefined Habit may be "Eat junk food". If a user records eating junk food on the Habitica app, they will lose health; this is a negative Habit.
  • A predefined Habit may be "Take the stairs". If a user records taking the stairs, they will gain experience and gold. If they record not taking the stairs, they will lose health; this is a positive and a negative Habit.

If a user completes a positive Habit often, it will turn green, signifying their ability to commit to their Habit. 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][8] Dailies are completed by ticking a check box: the user sets their Dailies in advance, and checks off what they have completed during their day. Completed Dailies give the user experience and gold, while 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.[1][8][9] 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, To-Dos will never cause the user to 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 (RPG) is one in which the player takes on the role of another person or character, and Habitica uses many genre conventions from this kind of game to motivate its app users. In Habitica, the user takes control of a character that they design. The game's objective is to form positive habits and eliminate negative ones.

Character

The player can build 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 also provide an attribute bonus when equipped. Some of the art in Habitica is sourced from BrowserQuest.[10] Characters also have classes.[11]

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.

Social accountability

Players can band together in parties to complete quests. Players can also join guilds and participate in challenges made by other players. Players can compete with friends and strangers, as well as collaborate and focus on accountability.[12]

Mobile application
A screenshot of the Habitica Android mobile app.

An official mobile application named Habitica is available for the Android and iOS operating systems. These mobile applications are replacements for the deprecated mobile apps named HabitRPG, which were released as promised after the $25,000 Kickstarter fund goal was reached.[5]

History

Tyler Renelle originally created HabitRPG to help with his own habits, having been inspired by the self-help books The Power of Habit and The Now Habit.[13] The earliest version of HabitRPG was a Google Docs spreadsheet with color-coded cell formulae.[14]

As the community of HabitRPG users grew, Renelle reached out to Siena Leslie and Vicky Hsu. Leslie and Hsu became co-founders of HabitRPG, Inc., which was formally incorporated as a company in 2014.

On July 31, 2015, the website and apps were renamed to Habitica, after the land where players’ adventures take place. The change was made because some users found the name HabitRPG confusing or difficult to remember. The company name remained HabitRPG, Inc.

Community

Community volunteers contribute to Habitica in various ways, such as by creating pixel art, translating text, creating music and sound effects, writing blog posts to promote Habitica, editing the wiki, resolving bugs, implementing new features, and answering new users’ questions.

Kickstarter

Starting on January 11, 2013, Renelle started a campaign on the fund-raising site Kickstarter to improve the development of the application with a goal of $25,000. The goal was surpassed.[15]

See also

References
  1. Pot, Justin (21 February 2013). "HabitRPG Makes Improving Yourself Actually Addictive". MakeUseOf.com. Retrieved 16 December 2013.
  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. "Habitica: How it Works". Retrieved September 30, 2016.
  4. "HabitRPG: Because doing the dishes sucks less when there's treasure involved". 20 August 2013. Retrieved 17 December 2013.
  5. 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. Iaccino, Laura. "HabitRPG: Gamify Your Life – Because IRL Is Boring". Retrieved November 29, 2013.
  9. Sachtleben, Amanda (9 October 2013). "App review: HabitRPG rewards your good habits". Idealog.co.nz. Archived from the original on 30 March 2014. Retrieved 17 December 2013.
  10. Renelle, Tyler (2013-07-09). "HabitRPG - BrowserQuest Hangout Thurs 7/11 @7p EST". Blog.habitrpg.com. Retrieved 2014-01-30.
  11. "Habitica - Gamify Your Life". habitica.com. Retrieved 2020-09-09.
  12. Top Mobile Trends (18 November 2014). "HabitRPG: Turn your tasks into a game!". Top Mobile Trends. Retrieved 4 August 2016.
  13. Renelle, Tyler (2013-09-18). "HabitRPG - Don't Forget Custom Rewards". Blog.habitrpg.com. Retrieved 2014-01-30.
  14. Orin, Andy (29 January 2015). "Behind the App: The Story of HabitRPG." LifeHacker.com. Retrieved 31 May 2018.
  15. Renelle, Tyler. "HabitRPG by Tyler Renelle — Kickstarter". Kickstarter.com. Retrieved 2014-01-30.
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