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Habitica, formerly HabitRPG, is an online
task management Task management is the process of managing a task through its life cycle. It involves planning, testing, tracking, and reporting. Task management can help either individual achieve goals, or groups of individuals collaborate and share knowledg ...
application developed by HabitRPG, Inc. It was founded on January 30, 2013. The application uses the format of a
role-playing game A role-playing game (sometimes spelled roleplaying game, RPG) is a game in which players assume the roles of characters in a fictional setting. Players take responsibility for acting out these roles within a narrative, either through literal a ...
to organize tasks. Habitica is an
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project.


Concept

Habitica is a
self-improvement Self-help or self-improvement is a self-guided improvement''APA Dictionary of Physicology'', 1st ed., Gary R. VandenBos, ed., Washington: American Psychological Association, 2007.—economically, intellectually, or emotionally—often with a subst ...
web application that uses
game mechanics In tabletop games and video games, game mechanics are the rules or ludemes that govern and guide the player's actions, as well as the game's response to them. A rule is an instruction on how to play, a ludeme is an element of play like the L-sha ...
to assist users in structuring their behavior. 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
habit A habit (or wont as a humorous and formal term) is a routine of behavior that is repeated regularly and tends to occur subconsciously.
s. 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 Experience refers to conscious events in general, more specifically to perceptions, or to the practical knowledge and familiarity that is produced by these conscious processes. Understood as a conscious event in the widest sense, experience involv ...
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 Health, according to the World Health Organization, is "a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease and infirmity".World Health Organization. (2006)''Constitution of the World Health Organiza ...
; this is a negative Habit. * A predefined Habit may be "Take the stairs". If a user does take the stairs, they will gain experience and gold. If they don't take 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. This signifies that they are doing a good job following 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. 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. 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 app users. In Habitica, the user takes control of a character that they design themselves and plays by forming good habits and decreasing bad ones.


Character

The player can build their own character, also known as an
avatar Avatar (, ; ), is a concept within Hinduism that in Sanskrit literally means "descent". It signifies the material appearance or incarnation of a powerful deity, goddess or spirit on Earth. The relative verb to "alight, to make one's appearanc ...
, 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. Characters also have classes.


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 A party is a gathering of people who have been invited by a host for the purposes of socializing, conversation, recreation, or as part of a festival or other commemoration or celebration of a special occasion. A party will often feature f ...
to complete quests. Players can also join
guilds A guild ( ) is an association of artisans and merchants who oversee the practice of their craft/trade in a particular area. The earliest types of guild formed as organizations of tradesmen belonging to a professional association. They sometimes ...
and participate in challenges made by other players. Players can compete with friends and strangers, as well as collaborate and focus on accountability.


Mobile application

An official
mobile app A mobile application or app is a computer program or software application designed to run on a mobile device such as a phone, tablet, or watch. Mobile applications often stand in contrast to desktop applications which are designed to run on de ...
lication named Habitica is available for the Android and
iOS iOS (formerly iPhone OS) is a mobile operating system created and developed by Apple Inc. exclusively for its hardware. It is the operating system that powers many of the company's mobile devices, including the iPhone; the term also includes ...
operating systems. These mobile applications are replacements for the deprecated mobile apps named HabitRPG, which were released as promised after the $25,000
Kickstarter Kickstarter is an American public benefit corporation based in Brooklyn, New York, that maintains a global crowdfunding platform focused on creativity. The company's stated mission is to "help bring creative projects to life". As of July 2021, ...
fund goal was reached.


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''. The earliest version of HabitRPG was a
Google Docs Google Docs is an online word processor included as part of the free, web-based Google Docs Editors suite offered by Google, which also includes: Google Sheets, Google Slides, Google Drawings, Google Forms, Google Sites and Google Keep. Google ...
spreadsheet with color-coded cell formulae. 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 Kickstarter is an American public benefit corporation based in Brooklyn, New York, that maintains a global crowdfunding platform focused on creativity. The company's stated mission is to "help bring creative projects to life". As of July 2021, ...
to improve the development of the application with a goal of $25,000. The goal was surpassed.


See also

*
Role-playing games A role-playing game (sometimes spelled roleplaying game, RPG) is a game in which players assume the roles of player character, characters in a fictional Setting (narrative), setting. Players take responsibility for acting out these roles within ...
*
Gamification Gamification is the strategic attempt to enhance systems, services, organizations, and activities by creating similar experiences to those experienced when playing games in order to motivate and engage users. This is generally accomplished thro ...
*
Motivation Motivation is the reason for which humans and other animals initiate, continue, or terminate a behavior at a given time. Motivational states are commonly understood as forces acting within the agent that create a disposition to engage in goal-dire ...
*
Task management software Task management is the process of managing a task through its life cycle. It involves planning, testing, tracking, and reporting. Task management can help either individual achieve goals, or groups of individuals collaborate and share knowledg ...
*
Serious games A serious game or applied game is a game designed for a primary purpose other than pure entertainment. The "serious" adjective is generally prepended to refer to video games used by industries like defense, education, scientific exploration, he ...


References


External links

* * * on
Fandom A fandom is a subculture composed of fans characterized by a feeling of empathy and camaraderie with others who share a common interest. Fans typically are interested in even minor details of the objects of their fandom and spend a significant ...
– A wiki actively maintained by the Habitica community that provides documentation on its features {{Task management software Free software Role-playing games Task management software American websites