Hello everyone, I've recently release Star Tasks – an app I'm very proud myself for the simple idea, beautiful interactions, (not so) funny jokes and how I'm loving using it myself!
I enjoy gaming and I wish I enjoyed getting things done. One evening I thought of making use of my love to games and get better – just like I'm getting better every day with Duolingo!
I started with the main idea – 3 tasks a day and you get stars for it to boost your willingness to keep going. Soon enough I realized that *just* the stars every day is going to be pretty boring soon enough so I came up with a quite unique and controversial idea – Achievements. Not like a simple badge, no, you get to **unlock whole features** by keeping finishing tasks day after day. Well, after that I myself did a 2-week 3-stars streak to unlock my own set of features. Loved it! Confirmed it works!
The whole app is written in SwiftUI with storage backed by SwiftData (I'd be also glad to answer any technical questions you might have, feel free to ask). This had a slight problem – the app looked very simple, too native and, as I like calling it, didn't have a soul. So this is where I started adding some beautiful animations and interactions. Most straightforward thing is how the stars are being animated when you finish a task but there are more subtle things out there: you can drag a star somewhere and it will return back – there's no point in it but it makes you feel the app is as intractive as it gets. Also after playing Dragon Dogma 2 I really liked the animation of the title of the new place you discovered – later that day I added such an animation to the navigation titles in the app. I'm now playing through Cult of the Lamb and – please stop me – in on of the next updates you'll unlock achievements with a new beautiful animation inspired by this game!
I documented many interesting things with screenshots and videos on Twitter/X and Mastodon (it's mirrored, pick one). Please check it out and I do appreciate feedback so let me know over there or here in comments what do you think.
I also would appreciate it so much if you'd leave a rating and/or a review on the App Store. It's bloated with ToDo lists over there, some are good, some are not, but as I learned from experience with Star Tasks, it's very hard to appear in the search results for such a popular app category
Here's the link to the app again: https://apps.apple.com/app/id6499358023
Thanks everyone for taking your time, have a great day!
Todo List Gamified. Star Tasks
Welcome to Star Tasks – a gamified approach for you to stop procrastinating and complete planned tasks and chores. Make your brain *want* to accomplish todos the way best games make you want to play them – by leveraging interactions that release dopamine and make your conscious fancy being...
apps.apple.com
I enjoy gaming and I wish I enjoyed getting things done. One evening I thought of making use of my love to games and get better – just like I'm getting better every day with Duolingo!
I started with the main idea – 3 tasks a day and you get stars for it to boost your willingness to keep going. Soon enough I realized that *just* the stars every day is going to be pretty boring soon enough so I came up with a quite unique and controversial idea – Achievements. Not like a simple badge, no, you get to **unlock whole features** by keeping finishing tasks day after day. Well, after that I myself did a 2-week 3-stars streak to unlock my own set of features. Loved it! Confirmed it works!
The whole app is written in SwiftUI with storage backed by SwiftData (I'd be also glad to answer any technical questions you might have, feel free to ask). This had a slight problem – the app looked very simple, too native and, as I like calling it, didn't have a soul. So this is where I started adding some beautiful animations and interactions. Most straightforward thing is how the stars are being animated when you finish a task but there are more subtle things out there: you can drag a star somewhere and it will return back – there's no point in it but it makes you feel the app is as intractive as it gets. Also after playing Dragon Dogma 2 I really liked the animation of the title of the new place you discovered – later that day I added such an animation to the navigation titles in the app. I'm now playing through Cult of the Lamb and – please stop me – in on of the next updates you'll unlock achievements with a new beautiful animation inspired by this game!
I documented many interesting things with screenshots and videos on Twitter/X and Mastodon (it's mirrored, pick one). Please check it out and I do appreciate feedback so let me know over there or here in comments what do you think.
Roman (@ramzesenok@mastodon.social)
I’ve been developing a new app in the last weeks and I used a couple of interesting techniques and ideas so I figured I’d share it here as a part of #buildinpublic movement. I also believe the process of creating an app and thinking about details is interesting so here you go
mastodon.social
Roman (@ramzesenok@mastodon.social)
Attached: 1 video Maybe it's just my silly humour but I was giggling out loud while developing this paywall for Unlocking all rewards
mastodon.social
I also would appreciate it so much if you'd leave a rating and/or a review on the App Store. It's bloated with ToDo lists over there, some are good, some are not, but as I learned from experience with Star Tasks, it's very hard to appear in the search results for such a popular app category
Here's the link to the app again: https://apps.apple.com/app/id6499358023
Thanks everyone for taking your time, have a great day!
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