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MASARYK UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF INFORMATICS
Gamification concept used in development of application on
maintaining habits
BACHELOR THESIS
Šimon Demočko
Brno, spring 2013
Declaration
ii
DECLARATION Hereby I declare, that this paper is my original authorial work, which I have
worked out by my own. All sources, references and literature used or ex-
cerpted during elaboration of this work are properly cited and listed in com-
plete reference to the due source.
Šimon Demočko
Advisor: Mgr. Dalibor Toth
Acknowledgement
iii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT Firstly I want to thank my advisor, Mgr. Dalibor Toth for taking patronage
over the idea for this bachelor thesis and for spending time with me providing
me with valuable insights to the process of writing this paper. He also con-
tacted me with a consultant for Android application development, Bc. Marcel
Brož, to which I am grateful for helping me with the application prototype. I
wouldn’t be able to finish the implementation, if it wasn’t for the suggestions
he gave me, when I stumbled upon problems I couldn’t solve myself in reason-
able time.
Besides, I would like to mention a great friend, Júlia Sabanošová, who intro-
duced me to the concept of gamification and presented me with the spread-
sheet, she created, for the game Habit Judo, where my idea for a game started.
A big thank you goes to Antonína Chekhovskaya who supported me in every
way in my creation process and had all the patience to motivate me through
the gaps and downs I experienced, which not even all the gamification tools
could outfight.
Thanks to my family, my parents who enabled me studying on Czech’s great
Masaryk University and are always happy to see me come back home and re-
port about my progress in school. Thanks to my siblings, who showed interest
to my work and to all my friends, who were excited about the idea and moti-
vated me to finish it.
I would like to recognize the efforts of the giants, on which shoulders I stand.
Thanks to all the authors of researches, studies, books, courses and other val-
uable resources I used and which inspired me through the process of creating
the game design. I mostly value the work of Karl M. Kapp, the writer of the
book The Gamification of learning and instructions, which not only served as a
great source of ideas, but also as a guidepost to many other resources I
checked and cited along the way.
Abstract
iv
ABSTRACT The goal of this work is to gather information about gamification and apply it
in creating a gamified design for an application, with the design and the appli-
cation prototype being the output of the thesis. The designed application’s
purpose is to help the player form habits of his choice and to maintain them,
while experiencing the process as fun and engaging.
Keywords
v
KEYWORDS Gamification, habit, application, game design, motivation
Content
vi
CONTENT 1. Introduction ........................................................................................................................... 1
2. Gamification ........................................................................................................................... 3
2.1 Game structure from the view of MDA framework ...................................... 4
2.2 Game elements .............................................................................................................. 4
2.2.1 Rules .......................................................................................................................... 4
2.2.2 Achievements, badges, challenges ............................................................... 5
2.2.3 Point system, virtual currency ....................................................................... 6
2.2.4 Rewards ................................................................................................................... 7
2.3 Game aesthetics ............................................................................................................ 9
2.3.1 Fun .............................................................................................................................. 9
2.3.2 Scaffolding ............................................................................................................ 10
2.3.3 Curve of interest, Learning curve .............................................................. 11
2.3.4 Flow ........................................................................................................................ 11
2.3.5 Motivation ............................................................................................................ 13
3. Habit as a psychological phenomenon ................................................................... 15
3.1 Habit studies ............................................................................................................... 15
3.2 Self-experimentation findings ............................................................................ 17
4. My project design ............................................................................................................. 19
4.1 Game name .................................................................................................................. 19
4.2 Functional requirements – Use cases .............................................................. 19
4.3 UML class diagram ................................................................................................... 20
4.4 Record module rules ............................................................................................... 21
4.5 Minigame module ..................................................................................................... 26
4.5.1 Rules ....................................................................................................................... 27
4.5.2 Weapons ............................................................................................................... 28
4.5.3 Maps ........................................................................................................................ 28
4.6 Game elements ........................................................................................................... 29
4.6.1 Point system ........................................................................................................ 29
Content
vii
4.6.2 Lands ...................................................................................................................... 33
4.6.3 Challenges ............................................................................................................ 34
4.6.4 Achievements ..................................................................................................... 35
4.7 GUI ................................................................................................................................... 37
4.8 Prototype implementation ................................................................................... 39
5. Conclusion ........................................................................................................................... 42
6. Bibliography ....................................................................................................................... 44
APPENDIX A Case studies .................................................................................................... 49
A.1 Habit Streak ................................................................................................................ 49
A.2 Routinely ...................................................................................................................... 50
A.3 HabitRPG ...................................................................................................................... 50
A.4 Hab It! ............................................................................................................................ 52
A.5 Health Month .............................................................................................................. 52
A.6 GAMIFYme ................................................................................................................... 53
A.7 Habit Judo .................................................................................................................... 53
A.8 Conclusion ................................................................................................................... 54
APPENDIX B Game elements (addendum) .................................................................. 56
B.1 Goals ............................................................................................................................... 56
B.2 Avatar ............................................................................................................................ 56
B.3 Levels ............................................................................................................................. 57
B.4 Feedback ...................................................................................................................... 57
B.5 Time ................................................................................................................................ 58
B.6 Storytelling and graphics ...................................................................................... 58
APPENDIX C Contents of the attached electronic archive .................................... 60
Introduction
1
1. INTRODUCTION „ We first make our habits, and then our habits make us. “
– John Dryden
Gamification is a relatively new IT trend, recognized by the Gartner, Inc.1 and
their hype cycle. The main idea of gamification as they state it is:
“Gamification is the broad trend of employing game mechanics to non-game environments such
as innovation, marketing, training, employee performance, health and social change.” [1]
The roots of gamification are in game design, which is an unaccredited disci-
pline with roots in both psychology and systems thinking [2]. Since gamifica-
tion is a derivative discipline of game design, there are little to no studies
about the topic from the academic perspective. LeBlanc stated in his lecture,
that games are state machines. He also written, that since all games are com-
puter games, then game design is essentially programming [3].
In my paper I focus deeply on this new trend, what are its characteristics and
how it can be used in the context of habit formation. I chose this area, because
it is strictly pragmatic and applied in everyday life, thus it is easier to apply
the concept and analyze the outcome. In my environment, students encounter
problems with procrastination and lack of self-discipline on regular basis. I
wanted to see, if this trend could be used effectively to help behavioral change.
The goal of this study is to gather relevant information about this expanding
trend and merge them with findings about habit formation by creating a gam-
ified application design, which is to help user, or player, to form new habits
and ingrain them in his behavior. In order to have a ready to use alternative at
hand I develop an Android application prototype with minor functionality per-
tinent to the provided game design.
To carry out this task I use various resources, including O’Reilly’s – Gamifica-
tion By Design [2], Kapps’s – The Gamification of Learning and Instruction [4]
and online course Gamification by professor Werbach [5], which all provide
valuable insight to the topic and exercises and design practices that can be im-
mediately used to design gamified experience.
1 „The world’s leading information technology research and advisory company“ – www.gartner.com
Introduction
2
Following the introduction, in the section 2 of this paper I introduce the gam-
ification concept in more detail, cover its important elements and tools, which
are related to what I will be using in my own design. In the section 3 I cover
gathered information about habit formation and the psychology behind it. The
last section is where my own gamification design is described in detail, along
with the Android application prototype implementation details. In the conclu-
sion I sum up the work’s contribution to the area of gamification and habit
formation and outline the prospects for the design and what the further steps
in the process of deployment could be.
In the Appendix A I study different existing solutions, pointing out their use of
gamification. I also provide more insight to different game elements that are
not the main focus in my own design.
Gamification
3
2. GAMIFICATION What is gamification? Gamification is a verbal noun, with the stem of the ver-
bal part being „to gamify“, which can be replaced with „to make game alike“.
Thus, first we’ll define what a game is.
A game is a system in which players engage in abstract challenge, which is de-
fined by rules, interactivity and feedback. It results in a quantifiable outcome
often eliciting an emotional reaction [6].
To properly introduce the meaning of the word gamification, I present various
definitions from diverse resources. Gabe Zichermann, the author of books
Gamification by Design and Game-based marketing defined gamification as
“(The) process of using game thinking and game dynamics to engage audiences and solve
problems”. [2]
The Gartner Group used words, mentioned in the introduction:
“Gamification is the broad trend of employing game mechanics to non-game environments such
as innovation, marketing, training, employee performance, health and social change.” [1]
Arising from these definitions it is certain, that gamification is abstract enough
to be applicable in many contexts. It has been used in education by teachers,
to engage students in the process of learning (this field is also known under
the name edutainment) [2]. Gamification can be used for driving behavioral
change [4] [7] [8]. It is used also in the field of effective instruction develop-
ment [4]. Companies like American Airlines, Gilt Groupe, Coca-Cola or Nike have
successfully used it for increasing customer loyalty [2] [9]. U.S. military has
used video games across several branches. The U.S., among other countries
has used realistic training simulations developed by Czech developer team Bo-
hemia Interactive [10]. Gamification has also been used by Ford to make driv-
ers drive more effectively [2].
To sum up I use the words of Karl M. Kapp from his great book The Gamifica-
tion of Learning and Instruction where he describes gamification as
“Using game-based mechanics, aesthetics and game thinking to engage people, motivate ac-
tion, promote learning, and solve problems.” [4]
In the following sections I describe what the fundamentals of gamification and
game design are. At first I will cover game elements, and how they fit in the
gamification of habit development. Furthermore, in the section 2.3 I discuss
the roots of game potency to immerse players in itself.
Gamification
4
2.1 GAME STRUCTURE FROM THE VIEW OF MDA
FRAMEWORK
One of the views on game design is the MDA framework, where “M” stands for
mechanics, “D” for dynamics and “A” for aesthetics.
“Mechanics describe the particular components of the game, at the level of data representation
and algorithms. Dynamics describe the run-time behavior of the mechanics acting on player
inputs and each other’s outputs over time. Aesthetics describe the desirable emotional re-
sponses evoked in the player, when she interacts with the game system” [11].
Marc LeBlanc, co-author of the MDA framework, compares games to software.
Mechanics – code in software, rules in games. Dynamics – software process,
game “sessions”. Aesthetics – software requirements, game “fun”.
In section 2.2 I list out different mechanics and how they can be applied in our
context, considering the dynamics and desirable aesthetic outcomes. In sec-
tion 2.3 I describe various game characteristics, which are not results of inter-
acting with game elements as parts, but they emerge from experiencing games
as a whole.
2.2 GAME ELEMENTS
The most fundamental game elements I consider worth mentioning in this seg-
ment are: Rules, achievements, badges, challenges, point system (virtual cur-
rencies) and rewards. Since there are more important game elements, that did
not make it to this chapter, I added them for deeper knowledge of the subject
to the appendix (see Appendix B)
The reason, why I do not separate different elements into mechanics and dy-
namics, is that they are tightly interconnected. It is easier to distinguish them
in case studies. However, elements will be discussed further on in their ab-
stract form, thus, I will take into account how they are designed as mechanics,
what dynamics emerge and what are the desirable aesthetics – which alone
are the purpose of design.
2.2.1 RULES In his online Gamification course lectures, professor Werbach, describes
games as a set of rules to which players conform on their own free decision, in
order to achieve a measurable and quantifiable goal [12].
Gamification
5
Designing game requires to design specific rules. M. LeBlanc, states in the
aforementioned slides that every game is a state machine and that game de-
sign is essentially programming.
Rules are the structure of the game, which builds the artificial conflict. They
define winning state, play sequence and fair play [4].
2.2.2 ACHIEVEMENTS, BADGES, CHALLENGES In an academic research about achievements there are two definitions of
achievements based on two perspectives:
“From the perspective of the achievement system, an achievement appears as a challenge con-
sisting of a signifying element, rewards and completion logics whose fulfillment conditions are
defined through events in other systems (usually games). From the perspective of a single
game, an achievement appears as an optional challenge provided by a meta-game that is inde-
pendent of a single game session and yields possible reward(s).” [13]
This segment describes three game elements, because they are partially de-
pendent. It can be said that game may have challenges and these may be ac-
complished by a player; he then for each completed challenge gains achieve-
ment, which can be represented by a badge. Badges are usually visible online,
not necessarily in the game environment [2] [4] [14].
Questions arise, when analyzing and designing achievement system. Is the
player motivated intrinsically or extrinsically towards specific achievements?
(See section 2.3.5). How can we avoid the danger of reduction in autonomy,
creativity and performance of the player after providing him with achieve-
ments? These questions can be answered considering whether the achieve-
ment is unavoidable, optional or inspiring. Floyd in his video describes inspir-
ing achievements as the achievements that suggest an alternate engaging way
to play that the designers didn’t want to make the main focus of the game [15].
The unavoidable are used usually in the process of onboarding (see 2.3.2). If
they are used further, it is considered a bad practice.
Achievements are good to be implemented in the gamified system, if there are
more ways to play the game and the challenging ones are more desired by the
FIGURE 2-1 Games as state machines.
Gamification
6
designer or they should be desired by the player. They motivate and reward
player for actions that the designer considers advisable.
It is a good pattern to make badges (or achievements) reviewable, since many
players perceive them as collectables and they use them to compare with
other players online [2].
A common anti-pattern in designing achievements is to have player complete
a task for “n” times. Such achievements should be omitted [16].
2.2.3 POINT SYSTEM, VIRTUAL CURRENCY Point systems are very important in the context of games and even more in
gamified systems [2]. In some cases score doesn’t even have to be visible to
the players, as long as it provides useful information for the designer, about
which actions within the system are used more. Designer uses this infor-
mation to fine-tune the system by making appropriate adjustments.
There are many types of point systems. To name a few, we borrow a shortened
list with abridged descriptions from the book Gamification by Design enriched
with references to games, which serve as a good example for the point system:
Experience points (further on referred as XP) – the most important
point system. This is not a currency – they serve the purpose of watch-
ing, ranking and guiding the player. XP cannot be redeemed and player
cannot lose his XP. However, XP can expire in order to create goal loops
as can be observed in the frequent-flyer programs. XP should never max
out. Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing games (MMORPGs) like
World of Warcraft employ XP systems very well.
Redeemable points (RP) – these can be referred to as virtual curren-
cies. Currency, because we can use it to exchange for things. Virtual, be-
cause mostly player purchases in-game non-tangible items. They are
the building blocks for virtual economy, thus it needs to be monitored,
managed and tweaked, in order to avoid inflation or deflation and other
economic problems. One can see these used frequently in Facebook
games, because they provide a second way to get these points - buying
them for real world money. These include games Fruit Ninja: Frenzy or
Zynga’s Farmville.
Gamification
7
Skill points – these serve a purpose for creating subgoals and sepa-
rated progress bars for specific activities, which should be kept sepa-
rate. Most of the role-playing video games incorporate such system, e.g.
Fallout.
Karma points – these support altruism and sharing among players,
thus it’s a social point system. The purpose of them is to be given away
to other players, e.g. to reward them or show approval. Hojko.com is
a forum, which has an implementation of KP that is a good example of
this)
Point systems are the most basic fundamental element of gamification and it
is best practice not to omit it.
2.2.4 REWARDS Reward structures are organized around activities, which are desired from the
player, thus to motivate him to continue in doing them. These include:
Point systems (as described in the previous section).
Collectibles – e.g. badges for achievements, challenges and perfor-
mance; “Easter eggs”2, trophies, serving as an indicator of status, level,
and ranking: such as Judo belts.
Real-world tangible rewards – money or virtually anything that can
be considered valuable by the player. Tangible rewards are not usually
used by gamification [4].
It is important to note, that rewards are awarded in different patterns. These
are widely discussed in the topic called operant conditioning.
Author of the book The Gamification of Learning and Instruction collected in-
formation about operant conditioning from studies of B. F. Skinner, Biehler,
R.F., & Snowman, J.
Skinner showed in his study, that he could manipulate organisms to do things,
which were not part of their basic nature, if he provided a reward [17]. In sub-
sequent studies he introduced different reinforcement schedules (see figure
2-2).
2 An Easter egg is an intentional hidden message, inside joke, or feature in a work such as a computer program, movie, book, or crossword. - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Easter_egg_(media)
Gamification
8
Fixed interval – reward provided after a period of time has passed.
Number of time the action is performed does not influence the proba-
bility of awarding. Disadvantage: Predictions are made about when is
the right time to perform action (up till then action might not be per-
formed at all).
Variable interval – reward is presented when action is executed after
an unpredictable amount of time has passed. The level of activity is con-
tinuous at a slower pace, since the player recognizes, that the reward
schedule is unrelated to frequency or amount of his activity.
Fixed ratio – for every nth desired action a reward is awarded. If player
wants the reward, he will burst into the activity until the reward is
reached. Then there is a pause, until the reward is desired again. Behav-
ior reinforced this way is not continual.
Variable ratio – reinforcement (reward) is provided in unpredictable inter-
vals. This brings more desire to repeat the action, because now there is no cer-
tainty, if the reward is not just “around the corner” – this produces desire to
go on, similarly as with slot machines, producing behavior of relatively stable
and high frequency, which can be seen in figure 2-2.
FIGURE 2-2 Reinforcement schedules [2].
Another important aspect about rewards is how sure the player is about being
awarded. Gaming uncertainty has been shown to release a greater dopamine
response in the brain – this is connected to pleasure [18]. The right level of
Gamification
9
uncertainty to introduce in games of chance to heighten motivation is 50%. It
appears that having a 50/50 chance of success keeps players motivated to-
wards achieving the rewards they are seeking [19].
Extrinsic rewards can have substantial impact on intrinsic motivation, which
is often negative. This topic will be covered in the section about motivation:
see section 2.3.5.
2.3 GAME AESTHETICS
In this segment I provide game aesthetics that emerge from experiencing the
gamified system holistically.
2.3.1 FUN Zichermann states, that not the theme (story) of the game are the sources of
fun, but the underlying mechanics of the game. The theme is what brings
players to the game and the mechanics hook the player into it. The examples
he uses are very popular games like Diner Dash (waiter serving tables), Diaper
Dash (diapering a baby), Farmville (planting crops) and Flight Control. These
games all have in common a story consisting of activities of either very stress-
ing or boring character [2].
We can use Lazzaro’s four different kinds of fun and pair it with Bartle’s four
player types3 [2] [20].
Hard fun – Achiever – this pair is all about winning competitions,
achieving something valuable. Racing games are examples of achiever
oriented play.
Easy fun – Explorer – Super Mario, (don’t be fooled by the name)
Achievement Unlocked or Minecraft are good examples of explorer type
of games. In Super Mario, player looks for hidden mushrooms, secret
rooms and coins. In Achievement Unlocked player unlocks a great deal
of nonsense achievements like “get killed 5 times in a row” and “don’t
move for 3 minutes”. The unspoken objective of the game is to gain as
3 I omitted the Killer player type, since it is a very uncommon player type (sort of an achiever, who
however must not only win, but make another player lose) and it doesn’t pair well with the Altered
state fun.
Gamification
10
most achievements as possible, thus one needs to explore the level to
find them all.
Altered state (or Serious) fun – game changes the way the player
feels. They may play for example for excitement or for relief from
“work”.
Social fun – Socializer – most of the players are socializers [2] [20].
(The player types are not mutually exclusive). This might be the very
reason why social games (like Farmville or The Sims Social on Facebook)
are so successful. Socializer looks for interactions with other players.
MMORPG’s appeal well to socializers – they play in teams, collaborate
to achieve goals or compete.
2.3.2 SCAFFOLDING Complex systems and games that reveal their complexity at once elicit anxiety
in users and players. Thus, players can be divided to different types according
to how long they have been interacting with the system:
Novice – player leaves this phase after getting familiar with the game
environment, recognizing the main goal and understanding the most
fundamental rules and mechanics.
Beginner and Advanced – player is interacting with the game, over-
coming challenges and revealing layers of complexity.
Expert – player now understands the game very well. He gained most
of the necessary knowledge and skill to achieve latter goals of the game.
Master – player knows the game perfectly, he has explored every op-
tion, collected every achievement and can see how the game could be
modified or enhanced in further development.
Player learns to use the game progressively. The term scaffolding is used, be-
cause the player’s skills are developed sequentially, by smaller portions and
then later, they are combined and enriched by more. It is thus important to
keep in mind the player’s experience in different parts of the game. And by far
one of the most important things to keep in mind is the process of onboard-
ing.
Onboarding takes the player through series of easy steps and challenges which
cannot be failed. It is the act of bringing a novice into your system and helping
him achieve the beginner stage.
Gamification
11
Some of the best practices and anti-patterns of onboarding, mentioned in the
Gamification by Design are:
Take the first minute of player’s interaction with the system to ac-
count. He makes split second decisions about the system.
Requiring registration before play is the most common reason, why
potential players reject the system.
TMI, or “too much information” – overwhelming the player with too
many options and information too soon makes him less comfortable
and willing to engage with the game.
Remove opportunities for failure – Do not make choices which lead to
failure at the starting point of the game.
Reward soon and use positive feedback.
Learn something about the player, so that you can adjust the experience
to adapt to his preferences.
2.3.3 CURVE OF INTEREST, LEARNING CURVE From the point player enters the game, his interest in playing rises and de-
clines in a form of curve. The game is a sequence of unfolding events, which
hold player’s attention. In game design, this is taken in mind – as the game
progresses, levels of interests are added carefully [4]. This can be done by add-
ing more complexity, story unfolding and by locally peaking difficulty before
new material is revealed.
When using difficulty and complexity, to control interest, learning curve
should be considered. Player can only master certain skills and understand a
subset of game complexity at once if he is not to feel overwhelmed. We dis-
cussed this topic more in section 2.3.2.
2.3.4 FLOW Flow (in psychology) is the state, which one enters, when the difficulty of the
task is considered not too high, because this would lead to anxiety, failure, or
stumbling, but not too low, because it would become boring.
In games, when player’s skill grows, so does the challenge. Flow is a very de-
sirable state to achieve in a player, because it is subjectively felt as very pleas-
ant and player seeks the feeling, the flow, again.
“Flow is a mental state of operation in which a person is fully immersed and focused in what he
or she is doing; it involves full mental involvement and continual engagement in the process of
the activity.” [21]
Gamification
12
When experiencing flow, the player is calm and focused [2]. He forgets about
the outside world for the moment.
FIGURE 2-3 Illustration of flow by Csíkszentmihályi [21].
Eight components that make flow possible by Csikszentmihalyi (first to de-
scribe the state and calling it flow) [21]:
Achievable Task – player needs to believe he can achieve the task with
effort.
Concentration – mental and physical energies must be applied in
strong focus.
Clear Goals – player knows exactly what is to be done. He is only con-
cerned in the execution of the task, not figuring out what it is.
Feedback – immediate, continual feedback guides player through the
performance – he knows how well he performs.
Effortless Involvement – no external thoughts enter or distract the
mind. Player is putting all the effort he can, but since other mentioned
conditions are met, he subjectively perceives the involvement as effort-
less.
Control Over Actions – player is in control.
Concern for Self Disappears – nothing but the activity concerns the
player.
Loss of Sense of Time – subjective perception of time is distorted. Time
flows by.
Gamification
13
A perfect example of game using flow as its only element and making a great
success with it is Super Hexagon, in which the objective is to move a small tri-
angle in a circular direction in order to avoid lines flying at intense speed to-
wards it.4
2.3.5 MOTIVATION
In the goals section in appendix B.1 we asked, how is the player motivated to
play. Basic motivators mentioned by Zichermann are:
For mastery
To destress
To have fun (see section 2.3.1)
To socialize
With gamification we are trying to motivate players
either to do, what they originally wanted to do, but had little motivation
for,
or to do what we, as designers want them to do.
In pure games this means we want players to play and to perform actions nec-
essary to win the game. In gamification, however, we focus player’s attention
to certain tasks, which originally were not part of any game.
When a task is desired by the player, he is intrinsically motivated to do it. In
the second situation we are motivating the player extrinsically, otherwise he
would have no reason to perform the task.
There is an extensive amount of studies, which examine the effects of extrinsic
rewards on intrinsic motivation [22]. The findings are very important in our
context, so I point out them below with references to their sources.
When someone feels intrinsic motivation to do something (e.g. child
playing piano), rewarding him extrinsically (winning a piano play
competition) undermines his intrinsic motivation [2] [4] [23]. When
reward is taken away (no more competitions or failing at them), the be-
havior stops too – the intrinsic motivation is not recovered. Following
types of rewards were found to significantly undermine free-choice in-
trinsic motivation [22]:
4 See http://www.superhexagon.com
Gamification
14
o Engagement-contingent rewards – rewards for working on a
task.
o Completion-contingent rewards – dependent upon completing
the task.
o Performance-contingent rewards – these are given for per-
forming activity well, according to some standard of excellence. 5
On the contrary, different study suggests, that rewarding performance
produces greater intrinsic motivation, than just providing feedback
about the performance [24].
Extrinsic motivations may lead to intrinsic motivation. External mo-
tives become incorporated into one’s personal value system [25].
o Extrinsic rewards are best used, when they support intrinsic mo-
tivation in a way, that that provides feedback to the player. E.g. it
may inform the player about the level of achieved mastery.
Amy Jo Kin suggests, that the best practice is to look for intrinsic values
of the player and then support them by the game environment [26].
Game (and therefore a good gamified system) is intrinsically motivat-
ing, not extrinsically rewarded. People play games mostly for the intrin-
sic fun [27].
The danger of undermining intrinsic motivation with extrinsic rewards
was higher with tangible rewards [23]. In gamification we seldom use
tangible rewards. In my project I use none.
These statements, which I gathered, lead me to a conclusion. Using extrinsic
motivation through rewards is useful at the beginning, while the player finds
lacking intrinsic motivation for the task to be performed (habit task). After
being extrinsically motivated to perform a task he chose on his own (appealing
to player’s autonomy), he incorporates the motivation to be intrinsic (getting
used to the task performance – forming the habit). After the habit has been
successfully formed the extrinsic motivation can be dropped.
5 In Kapp’s referenced book he collected various resources, which support the claim that performance
rewards lead to better performance and more intrinsic reward. The reason for this is claimed to be,
that subjects do not feel manipulated, since they feel autonomy in performance and a high degree of
competence.
Habit as a psychological phenomenon
15
3. HABIT AS A PSYCHOLOGICAL PHENOMENON This chapter covers important findings about habit as a psychological phe-
nomenon, divided into two segments. The first contains information I gath-
ered from external resources and the second covers findings that emerged
from my self-experimentation with a simple gamified system for forming hab-
its.
3.1 HABIT STUDIES
Habit is:
“An acquired behavior pattern regularly followed until it has become almost involuntary“.
– dictionary.com
Behavior requires less thought control to be carried out after it was repeated
for a subjectively specific amount of repetitions. Thought control transfers to
cues in the environment, which activate an automatic response [28].
For our needs I outline basic information gathered about habits, which are rel-
evant to our cause.
Many of the following information are later on used to implement specific sup-
portive functionality, to make the goal of habit acquisition achievable. Majority
of the findings below are from a research article published in European Jour-
nal of Social Psychology [28] and from other sources cited by this article.
- “The relationship between repetition and habit strength follows an asymptotic curve
in which automaticity increases steadily – but by a smaller amount with each repetition
– until it reaches an asymptote (plateau).” [29]
- “Habits are acquired through incremental strengthening of the association between a
situation (cue) and an action, e.g. repetition of a behavior in a consistent context pro-
gressively increases the automaticity with which the behavior is performed when the
situation is encountered.” [28]
- Time cues don’t work as well for creating association with a behavior,
because they require monitoring to identify the time to act [30].
- Missing an opportunity to perform the behavior does not materially
affect the habit formation process [28]. However, a higher succession
of lapses to practice the task may have hindering consequences to habit
acquisition [31].
- Developing a habit takes a substantially variable amount of time de-
pending on the habit task and the individual [28].
Habit as a psychological phenomenon
16
- Extrinsic rewards do not seem to be necessary for habit development,
which one chooses intentionally. This is because if the behavior is cho-
sen freely, it feels intrinsically motivating and rewarding 6 [28].
- Intrinsic motivation to create a habit is necessary. However, until the
habit is not ingrained, intrinsic motivation alone usually is not suffi-
cient.
“Creating new habits will require self-control to be maintained for a significant period
before the desired behaviors acquire the necessary automaticity to be performed with-
out self-control.” [28] (Further on I will refer to the habits, which do not
require self-control as ingrained habits.)
Under the term habit I usually refer to automatic behavior, which occurs in-
voluntarily and subconsciously. However, my intention in the gamified appli-
cation is to help users also acquire repeating behavior, which might be too
complex or time/cue unrelated in such a way, that it cannot be called a habit,
when thinking about it in terms described above. This is because more com-
plex tasks are less likely to become habitual; their complexity impacts the de-
velopment of automaticity by prolonging the time required to achieve it. One
of the reasons, why this happens is because more complex tasks are associated
with more thoughts about the task during its performance, indicating they
may be less automatic [28] [32] .
Nevertheless, even complex tasks are many times desired and we can acquire
a level of goal-directed automaticity, which is distinct from habit. This is not
necessarily a bad thing. Such automaticity is flexible and remains tied to the
original goal [33]. Thus, this allows us to drop unnecessary automatic behav-
ior, when it’s not purposeful anymore. Further on, for simplicity, I will not
make any distinctions between goal-directed automaticity and habits, except
for when the distinction allows deeper understanding (calling both these
types of automaticity by word habit).
6 Behavior towards which individual does not feel any intrinsic motivation will not be encouraged by this application.
Habit as a psychological phenomenon
17
3.2 SELF-EXPERIMENTATION FINDINGS
In the course of looking for a system solution, which would help me form hab-
its and doing daily activities I decided to use a simple evidence system gami-
fied on a small scale, called Habit Judo, which was presented to me by a good
friend (see Acknowledgement). Reason, why I decided to use it, is that at the
time, I didn’t know I would be working on my own gamification project of this
kind.
I’ve been using this system since 29th October 2012 to date.7 This includes
daily recordings with approximately 3-7 lapses, where lapse is defined as fail-
ing to record whether the (habit) tasks were performed or not. The recordings
were, however, added in retrospect.
The spreadsheet with recorded data is available in the attached electronic ar-
chive under name Habit Judo.xlsx (see Appendix C).
My experience with this system brought me to these findings (read about how
the system works first in the appendix section A.7):
The main factors helping in overcoming motivation gaps were only the
two listed below. The system did not provide a truly immersing gami-
fied experience.
o The belt system – having tangible silicone bracelet of the cur-
rent level color had perpetual impact on my confidence about do-
ing something good for myself (which reached to the point, when
I did not want to use my blue towel and new blue shower gel,
until I reached the blue belt).
o Rewards – when I knew I wanted to buy something, I attached it
to the next reward threshold. Thus it made me look forward to
the point gain that day, since it drew me closer to the reward.
The initial motivation to use the system faded at certain stages:
o After reaching black belt (153 days after start) the prospect of
getting the next belt (white-red) was a matter of distant future
due to the next point threshold.
Solution: Maintaining diversity of level representation
during the whole gaming experience.
7 At the time I was writing this it’s been 164 days.
Habit as a psychological phenomenon
18
o After having more than approximately 8 habits the variety of
points gained due to randomness was not as clear as at the be-
ginning – I always checked the summary of points and subtracted
the points for undone habits. The summary tended to be (due to
probability) near the value s, where 𝑠 =𝑛(ℎ) ∗ 10
2 and n(h) is the
number of habits. E.g. having 10 habits resulted in having score
around 50 most of the time. The randomness of score per habit
had not impacted the overall score for the day later on and the
progress towards the next level slowly lost its game-like quality.
Solution: This problem could be addressed by letting the
player have more control over how many points he gets
and adding randomness to the overall score (e.g. multiply-
ing the score by some criteria).
Some of the performed tasks quickly became ingrained habits, which
later on did not need any support by the game.
o Solution: This could be addressed by rewarding the player for in-
graining the habit. One-time reward or point gain would work
well. This way the amount of habits, which are “played” would be
more maintainable and it would free the player from recording
redundant task execution.
Some tasks were more valuable than others (taking a daily nap versus
working on the thesis for at least an hour on daily basis) – this was not
considered by the system.
o Solution: Multiplying the point gain by difficulty.
The system is not optimized for other than daily tasks.
Overall experience with the system brought me valuable insight to what a
good game design with such purpose should contain and how it adapts to the
context of long-term use in short sessions.
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4. MY PROJECT DESIGN In the following segment I describe my application concept starting from the
core mechanics. I describe the game modules and then the game elements,
presenting various options for their particular implementation. The decisions
are supported by psychological arguments, which are provided in chapter 3.
They are based on what I perceived in great successful games and what I have
learnt from gamification, which is thoroughly elaborated in chapter 2 and Ap-
pendix B. In the end I present an implementation of the prototype application
for Android OS.
The application consists of two basic modules. The Record module is for re-
cording of habit realizations. It is described along with how habits are man-
aged in the system in the section 4.4. The Minigame module adds the gaming
experience to the system. It is described in section 4.5. I will describe these
two separately and then depict the connection.
To read more on specific game elements and system modules continue with
section 4.6.1.
4.1 GAME NAME
I chose the name Habittude. It is a combination of words habit, habitude and
attitude. Reason is obvious: both habit and habitude have similar meaning.
Habitude, however, expresses also “customary condition or character”, which
works well with the meaning of attitude. A play with words and letters
brought me to merging these words into Habittude which expresses a positive
attitude to life braided with useful habits, one finds supportive to goals like
health, mental resilience or goals pursue.
4.2 FUNCTIONAL REQUIREMENTS – USE CASES
In this section I am describing the requirements on the system; what basic
functions it should provide to the user. This is the basic not yet gamified out-
line of the system’s functionality. It presents the main purpose. System details
will be described in further sections. For the user I will use the term player and
for the system the term game.
Player will be able to add habits he wants to develop.
o He will be able to do that by choosing from predefined template
habits, or
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o he will add new habits.
For each habit player adds certain attributes must be provided.
o Name
o Description
o Different levels of difficulty
o Icon
Player can check a habit as done at any point in time via the system,
or, more conveniently, via Android’s home screen control widget8 (see
figure 4-4 in section 4.7)
Player will be notified on well performance and suggested to increase
the difficulty of habit task, or to set habit as ingrained – habit will be
archived and its execution will be no longer recorded.
Player will also be notified on poor performance and suggested to de-
crease the level of difficulty or to drop the habit.
4.3 UML CLASS DIAGRAM
In order to provide a simple overview of the game’s functionality I provide
an analysis model of a class diagram below in the figure 4-1. A much more
complex design model with more classes and insight to the game design is pro-
vided in the attached electronic archive (see Appendix C). The models are not
8 The main purpose of a control widget is to display often used functions that the user can trigger right from the home screen without having to open the app first. - http://developer.android.com/de-sign/patterns/widgets.html
FIGURE 4-1 Analysis model – class diagram.
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to be viewed as in state before deployment, but more as a set of objects and
relations between them so to get a high level overview of the design.
4.4 RECORD MODULE RULES
To provide better understanding I will use two example habits. One is having
an ice cold shower every morning (hardening) and the second is smoking
(avoidance).
Habits:
Player is allowed to have as many habits as he can afford at the time for
redeemable points called motivation (MP) (more on point system see in
section 4.6.1) and only as much as he has habit slots available.
More than 12 habits tracked at once (ingrained habits does not count)
are not allowed, because recording this amount of habits would quickly
become a burden. The number, however, through iterative testing
might be modified.
Each time player adds a habit, it is added in a trial mode for a period of
two weeks. The trial period for a habit is provided, because sometimes
player might not realize in advance, that the habit he is trying to acquire
is not really good for him for any kind of reason. Then he can delete the
habit. However, if he decides to do so after this period, he is penalized
for it by decrease in MP.
The required frequency of habit task execution can be customized to be
done every day, certain days a week, every other day, every nth day, or
n-times in a period of m-days. Number of gained points differs, more on
that in section 4.6.1. Each time period, when habit is to be performed
will be further on called as opportunity.
Each habit can be of two types. It is either an avoidance habit or task-
oriented habit.
o Task-oriented type – player needs to perform the habit action
during the performance period. He records this in the system. It
is necessary to record it in the same time period which is set for
the habit task execution. Otherwise it is considered as not done.
o Avoidance type – player avoids certain behavior throughout the
day. If he fails he notes it. Not recording to system is by default
understood as success at avoiding.
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Habit difficulty levels:
After habit was performed successfully without a lapse (failure in habit
execution / missing one opportunity) for a given time period, of which
length increases with the increased difficulty, player is suggested to:
o Increase the difficulty level. E.g. after hardening for 1 minute in
almost the coldest water the time increases to 2 minutes (later 3,
4 and 5). Habit is more valuable then.
o Set habit as ingrained. Habit is archived and it is not necessary
to record it anymore (frees slot for another habit). It provides
player with a regular point income.
If the amount of lapses from the last level increase or from the start of
habit is equal to or more than amount of habit executions for longer
than 5 days, player is suggested to decrease the level of difficulty. If he
rejects the suggestion he is asked again to do so in 10 days, considering
his performance doesn’t get better than the mentioned condition. After
20 days the player is forced to either decrease the level or to delete it.
o This mechanic is incorporated, because when someone is trying
to form a new habit, but the task is perceived as difficult, it is easy
to lapse and eventually drop the effort and procrastinate. In a lec-
ture How to fight procrastination?9 was suggested to set the diffi-
culty to be just fine for the player to find the motivation in him,
yet to be challenging. After he repeats the task in that level of dif-
ficulty for about 20-30 times, his cognitive resources rise and he
is able to increase the difficulty of the task without feeling anxiety
and dropping the task [34].
o The overall mechanic with levels and ingraining, is to cover all
possible subjective time periods necessary to form a habit, which
can be vary greatly, see 3.1
The next level is unlocked after doing the habit at least 8 times in the
past 10 opportunities and with the last lapse being older than 4 oppor-
tunities. The suggestion to rise, if player doesn’t do it himself occurs af-
ter 10 days since the next level is available.
9 Lecture name translated by author from Czech’s original name: Jak bojovat s prokrastinací?
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If a vacation mode (see below) was used for a period in which a habit
would have 7 execution opportunities, the level is automatically
dropped. The next level is locked again but can be unlocked under
lighter condition (habit executed at least 4 times in the past 5 opportu-
nities, last lapse older than 2 opportunities). The drop is done because
after a pause, returning to the habit may seem challenging. However,
once a habit was formed and dropped for a short period, it is possible
to get into it again by rising the difficulty level faster [34].
Habit attributes, besides name and icon are
Definition – describes when exactly habit is considered as executed.
The definition is dynamic. In the case of ice shower the definition might
be for level 2: “I am taking an ice cold shower for 1 minute in the morn-
ing” and in the last level: “I am taking an ice cold shower for 5 minutes in
the morning and additional optional 2 in the evening”. All habits are writ-
ten in first person using specifics, numbers, without negatives and as if
the player was already doing the task. He is suggested to keep this form
when adding his own habits. This form has the best impact on the
player’s attitude providing him with most motivation [35].
Purpose – very useful in maintaining motivation. It determines the
commitment and helps assuring, that the habit to be developed is
player’s original idea. It protects him from choosing habits he intrinsi-
cally does not want to develop. Player needs to know clearly why he
wants to form a particular habit, since it is meant to stay with him for
life or a reasonably long time [35].
Levels – each habit should have a set of difficulty levels, which modify
the habit’s definition. To start off with ice cold shower each morning for
5 minutes, or exercising an hour a day is very hard and most people
starting off this fast have motivation at the beginning, but it fades away
after a while and they eventually stop doing it altogether. As mentioned
above referring to lecture How to fight procrastination? [34], the task
has to be perceived easy enough for the player, so he finds motivation
to execute it on every opportunity. With the ice cold shower the differ-
ence in levels might be:
o Level 1: Take a cold shower for at least 30 seconds.
o Level 2: Take an ice cold shower for at least 1 minute.
o Level 3: Take an ice cold shower for at least 2 minutes.
o Level 4: Take an ice cold shower for at least 3 minutes.
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o Level 5: Take an ice cold shower for at least 5 minutes.
The number of levels is to be customizable. It can be set from 2
to 10 levels. The difficulty is calculated as a percentage: nth
level’s value can be calculated by formula 𝐿𝑛 = 100𝑛
𝑚𝑎𝑥, where
max is the number of levels (or the maximum’s level order num-
ber).
Pros/cons – the more of them user provides, the better. For each he
gets a certain amount of XP, so he is motivated to think about the rea-
sons more. He will be provided by a set of questions, inspired by the
great book 10 Days to Self-Discipline [35]. (The emphasis is on cons,
since pros are partially covered in the habit’s purpose.)
o What must you give up to do the habit? What are the down sides
of performing the habit regularly?
Approximate time of execution – only task-oriented habits are con-
cerned by this attribute. This affects the value of the habit used in some
formulas (see 4.6.1)
Happy hour! – This is an implementation of appointment dynamics
mentioned in appendix section B.5. Player can set various time range
for performing habit. The ranges are customizable and the reward for
performing the habit in the critical time period are higher when the
time period is shorter. However, rewards are of reasonable value even
for periods of approximately 4 hours.
o The reason to use this mechanic has its roots in the nature of
habit, covered in 3.1. Habits are formed best when they are asso-
ciated to a cue. Although the time cue was found not to be as in-
effective, I use it, because via self-experimentation 3.2, I have
found, that many habits are well associated to certain time
frames. Taking a nap at six o’clock afternoon regularly lead to
feeling tired at the same time (which is good, body got used to
replenish energy at the time). Taking an ice cold shower is always
advised in the morning before breakfast. If it is possible to form
a habit that is connected to a place in time, it is best to support it
by a game mechanic.
Combo:
Each time a player has all habits performed in a day, he starts (or con-
tinues) a combo. The more days is combo maintained, the higher is its
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value. Combo should change the graphical design in a way, that user is
always in contact with the fact, that he is doing very well and that he
does not want to lose the combo.
Combo multiplies the point value won in a minigame. The multiplier
value is not big, it ranges in between 1.05 to 2.0, so that the currency is
not imbalanced. It also makes weapons reload faster. The value of the
multiplier is derived from the combo score. Combo score is calculated
as a vector, which takes into account habit difficulty, days since last
lapse, performance having bigger value than breaking the rule.
Player will not always do all the tasks and this is not required for good
habit forming. Thus, he will be presented with rulebreakers, which,
when used are sometimes followed by a quote:
“The young man knows the rules, but the old man knows the exceptions.” – O. W. Holmes
or „If you obey all the rules you miss all the fun.“ – K. Hebpurn.
The information to convey is, that player may decide not to do a habit,
when he believes it is a good decision in his situation and the applica-
tion should endorse it. The use of rulebreaker is simple. If the habit was
not performed, or not avoided, player can choose not to done or fail it,
but to break the rule. Combo will stay unbroken thanks to this.
o However, to use rulebreakers multiple times in a row for a habit
is very costly. Each new day the number of rulebreakers one
needs to break the rule is doubled.
Vacation mode:
If user gets ill, needs to go on a vacation, or focus on a difficult project,
he may need to stop using the app for a few days, or just not do some
habits. Ice cold shower is not a good idea, when player is sick. Vacation
mode pauses the current combo. It doesn’t count any lapses. All logic
using lapses is suspended. E.g. suggesting to decrease habit’s level diffi-
culty.
User may decide to go partially in the vacation mode. E.g. only disabling
some habits. When ill, it could be all habits concerned with health and
fitness.
Vacation mode slowly consumes MP after first two days.
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4.5 MINIGAME MODULE
To make the gamified experience prevail in its gaming part and distract from
the fact that, originally it was only a recording system, I added a game module.
It is completely voluntary and avoidable, if the player is more of a user and
wants to use the application without the game elements distracting him. To
the player, however, it adds values:
It is a valuable source of MP and XP
It is the actual fun and game part of the application, supporting flow (see
section 2.3.4)
Curve of interest is maintained through variety of the minigame
A place to spent MP – on minigame’s weapons, upgrades, items, chal-
lenges and abilities.
Sometimes, to advance to the next level, one must win a specific amount
of points in a game field, which is specific and prepared in advance as a
challenge. This can be a difficult challenge requiring player to be espe-
cially impeccable with his habits, in order to win.
Same as above, but as a prerequisite for a new land.
Bonus challenges
The minigame is tightly interconnected to the performance of the player in his
habits – in his interactions with the record module (see section 4.4). The game-
play changes by these factors:
Number of habits – defines the number of tiles in the minigame field.
If a habit was not performed, the tile acts as a block. If a rulebreaker is
used, player avoids having a block instead of tile, but the tile has no
value attached to it.
Current maintained combo multiplies the resulting value.
All of these act as a motivation for the player to do his habit tasks during the
day, because he knows it will positively affect his experience in the minigame.
This applies assuming the player enjoys the gaming experience and enters
flow state.
Details on the minigame rules and structure are provided in the following sub-
sections.
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4.5.1 RULES At the end of the day, when player has all his habits set as performed or un-
performed, avoided or not avoided, he receives his MP. The amount gathered
is used as a base for stakes. The minigame unlocks after this and is available
for play.
Each day player gets 3 play sessions. Player can stake a portion of the gath-
ered motivation on each of the play sessions. He may use all (or none) of it in
one session and omit playing the two other sessions, if he wants to earn, but
doesn’t have time or mood to play more sessions.
A sample session may look like figure 4-3 in section 4.7, take a look at it, as I
will refer to it, when describing the gameplay.
Each session lasts one minute. The time is shown as a progress bar, which
starts flashing 10 seconds before the end increasing in speed towards the end.
This is a good example of using two game elements. Time and feedback (see
appendix section B.4 and B.5).
At the beginning, the icons of habits are randomly distributed in the structure,
which depends on the number of habits that player is forming or which he has
already ingrained. Then the icons are flipped and show their random values.
Unperformed habits either do not have values and act as blocks (on figure 4-3
shown as red squares) or they have a value, which is then reduced from the
overall score.
The point of the minigame is to gather as many points as possible in the given
time limit. The values of tiles are modified by using weaponry. Each weapon
can be used unlimited amount of times, but only when it is loaded. Loading
time of each weapon depends on their upgrade level, on their relative power
and abilities and items that player or the game might have used.
Tile values range from 1 to 10 and are modified further on by weapons in or-
der to increase their value. At the end of time limit, the values are summed up
and is base for further multiplications by abilities, combo’s and stakes. The
resulting value is added as XP and a reasonable fraction of it as MP. The frac-
tion is randomized, so that the player cannot say the exact amount in advance,
however, the fluctuation should be minor.
Game provides complexity, which creates space for mastery in effectiveness
of weapon use, investment in weaponry. The time aspect and weapon loading
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builds momentum and the necessity to think fast and find the best placement
for weapon hits and optional tiles swapping and moving.
4.5.2 WEAPONS The look and behavior of the weapon depends on the current level of the
weapon, which is designed to be upgraded about the same time as new lands
unlock. E.g. in old Egyptian-like environment the “machine gun” weapon is
shown as stones thrown and breaking glass tiles. In sci-fi environment the
same weapon has a form of a laser.
Machine gun – this modifies values in a row of tiles. When it hits a block,
it does not break through. New values are randomized, if not otherwise
due to item use or ability.
Mirror – player selects a value of tile which wants to replace with a re-
ciprocal value.
Golden mirror – does the same as mirror, but sets reciprocal value to
all the tiles with the same value and does the same to the reciprocated
values. E.g. user selects value 2. All the tiles with number 2 in the game
field gets inverted to 8 and all the 8s are inverted to 2s.
Bomb – reduces the bombed tile to a minimum, but all adjacent tiles get
a new random value bigger than the previous value.
Drop – drops a tile from the field, losing its value, earning one weapon
use of player’s choice.
Convertor – turns a tile with no value (rulebreaker used) to a tile with
a new random value.
Redeemer – turns a block into a tile.
Transformation – changes tile’s value to a player’s choice. Costs addi-
tional MPs – the amount is the value player chooses times 10.
Motivator – selected tile increases its value every 10 seconds and is
protected from collateral modification (bomb, machine gun)
More weapons get added and designed in new lands.
4.5.3 MAPS In the figure 4-2 there are several options for the tile arrangement in the
minigame, for different number of habits. In the 11 and 12 tiles example there
is an addition to the mechanics – player can rotate blocks of tiles, to better
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align values for more effective modifications. Colors are illustrative and corre-
spond to colors from figure 4-3 in section 4.7.
4.6 GAME ELEMENTS
Used game elements are listed and described in following subsections.
4.6.1 POINT SYSTEM In the game design process, it is very hard to use specific number values for
point systems. The more complex the system and its economy is, the harder it
is to balance the right numeric values for activities. It would be impossible to
promote specific values and get them right on the first attempt in this stage of
game design. The values are refined in the later stages of implementation and
testing. I omit using final values and only assign tentative values for actions,
but they only serve purpose of defining, which activity has what value in the
system, when compared to others [2].
Experience points (XP) - these are never subtracted and are gained for de-
sired activities in the system (see 2.2.3).
Sources of XP income: Many actions desirable from the view of habit for-
mation and motivation support are rewarded. Player is however, not sug-
gested to do them explicitly by the game. Explorer player type (see section
2.3.1) will find joy in searching for actions, which will provide him with addi-
tional XP or explorer achievements. By seeing how much he earns for specific
actions will he realize the real value and impact the actions he did on his habit
formation.
FIGURE 4-2 Different types of maps for the minigame.
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TABLE 4-1 XP Income.
End of day
summary and
record
50 – This action should be done by the user as frequently as possible. It is
similar to the Monopoly's income, when player steps on the Start cell.
Record a
habit as per-
formed
Random value ranging [10..50] multiplied by the difficulty level and incre-
mented by the succession of opportunities since last lapse (similar to Habit
Streak in appendix section A.1). 10 The value is additionally multiplied by
current combo.
Bring a new
player
20 – Desirable action from the designer's view.
Minigame It has its own complex point system, the play itself is not rewarded by any
points, since the result of the game is in itself a source of XP and MP income.
Adding
pros/cons to
habit
10 – The value decreases continuously with every new pro, con. This is to
reduce easy income via cheating. The reduction is partially reset after a
period - if player comes with a new pro/con, he is rewarded again.
Habit level
upgrade
Calculated from the time spent doing the habit activity and upgraded level.
Achieve-
ments
Depends on achievement difficulty
Purpose in the game:
required to uncover new lands,
unlocking habit slots,
leveling up the player, according to the collected amount – the progress
in the game is maintained.
10 Player doesn't have to be introduced to the specific formula. He will intuitively figure out how the score changes according to his performance. This satisfies explorer player type needs additionally.
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Motivation (RP) – player earns motivation (further on referred to as MP) for:
TABLE 4-2 Motivation income.
End of day sum-
mary and record
15 – see table 4-1.
Record a habit as
performed
Similarly as with XP, the value depends on various criteria and is calcu-
lated by the same formula, however, the random factor is omitted and
the values are balanced to the motivation currency.
Bring a new
player
20 – see table 4-1.
Minigame As described in table 4-1.
Completing chal-
lenges
Set for each challenge separately. Their value can be modified well to
reflect requirements that emerge from current progress in the game.
An average challenge in the onboarding phase may earn from 30-80
MP.
Surprise
achievements
Vary. May range from 25-100 MP.
Ingrained habits Is determined only by the time required to execute the task. It is con-
stant. The frequency is the same as the frequency of opportunities. E.g.
ingrained ice cold shower could earn 5 MP each day.
MP can be redeemed for:
TABLE 4-3 Redeemable content.
Upgrade
habit's level
The activity is infrequent and may cause complications in the
execution of the task, since the difficulty rises. The higher the
difficulty level, the bigger the cost for upgrade. An upgrade to
an ingrained habit might cost 50 MP. The value is decreased
by the time the level is available. (suggesting by this, that
player needs less motivation to make the habit harder)
My project design
32
Start form-
ing a new
habit
Value differs with the opportunity frequency (e.g. daily,
weekly, every other day), time to carry out the habit and if it
is task-oriented or avoidance (with the latter being less ex-
pensive, since doing something on average requires more ef-
fort than avoid doing something). An average value of a new
habit might be 100 MP.
Upgrade a
weapon in
minigame
The more the upgrade affects the minigame, the higher the
value.
New weapon Depends on the relative power, the weapon gives over the
minigame
Unlockable
content
Redeemable content. This form of use is for dedicated players,
which are curious to get more of the game. It balances the mo-
tivation currency.
Wisdom quotes related to the habit formation topic.
100 MP
Challenges. 200 MP
Achievement requirements, which are not presented in
a form of a challenge, but are secret. Since these are to
be found on surprise or due to explorer's efforts, they
are expensive. 1000 MP
Other ac-
tions
Using a rulebreaker to maintain a combo. – Each new
use for a particular habit is more costly. If the rule-
breakers are used in a succession the cost grows rap-
idly.
Deleting a habit.
My project design
33
4.6.2 LANDS11 In the successful game Cut the Rope!, by Zeptolab, different levels with new
game mechanics, environment and backdrop are provided in “boxes”. There is
a limited number of boxes and more are implemented long after the game has
been played by thousands of players on mobile devices. On application update,
if new boxes are developed, they appear in the list of boxes and the game can
be played again with new levels – boxes.
Similarly, I use lands on a fictional map, which can only be entered after the
prerequisites are met. This provides a sense of progression to the game –
player visits different lands with different graphical interface and new added
game mechanics. Each land has its prerequisites. These are various, but the
frequent are:
Certain player ranking
Number of ingrained habits
Number of active habits
Story-specific items
Combo challenge – to get a combo high score (see section 4.4)
Minigame challenge – to get a minigame high score
Achievements – e.g. “This is SPARTAAA!!!” (see section 4.6.4) may be
required to enter “The Land of Spartans”.
The use of this element provide certain advantages:
Supports maintaining the curve of interest by providing new content
over time.
Adds progression to the game.
More room for challenges and achievements.
Helps onboarding and scaffolding.
11 This is a game element which is semantically mapping to levels as they are described in appendix
section B.3.
My project design
34
4.6.3 CHALLENGES Additional variability and a sense of new content is maintained via daily and
weekly challenges. A great example of use of such challenges is in the success-
ful game for Android and iOS, the Temple Run 2. In it player is provided with a
challenge for the particular day and the current week. If a player fulfills the
challenge like Run 10.000 meters, or Collect 10 power-ups, he gets a reward,
which is either coins (redeemable points) or diamonds (similar to lives). Also,
he is provided the next day with a second challenge with a greater reward. If
he does this for five days in a row, on the fifth challenge there is a secret re-
ward. Player is motivated to play the game every day to get the special reward.
By providing the player with challenges, with rewards attached, which occur
continuously, player’s interest is maintained. Special weaponry, rare items or
upgrades may be optional rewards, for harder challenges.
Example challenges I designed for the game are:
System takes three random habits of its choice and asks player to
maintain all of the habits for all opportunities in a period of a week. One
of the selected habits will be the one with which player struggles. Occa-
sionally an ingrained habit may occur again. In that case, it is recordable
again, until the challenge is completed, or failed.
Move fast! – challenges player to achieve new ranking (earn enough
experience) in a relatively short time period.
Be Spartan! – along with rewards an achievement is won. See section
4.6.4 for details.
Terminator – use minigun as the only weapon in minigame to double
the summary value of the tiles.
Follow the Leader – “Bring 3 people to use Habittude”. This achieve-
ment has several purposes. It brings more users to use the app, gives
user a sense of leadership and responsibility and finally, it appeals to
socializer player type. In order to do group challenges, one needs to
know some other players.
Prohodiernation12 – “App is used every day for a period of two weeks”.
12 The word is a modification of the word procrastination, which is from latin pro- crās – of tomorrow. By replacing crās with hodiernus – today’s/present/actual we get a word expressing, that what is to be done today is done today.
My project design
35
The variety of challenges can be great, since the game provides strong com-
plexity via the combination of record module and minigame module.
In the beginning, challenges can be used for easy tasks with removed oppor-
tunities for failure, mediating the process of onboarding as discussed in sec-
tion 2.3.2. The game fluently flows from onboarding to more difficult chal-
lenges, which will not be of unavoidable character.
4.6.4 ACHIEVEMENTS By using game achievements I want to provide gamer with challenges, which
will present him with goals, thus adding a feeling of progression. Many of them
are already covered in the previous section. In this section I focus on achieve-
ments, which are not limited by time and can be done anytime during the game
play, some of which player does not know of in advance.
These are the first designed achievements, which are immediately usable in
the game. They are listed by their name, followed by conditions, which are to
be met, in order to get the achievement. Notes are added in order to reason
why such achievement is advisable in game design.
Achievements, which player doesn’t expect and therefore cannot pursue con-
sciously appeal to explorer player type needs and also provide new and fresh
content to the game:
…and he rested on the 7th day – “After a day, in which all habits were
done, another came in which done was none.”
So close! – “Awarded, after being less than 3% to the next ranking and
failing” – the effort of the player is appreciated and rewarded, which
alleviates potential resentment and lessens the probability of the
“player mortality”.
Sh!t happens – “Overall gain in the minigame is of minus value”.
Hard to please – “All minigame slot values (at least 9) increased by
player modification with no decrease during the minigame session”.
The Perfect Day – “All tasks done in the day. No rulebreakers are al-
lowed.”
This is SPARTAAA!!! – “3 consecutive Perfect Days”. The name of the
achievement is a meme quote from the movie 300.
The achievements which are unknown to the user until they are achieved can
be shown in the game context as silhouettes with a question mark on them. In
My project design
36
the game shop he can, however, buy access for redeemable points to instruc-
tions on how to get them. This provides another reasonable use of points
which helps balance economy [36].
My project design
37
4.7 GUI
Graphical user interface of the application should be interlocked with the
story. Since I only provide examples of possible underlying story of the app,
the particular look of the application is not the focus of the thesis. In this seg-
ment I provide drafts of how the basic structure of the interface could look.
In the figure 4-3 on left is an outline of the basic minigame interface.
The biggest part of the screen is covered with tiles and their values.
o The red block represents the lapsed habit. The value in it reduces
player’s overall score from the minigame session.
o The orange tile is a lapsed habit on which a rulebreaker was used.
o The arrows around tiles show, where the minigun (in the screen
called a gun) can change values across the field.
The green is the most optimal, since the probability of get-
ting better score is highest with the values, which are in
the pointed row.
FIGURE 4-3 Minigame screen, habit detail screen.
My project design
38
The red arrow shows the worst possible decision.
Timer is provided on the right.
Weapon reloading is shown by the bars that are continually filled (yel-
low), until they are full (green).
Red (drop!) shows feedback about the weapon that is currently selected
and ready to be used.
On the bottom there is immediate feedback of the last three value
changes, which happened due to his actions, with the last on the left.
Screen on figure 4-3 shows the detail of a habit. On the top there is an Android
action bar (which probably would not be chosen in the actual game graphical
design) and buttons for selecting different sections of a habit. If there is a new
possibility of upgrading the difficulty level of a habit, the second button (level
selection) would be glowing, to inform the player about the change.
In the last figure 4-4 is an example home screen widget, for quick access to
habit checking. Clicking on icon shows the depicted bubble. Clicking on a task-
oriented habit as done removes the habit from the widget, because it will not
be used until the next opportunity period. Clicking on an avoidance habit as
failed does the same.
FIGURE 4-4 Home screen control widget.
My project design
39
4.8 PROTOTYPE IMPLEMENTATION
This paper is not focused on Android framework, development of Android ap-
plications, nor description of its environment. The implementation of the pro-
totype was, however, done for the Android operating system.
In the prototype I focused on implementing the most basic functionality:
User can add, edit and delete habits with attributes: name, description,
difficulty.
User can set habits as done via a list. He gains a random amount of
points multiplied by the difficulty value. (more in attached code)
User gathers points; he can see his progress in a progress bar. He re-
ceives congratulations on getting the required amount of points.
o He either achieves new rank and is suggested to add a new habit,
o he reaches a threshold for a reward and is suggested to reward
himself.
Statistics showing how many times habits were performed and what
ranking was achieved by the user are available.
The thresholds for new habits and rewards are identical to the Habit Judo sys-
tem that I’ve been using. I decided to implement it this way, because this pro-
totype substitutes well for the spreadsheet (see section 3.2), I’ve used up till
the time of writing this paper, which frees me from using desktop to continue
with the game.
Android framework supports well the model–view–controller (MVC) design
pattern by separating UI with Views from the controllers, which are called by
them [37]. As a model I used SQLite database table named habit.
TABLE 4-4 Habit table – column types.
Column name name description difficulty performed
Data type TEXT TEXT INT INT13
Data about progress and points gathered are saved in Android’s SharedPrefe-
rences14.
13 SQLite does not support Boolean values, so the value is stored as 0 or 1. 14 More about the pattern on http://developer.android.com/reference/android/content/SharedPref-erences.html
My project design
40
To show the user data I use two Activities15. The main screen is a ListActvity,
containing the progress bar and a list of activities.
15 Learn more about activities on the official Android tutorial: http://developer.an-droid.com/guide/components/activities.html
FIGURE 4-5 UML Implementation Class Diagram.
My project design
41
The complete UML implementation class diagram, the application’s installa-
tion package (file extension is .apk) and the sources are attached in the at-
tached electronic archive (Appendix C).
Screenshots of the prototype are below.
In figure 4-6 on left is HabitListActivity with HabitListFragment inflated. Rows,
which were clicked are highlighted as green, to give feedback to the user. On
the bottom of the screen a short toast appeared, which disappears after a
while, telling the player, how much he earned for the performing of the habit.
Progress bar values follow and the notification, also called a toast ends with
overall score. Above the list is a yellow progress bar, which is filled with task
completion.
In figure 4-6 on right is a screen which appears after clicking on the “+” button
in the first screen. User is to provide a name, description and difficulty for a
habit. After that, via the action bar, he navigates back to the first screen. How-
ever, if he leaves the application, it preserves the data in the database, the way
user left them.
FIGURE 4-6 Prototype screenshots.
Conclusion
42
5. CONCLUSION In this paper I introduced the gamification concept and how it can be used in
the context of habit formation.
I created a design of an application for smart devices, which gamifies the pro-
cess of forming habits. In the process of designing the game I researched latest
publications about gamification and I took into consideration important find-
ings about habit as a psychological phenomenon. I integrated these findings to
create a game, which goads the player to do the actions which are in alignment
with best practices for forming and maintaining several habits at once.
To guide the design process, I used various tools presented in the referenced
resources. The most prominent were the MDA framework for gamification el-
ements and the book Gamification by Design.
I compared existing solutions for the problem and pointed out their use or lack
of advanced gamification. By integrating the gathered knowledge with per-
sonal experience with a similar system I created a game design, which consists
of two major modules – a complex recording system for habit task execution
and a supporting minigame module, of which purpose is to provide more
game-like experience and motivate the player to perform the habit tasks on
regular basis. To have a working prototype I implemented an Android appli-
cation, which covers the basic functionality for managing habits and recording
their execution, with a simple point and ranking system.
I encountered several interesting situations while elaborating the game de-
sign:
Designing a concrete point system requires testing and experimenting
with different values for actions, balancing, prototyping and cannot be
done right at the first attempt.
Making the system more social needs to deal with the motivation to
cheat and advance further in the game faster, than was originally in-
tended by design. This could lead to overall loss of the habit formation
effect it is supposed to bring to the player.
The product of this work is a design – which is not the final stage. The project
prospect is to have a background story and a consistent original user interface
designed. The continuation of the process would have several steps, which in-
clude:
Conclusion
43
Implementation of the design,
Testing various point systems and balancing,
Designing graphics, user interface and overall style,
Optimization of the onboarding process,
Careful designing of game’s social aspect, combining it with use of ava-
tar as a game element.
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LIST OF FIGURES
figure 2-1 Games as state machines. .................................................................................... 5
figure 2-2 Reinforcement schedules [2]. ............................................................................ 8
figure 2-3 Illustration of flow by Csíkszentmihályi [21].......................................... 12
figure 4-1 Analysis model – class diagram..................................................................... 20
figure 4-2 Different types of maps for the minigame. ............................................... 29
figure 4-3 Minigame screen, habit detail screen. ........................................................ 37
figure 4-4 Home screen control widget. .......................................................................... 38
figure 4-5 UML Implementation Class Diagram. ......................................................... 40
figure 4-6 Prototype screenshots. ...................................................................................... 41
LIST OF TABLES
table 4-1 XP Income. ................................................................................................................ 30
table 4-2 Motivation income. ............................................................................................... 31
table 4-3 Redeemable content. ............................................................................................ 31
table 4-4 Habit table – column types. ............................................................................... 39
table 6-1 Case studies summary. ........................................................................................ 55
Appendix A
49
APPENDIX A
CASE STUDIES Following are examples of existing applications, which are focused on habit
formation and some featuring gamification of performing various tasks. Most
of them are mobile applications; two are web-based, with one being a social
network. I will analyze them considering several aspects:
User interface (aesthetics)
Game-like functionality from the view of:
o Entertainment
o Motivation
Internal
External
Level of complexity
o Useful
o Distraction
Accessibility
Ease of use
In conclusion I will also consider what Bartle’s player types are appealed by
the system.
A.1 HABIT STREAK
The only gamification of the process of habit development in this application
can be found in practicing the habit task in a succession without breaking the
chain of days, where the task was done. The only good thing about this is in
the motivation for maintaining a long chain, called “streak”. However, in cer-
tain (most) scenarios, this may lead to the opposite of the desired reactions in
user behavior.
Consider this situation: User breaks chain after keeping up a relatively
long streak (e.g. 45 days). Starting a new chain is not reinforced in any way
and maintaining a long streak does not help the user start a new one. The
longer the chain, the more of a challenge and time required for conquering it
– this may actually feel discouraging to the user.
Appendix A
50
User interface is minimalistic, no game-like entertainment is imple-
mented. Application is not very complex, which makes it more intuitive.
Application lacks of advanced gamification, thus serving as more
of a record system for the user. Chain serves as a motivation not to lapse, but
with harder habits it may not be enough to cross the motivation gap.
A.2 ROUTINELY
The main screen of this application shows activities, sorted by when was the
last time the activity was done. This is also represented by different back-
ground color of the activity, which serves as a more direct feedback to the
user. Seeing red activities, which user have not done for a number of days may
push him to do the activities, in order to make the screen green again.
User may choose, on which days the activity should be done, thus providing
him with more complex variety of habits. Application provides a number of
widgets, showing how many activities need to be done by the end of the day.
User can set notifications for habits. However, it would be helpful, if user could
check the activity as finished immediately, “snooze” it (postponing it for a set
amount of time) or check as failed (for avoidance behavior habits) rather than
just closing the notification.
User interface is intuitive, simplistic, however, no gamification is applied, and
thus it resembles many other alike applications without differentiating itself
from others.
A.3 HABITRPG
HabitRPG (http://habitrpg.com) is a habit tracking application, which is im-
plementing basic gamification. Immediately after clicking Play on the website,
user is brought to the main screen of the web app. In it, there are sample hab-
its, rewards, tasks and the application walks him through the basics of the
game in a short tour.
The user interface is simple, easy to follow and it resembles the apple interface
guidelines. The graphics are, however, narrowed to a scarcely customizable
Appendix A
51
pixel art16 avatar. Nevertheless, this appearance is maintained through other
parts of the system as well (coins, pets, and achievements).
The game allows users to add new habits with different difficulty set, daily
tasks (user can choose to which days the task applies). Non-tangible rewards
can be bought for virtual currency, which is earned by completing tasks and
habits. Player gains XP, which eventually lead his character to level up. Health
bar is lowered by not completing tasks, or not avoiding bad habits. After health
bar reaches zero, player starts over from level 1.
Few of the advanced game mechanics are having a party of max 4 friends, with
which you share your statistics. When tags will be implemented in the future,
the project coordinator states to have boss tags, which are tasks that are hard
for the player to do. Doing such tasks give more XP.
Game uses the element of surprise by “dropping” pet eggs and hatching points.
This appeals to explorer player type, pets can be collected.
The big advancement in this project is the connectivity with other social and
productivity services. They promise to develop a mobile application for the
iOS (Apple’s operating system for smartphone iPhones) and Android.
Thanks to funding from kickstarter17, the HabitRPG project has a very good
potential in becoming the major application of its kind.
The system, nonetheless, lacks of various important game mechanics and it
doesn’t consider the psychological aspects of habits well enough to support
users in stages of lowered motivation more, than by not giving him XP. Actu-
ally, lowering his HP may, in fact, demotivate player, especially going from the
start after his character dies. There is no support for lapses in habits and
evolving of habits.
Since the project is rapidly growing and gets regularly updated with new fea-
tures, this review will have been outdated not long after the paper will be
handed in.
16 „Pixel art is a form of digital art, created through the use of raster graphics software, where images are edited on the pixel level. “ – wikipedia.com. The graphics used in this project are used from brows-erquest.mozilla.org 17 see http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/lefnire/habitrpg-mobile
Appendix A
52
A.4 HAB IT!
This application has a short and effective onboarding process provided in a
series of tips that explain the basics of the app’s functionality. Application’s
menu is intuitive – a button bar placed on top of the screen, which is always
accessible. Application main screen shows progress using a calendar-like col-
ored bar of the current week/month, which serves as feedback. Green repre-
sents the correct behavior, thus with bad habits you get a green, when you
select a “no” option, which can be misleading for beginners. However, already
marked days can be corrected retrospectively. Habits are predefined and sep-
arated as good or bad habits and users can add their own habits.
Application works well as software for recording one’s actions and helps users
to start quickly by presenting him with already predefined habits. However,
the application is lacking of any form of gamification except for graphics,
which alone do not push users through their motivation gaps.
A.5 HEALTH MONTH
This web-based application was alone reviewed by Gabe Zichermann in his
publication Gamification by Design [2]. The main points of how gamification
was applied are concluded below:
“The interlocking series of point systems yield a complex dynamic,
where players are subtly nudged and prodded to engage more deeply
with the site”
„By revealing each new system slowly, Health Month helps new players
get the most out of the game without overwhelming them”
System uses several points systems:
o Points (basic XP) – these are gained for several actions and be-
havior. Namely for obeying to the rules one assigns to his month.
Checking in the game and marking the goals as achieved in a
timely manner provides additional points.
o Life points – lost after breaking a rule.
o Fruit – can be given to other players as life points (social aspect)
o Spirit dollars (revealed later, at the end of the first month – these
are redeemable points)
Appendix A
53
A.6 GAMIFYME
This app has very nice graphics, but it uses old-fashioned trumpet sounds,
which eventually can be considered as a drawback in user experience. There
is a small “GO!” avatar which explains the functionality along the way, how-
ever, at the beginning a user can be overwhelmed by information and stop
reading his suggestions altogether. Many types of activities with predefined
diverse ending states can be selected, e.g., a “food” type activity can have 4
steps a day and each step can be resulted as e.g. “low calorie”, “high calorie”,
“snack” and each has assigned with a different color and different amount of
points. The main screen of any type of activity is a pyramid consisting of one
hundred rectangular slots, which are filled with color of the result type.
However, there is no challenge in scoring. User gets a specific amount of points
for doing the tasks to the best of his abilities, but these are not piling up or at
least recorded for retrospective analysis, statistics or graphs. Not even reset-
ting the activity doesn’t leave player with stored high score, which he could
try to beat and thus modify his behavior accordingly. The score he is left with
cannot be used to compare with other players, since there is no social aspect
implemented (other than sharing the score on your Facebook or twitter wall).
It cannot be used to compare with his previous performance, if he doesn’t
write the score down on a paper for that purpose. Thus the motivation to excel
in any activity within the game is not provided.
A.7 HABIT JUDO
I decide to include this system in case studies, because I’ve been using it myself
for extended period of time and I wanted to include my findings from this ex-
perience (see section 3.2).
Habit Judo is a recording system originally realized only as a Microsoft Excel
spreadsheet, which is currently not available online. I received a reconstruc-
tion of this spreadsheet from a friend, which I used on my own. Later a poor
Appendix A
54
implementation for Android devices could be found on Google Play store18
sold for 0.99 € with low average ratings.
Habit Judo incorporates simple point system, ranking borrowed from the Judo
rank system19 enhanced with rewards.
All of the rewards are to be assigned to various point thresholds by the player,
as well as the habits, nothing is prepared for the user in advance except for the
spreadsheet structure.
Player starts with three habits and a white belt as his starting rank. For each
task he performs that day he gains a random amount of points ranging from 1
to 10. Thus, maximum of points gained for that for the day can be 30 and min-
imum 0 for no completed task and 3 for all completed. After reaching various
point thresholds, the player wins rewards or advances in his ranking simulta-
neously adding a new habit. This extends the possible point earnings. How-
ever, required amount of points for the next ranking enlarges too.
No other game elements are presented in this system, thus it is more a record-
ing system than a game. The only motivation to move forward are rewards
and, for achievers, to get the black/red belt. For further details about this sys-
tem see section 3.2 and the discussion, where the original spreadsheet was to
be found: http://projects.metafilter.com/3055/Habit-Judo
A.8 CONCLUSION
Most of the analyzed applications provided more or less convenient way of
recording activities, that users do on daily basis. Nevertheless, they used poor
or none gamification techniques to provide user with experience, which could
help him in times, when he needs more motivation to go through with tasks,
he perceives as being out of his comfort zone. Gamification in Health Month
provided a good example of game economics throughout complex point sys-
tem. However, it didn’t provide user with interesting story, nor with engaging
gameplay. User only had to check, whether he obeyed to his rules, or not and
try not to fail, thus avoiding losing life points, similar to HabitRPG.
18 See https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.habitjudo.v1 or look for „habit judo“ in Google Play store 19 Details about rank in judo are well described in a Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rank_in_Judo
Appendix A
55
Story and gameplay was not implemented in any of analyzed systems. Search-
ing for a fully gamified application for forming and maintaining habits re-
turned no fully satisfying results.
Habit Streak Routinely HabitRPG Hab It!
Player types Achiever Achiever Achiever,
Explorer,
Socializer
Achiever
Point
systems
Count of days in a habit
chain.
Summary of days
when task was
performed.
XP for tasks,
virtual currency
(coins), health
Summary of days
when task was
performed.
Graphics Very simple black and
green interface.
Colored feedback,
otherwise no
refinement
Clean, Apple-like
interface, colors
serve feedback,
pixel-art
Neat, clean and
intuitive
interface, colored
feedback
Game
mechanics
User is motivated to
maintain a chain of
successful ongoing daily
practice.
- Avatar, leveling,
pet collecting,
health and death
-
Health Month GamifyMe Habit Judo
Player types Achiever, Socializer,
Explorer
Achiever Achiever
Point
systems
Points, spirit dollars, life
points, fruit
Varied amounts of
points assigned to
results of tasks
estimated by
difficulty.
Simple XP system,
points are given
at random for
each habit
Graphics Very bad font choosing
and non-decorative
ambience. Redesigning
required. System still in
beta state.
Very consistent and
meaningful design.
-
Game
mechanics
The best mechanics
analyzed, more details in
Zichermann’s referenced
book.
Colored pyramid as a
progress bar for
completing tasks
with differing results.
Points, rewards
TABLE 6-1 Case studies summary.
Appendix B
56
APPENDIX B
GAME ELEMENTS (ADDENDUM) Game elements described in this chapter are following: Goals, avatar, levels,
feedback, time, storytelling and graphics. For more see section 2.2.
B.1 GOALS
The obvious definition is that goal is to achieve the game winning state. How-
ever, looking more deeply, game can have multiple goals.
According to Werbach’s gamification design framework, the first step in gami-
fication design is to define business objectives. He offers questions:
“Why are you gamifying? How do you hope to benefit your business, or achieve some other goal
such as motivating people to change their behavior?
…
Basically, if your gamified system does what you intend, what specific positive results will it
generate for your organization?”
The goal of gamification should be clearly stated before designing it for an ex-
isting system. However, in my case, I am not going to address the last question
since I am not presenting gamification to an existing system, but designing a
game, which is gamifying a process of habit formation.
From the perspective of the player the question is different. “Why am I play-
ing?” Answers to this question are in the motivation section 2.3.5.
B.2 AVATAR
A player manipulating a character within the game environment, which can
resemble the player after customization is called an avatar [4]. These can be
in a form of 2D or 3D characters, simple images or even just pictures of player’s
face.
Using avatars has proven to influence player’s behavior outside the game con-
text. Player, who watches his avatar performing an activity, influences him to
perform such activity in the future [7] [8]. It has also impact on player’s deci-
sion making.
Appendix B
57
Implementing avatars into system is a good idea, when it makes sense to try
to influence player’s behavior and making him more personally engaged in the
game.
B.3 LEVELS
We distinguish among different level types [4].
Mission or chapter-based level structures provide a framework for
designing the playing environment through which player progress. This
is often used in games with less freedom of movement, which is typical
for games with prevailing storyline (e.g. Max Payne series or point-and-
click adventure games like Runaway). It is the easiest way to maintain
the curve of interest (see section 2.3.3), it is also the most demanding
game element on the game-makers.
Difficulty levels are to be chosen by players at the game beginning (e.g.
the video game Prince of Persia: Warrior Within) or throughout the
gameplay (e.g. Age of Mythology).
Experience level determines the player’s skill. Usually, player “levels-
up” by earning a required amount of experience points (see HabitRPG
in section A.3).
B.4 FEEDBACK
Via feedback the player knows how well he is performing. In video games this
includes e.g. health bars, number of collected coins, red flashes across screen
when being hit [4].
Information provided by feedback are about doing something wrong or right
and the form the feedback takes informs the player about the degree of the
action’s value.
Effective and engaging game feedback has certain characteristics [38]:
Tactile – evokes feelings, e.g. being hurt in a game should give immedi-
ate feedback and be natural as feeling pain in real life situation, so that
the player amends his behavior instantly.
Inviting – players desire to achieve it.
Repeatable – player can get the same feedback for doing the same ac-
tions again.
Coherent – feels natural within environment.
Appendix B
58
Emergent – doesn’t distract the player.
Balanced – not overwhelming the player.
Fresh – surprise and change in the feedback is more interesting to play-
ers than those with which they are familiar and are bored by.
B.5 TIME
Time is a powerful tool in game design. It has two main purposes in games.
Limit the gameplay session’s time or
Measure player’s performance.
Both have a specific impact on player – it draws his focus on the task that
needs to be done in time. Benefits for the player arising from abiding to the
time constraints can be various.
Player can be provided with higher score for finishing faster.
Finish on time may be a requirement for passing a certain game seg-
ment.
The score might be determined by how long the player plays before the
game is over.
Time pushes player to action and it is one of the key elements that helps player
to achieve flow state (see section 2.3.4).
Time is also concerned in appointment dynamics:
“A dynamic in which to succeed, one must return at a predefined time to take a predetermined
action.” [39]
Most common uses of this are “happy hours”. In Zynga’s game Farmville is this
dynamic used in a way, that if player doesn’t come to water the land, the crop
will wither. Appointment dynamics motivate players to think about the game
throughout the day and return to it at given times to, e.g. receive a scarce re-
ward [40].
B.6 STORYTELLING AND GRAPHICS
Not all games need storytelling, nor graphics. A simple game of tetris has no
story behind it, nor the pairs (pelmanism), nor the Rubic’s cube.
However, most board games do have a narrative behind it. Take Monopoly or
any Ravensburger’s board game for example. There are, however, positive as-
pects of their use which need to be considered.
Appendix B
59
It adds another layer of material to which player pays attention.
Player’s curiosity goads him into finishing the game in order to reveal
the story’s resolution.
It allows player to be immersed in the environment and to add his own
interpretation and fantasy of the game story and characters.
Even games like Hive or Chess have underlying stories behind it. Both games
are stories of a war, where in chess it is a conflict between two kingdoms and
in Hive it is a fight for the queen bee.
Graphics enhance and collaborate on creating the story environment.
Nevertheless, having an interesting underlying story is not sufficient for the
game to be fun. More on this topic in the next section.
Appendix C
60
APPENDIX C
CONTENTS OF THE ATTACHED ELECTRONIC
ARCHIVE Habittude.zip – an archive with Eclipse project for the implemented prototype
in it (see section 4.8). The Android installation APK file is located in the bin
subfolder.
UML Diagrams – all UML diagrams from this work are in located in this folder.
The UML Design class diagram created in Visual Paradigm mentioned in sec-
tion 4.3 is included.
Habit Judo.xlsx – excerpt of the spreadsheet I used in self-experimentation
with a gamified system for forming habits (see section 3.2).
Thesis.pdf – electronic version of this paper.
