Keep your New Year’s resolution with these 4 gamified apps
It is not always easy to keep up with a New Year’s resolution. Self-discipline is difficult to maintain after the excitement of the holidays wears off and the chaos of everyday life returns.
Most resolutions fail when the New Year energy fizzles out, but self-improvement doesn’t need to be a boring slog. Whether it is getting in shape or learning a new language, gamification can turn just about anything into a fun activity.
Gamification is a fancy word that basically means “turning something into a game,” and involves using video game-like mechanics such as levels and achievements to encourage progress. Gamification has been adopted in all sorts of industries, from education to Starbucks coffee.
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Here are some of the top gamification apps and websites to keep you on track for 2015.
Zombies, Run!
New Year’s Resolution: Start running
Website: ZombiesRunGame.com
If you crossed The Walking Dead and Farmville with a running coach, you would get Zombies, Run!
In Zombies, Run! you take the role of Runner 5, an on-foot courier trying to survive in a post-apocalyptic world swarming with zombies. The app intercuts users’ playlists with radio broadcasts that tell the story of a struggling settlement that needs someone to go out and bring back supplies.
That someone is you.
While running you will pick up items like batteries and water, and depending on the game mode, you may be occasionally harassed by zombie hordes that force you to run faster until you escape.
The app has several customizable features that allow you to choose between timed runs or GPS tracking, use custom music playlists and even incorporate interval training.
Habit RPG
New Year’s Resolution: Kick bad habits, pick up good ones
Website: HabitRPG.com
Availability: Web | iOS | Android
Habit RPG works like a classic RPG game. You create a character to represent yourself, complete with customizable hair, body shape and skin color. Your goal is to raise your character’s level and earn gold for completing user-defined tasks.
The tasks you can enter are broken into three categories.
Habits – These can be either positive or negative, and can be completed multiple times indefinitely- Dailies — These are tasks that you want to accomplish every day, and any unfinished dailies cause you to lose health
- To-Dos — This functions as a simple to-do list of items that occur once
Completing tasks earns gold, which can be spent on rewards. You can create your own rewards like getting to eat a piece of cake or buying a new movie. You can also buy items such as armor and weapons to improve your character.
If your character loses too much health and dies, you will lose one level, a random item and all of the gold you have saved. Talk about motivation!
Khan Academy
New Year’s Resolution: Get better grades
Website: KhanAcademy.com
Khan Academy started as a simple series of YouTube math tutorials that founder Salman Khan created for his family. The videos exploded in popularity, and Khan quickly found himself sitting atop what the cover of a 2012 issue of Forbes called “The $1 Trillion Opportunity.”
Although Khan Academy now offers free courses in dozens of subjects, it has a special focus on science and mathematics, with difficulty levels ranging from basic arithmetic to advanced calculus and beyond.
Khan Academy rewards users with badges and other incentives for completing different challenges like hitting a high streak of correct answers or consistently completing lessons every day.
It also allows you to share your progress with friends and even help tutor others once you have some skills under your belt.
Duolingo
New Year’s Resolution: Learn a foreign language
Website: Duolingo.com
Availability: Web | iOS | Android
One of the hardest skills to master is learning a new language, but Duolingo gets you off to a good start with easy-to-follow courses, fun lessons and plenty of multimedia support.
Duolingo works similar to Rosetta Stone, but at the low, low price of free. The site and its accompanying apps ease you into a language by starting with basic vocabulary, pronunciation and listening skills. It then it slowly adds plural forms, verb conjugations and more.
One of Duolingo’s best features is its ability to recognize the areas in which you are struggling, and it offers special exercises to improve your weakest skills.
Duolingo currently offers lessons in Spanish, French, German, Italian and Portuguese. A few other languages like Dutch and Swedish are in beta testing, and many more are planned.
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