There is nothing more demotivating than your daily chores. Theres lots of stuff you gotta do, but they're very rarely fun. A challenge to this situation is EpicWin, brought to you by a small team of developers. Tak, of minisquadron fame, and Rex known for his design work in the PS3 game Little Big Planet.
Epic Win, meaning "legendary victory" in English (yeah, I'm translating.) is used to signify a oft meaningless but memorable victory in life. In essence, its adds some game style flair to your day.
At the core of EPICWIN is the todo list functionality, where you add in the stuff you need to do in a day, and then check them off as completed. For example, taking out the trash, separating out the recycleables, washing the dishes, and going to the supermarket -- all are assigned experience points and you can level up, or gain items for completing these quests. Users are rewarded, and get to enjoy a sense of victory of completing the tasks. This app, which allows users to complete their "quests" stimulate the desire to get started on the next task. And as the user goes about their daily life, the character in the game continues on their journey, completing these quests alongside user.
The app is scheduled for a release date of August 19th, made available world wide on the apple Appstore. A price hasn't been announced yet, and there are no current plans for a Japanese version. Still, since the app is driven by the user entering "quests" it should be playable even without a localized version.
Level ups, loot and other large events are notified via Facebook to friends. There is significant interest from Android users, but there is no port yet, and if there will be one, it will be after the release of the iPhone version.
The draw of the game is in its simplicity, but its fun to imagine what sorts of future development we might see. Perhaps a Foursquare-esque location based service? Or perhaps forming parties over a SNS like Mixi (the Japanese answer to Facebook) in a more "game" version. There is a fair bit of room to ecxpand the functionality, such as location specific services. Still, I expect we'll be seeing more of these styles of games, bringing game elements into real life.
The true value of EPICWIN is likely that we can all enjoy life a little more, just by changing out view of it. Enjoying the little victories of life, getting a medal for it, and maybe cracking a smile in the middle of an otherwise dry day. This is perhaps the real EPICWIN of this app, and its developers.
Below is the very humorous video trailer for the app. I think you'll like it. :D
