If you’ve been around Habitica for a while (or at least have been around for a couple of weeks!) you know that April Fool’s Day is kind of a big deal. After all, we can hardly hold back from celebrating a day so special to the [in]famous Master of Rogues, our very own April Fool.
This year, the April Fool came to us with the very best of intentions, hoping to summon interdimensional doppelgangers to complete our tasks and give us a day off. However, it seems his meddling with time and space instead had the unintended effect of reversing the colors of our pets!
As is tradition in Habitica, the Fool posted a special Challenge to celebrate. Habiticans had a chance to show off their reversed pets on social media! Today we’re sharing the winning entries and a handful of our favorites.
First up, check our our Challenge winners!
“It’s fishin’ season in 2021 and this inverted dolphin keeps stealing my catch!” says danodea
emilyjeaharmon‘s Gryphon is providing an interesting counterpoint to their colorful palette
whothehungriest and their icy wolf friend brought flowers!
Saiwa brought flowers, and a strangely cheery zombie fox!
Betergeuse_aOri stargazes with their mysteriously transformed bear pet!
Here are a few more of our favorites!
“This April Fool’s trick is as clear as Quartz…” says QuartzFox.
Zelah_Meyer shows us a Starry Night flipped on its head!
“Oh my goodness, why is there a frost jelly in my house?! Go back to the mines, please? Or maybe…are you a friendly junimo? But why are your colors different! No, you must be a slime, but something is off… I’m so confused, what’s going on here?” says Cayst
Gumnos takes the inversion to a very spooky place!
“I kind of really liked the ghostly mood of my inverted pet on Habitica’s April Fools day. It went well with my desert thief persona. ;)” says janey_p.
langerhan notes that the avocado garden pet looks a little… otherwordly
Evil_Overmom takes things in the opposite direction with a cheery Spring look!
Zyshara also shows us inverted colors don’t always mean dark and spooky.
Citrusella reports : “Apparently I am one with the darkness, with my inverted ghost jack-o-lantern and ghost cactus. XD (And also I thought the red cactopus felt more octopus-like than usual? 0_o) Also, since I was playing around with testing CSS… as I do every year… to keep this alive all year long (and extend it to mounts, which it didn’t officially apply to), I’d be remiss if I didn’t include this bonus not-officially-viewable (and not third-party viewable unless I upload that style) inverted phoenix water phoenix Lapis constructed so she could ride it! XD”
virtexexe shows off different inverted looks from spooky to cute!
What a topsy-turvy assortment of reversed reveries! We hope you had as much fun with the Fool’s failed foray into interdimensional chore completion as we did.
Want to see the April Fool’s past antics? Check out our posts from the social media challenges in 2017,2018, 2019, and 2020!
April 1st came round again, and turns out the April Fool served up a totally sweet prank this year! Hearing we’ve all been having a hard time, he made sure to come up with something we can all get our teeth into: this year he turned all Habitica’s pets into various sugary confections!
As part of a special Challenge to mark the occasion, we asked Habiticans to show off the results of this Great Habitica Bake-Off on social media! We thought we’d share just a few of the many awesome pics you all posted as part of the Challenge to whet your appetites.
First up, here are our challenge winners! They’re on a (cinnamon) roll:
“One S’more into the breach for Silvercat17!”
RaidingPartyGames decided to spice things up a bit to match their cinnamon bun pet with a Dune reference: “The spice must flow!”
A starring roll for Pangdood
No-bun foresaw this, not even Spacehawk!
“Donut test me,” VixiMonster says!
Of course, the mods and staff wanted in on the fun…
Cantras spilled over with excitement to match her pet! Dessert in the desert!
beffymaroo had muffin to do with the April Fool’s plans!
Sabrecat’s no sucker, he’s keeping this Lolly pet in line!
Apollo is sneaking about in the dead of night with his new friend, ready to commit the perfect cream.
Piyo finds herself with a dang ol’ dango!
We also just had to highlight some of the best bakes we saw on social media and while judging the contest…
ProbablyASeaBass’ Rogue skills have got what it cakes
x4ojM gave us a whole sweet of images!
x4ojM combines a little heat and sweet with this Cactus/IcePop combo!
x4ojM conjures Valentine’s Day with this dreamy Chocoberry scene
Citrusella really leans into the Sugar Rush this year!
Natevaelle can’t decide if they’re the baker or the treat!
jjgame83 is taking some time to mallow out with his toasty friend
And finally, CoreytheChosen1 treats us to a selection of sweet profile pics to show their different sides.
Wow, that was enough to satisfy even the biggest sweet tooth! We hope you all enjoyed the event as much as we did… and let’s see what the April Fool can whip up next year!
Want to see the April Fool’s past antics? Check out our posts from the social media challenges in 2017,2018 and 2019!
The “Behind The Scenes” series is a chance for us to give you a glimpse into the inner workings of HabitRPG, Inc., the company that makes Habitica. Every so often, we’ll treat you to some silly staff shenanigans or show you the work that goes into your favorite features. Right now, though, it’s a rough time for everyone in the world, and we’re aware of how much it is affecting all our users in different ways. We thought we’d share with you some stories about how we’re protecting our mental health and keeping ourselves truckin’ along! We hope this might give you some ideas on how you can cope with a crisis situation.
First off, redphoenix kept her contribution short ‘n’ sweet: she’s making time for meditation, and “making sure I actually take proper breaks instead of attempting to work through them”. Just because you might be working from home now doesn’t mean you should let work encroach on your free time! Take your breaks!
Piyo‘s words of wisdom included a reminder that when times are tough, we shouldn’t be too tough on ourselves: “I’ve learned to be more lenient with myself when it comes to goals. It’s not realistic to have the same level of focus or productivity right now.” She’s also making sure to keep up with her friends via Discord, and taking breaks in the world of Animal Crossing collecting fish (gotta catch ’em all! Wait, wrong game).
As you can see, beffymaroo concurs with that last bit! She’s also gotten into playing Animal Crossing, and no surprises here… she loves collecting the butterflies! (Don’t forget to check out her post on butterfly gardening!)
Like many of us, she’s also reaching out to friends in new ways:
I’m trying to make a point to reach out to people more, which historically I am not great at doing not-in-person! I’m trying to find fun ways to do things with friends, like the Netflix Party extension for Chrome or watching my local drag performers do their streaming show while using Google Hangouts with friends for voice commentary!
There’s a constant stream of news at the moment, and most of it isn’t good… and what’s more, it isn’t surprising either. You don’t have to constantly beam the crisis into your eyeballs! beffymaroo and shanaqui are both avoiding the news: beffymaroo is only reading the Washington Post once a day and that’s it, while shanaqui has cut down their news consumption by unfollowing the BBC and CNN accounts on Twitter, and using the filter feature to just mute tweets from everyone containing certain keywords.
shanaqui is also throwing themself into new challenges:
I’m using courses from FutureLearn, Coursera and EdX to keep me busy and spend the time learning: right now I’ve just started an introductory course to archaeology just for fun, while also practising my microscopy skills from the safety of my home in a course on histology! Not to mention tackling my TBR Mountain…
It’s not all about distraction and keeping busy, though. It’s a rough time for those with mental health issues, and both shanaqui and Cantras wanted to mention managing their anxiety with medication. Don’t forget you may be able to reach out to your doctor and explain that things are rough! Cantras also has some tips on this:
I’m lucky that I already work from home, but I work in news media which is not great for anxiety. I have a tea called “Tension Tamer” that I originally bought for the cool box design but having some halfway through my shift really helps. I’ve been working out more and more consistently, and if that combined with the start of spring doesn’t help as much as I need it to, I’ll get my anxiety med dosage bumped up a smidge.
Apollo has been finding the use of voice chat to keep in touch the most helpful:
I’ve been keeping in touch with a lot of my friends via Discord. We’re not all required to be on conference calls all day, so sometimes we’ll just hang out in a voice channel during the work day. Additionally, I’ve been able to do some mixing and engineering with band mates, play trivia with neighborhood friends, and received coaching lessons from a chef friend while trying out one of his recipes. Speaking with people (not typing) has been big in keeping things moving for me.
Hanging out in a voice channel as Apollo suggests can really help you focus: you’re not alone, and you know everyone else is working too. Habitica even has a guild for enabling that, called The Quiet Room. shanaqui and deilann both hang out there sometimes!
Dewines is using technology to keep up too, and has an unforeseen problem…
I suppose I’m coping by trying to transfer my normal face-to-face meetings to online. This is not working perfectly because most of the participants are not very tech savvy, but it’s definitely better than nothing. We held our second Welsh chat session via a hangout. We normally meet in a local cafe every Wednesday morning, but we’re trying to keep in touch and practise our Welsh via hangouts. I now have ceiling envy. I live in a little 1980s house with artex ceilings. Three of the group members have lovely wooden beams in their old houses. This morning’s hangout also featured a dog and two pheasants, courtesy of one member who joined us on her phone whilst out walking on a hill near her home.
That’s a really quick roundup of things we’re all doing to keep ourselves going. We’d love to hear what you’re doing as well!
That said, we want to remind you all that it’s also okay not to be okay. Things are really strange and unsettling, and there’s no shame in needing some time in the Inn. As Piyo put it:
Accept that it’s okay if you’re not coping very well yet. It’s hard to process such profound grief and uncertainty. Reach out to your friends and loved ones. Focus on what’s within your control to change in the present.
Don’t forget, we’ve also pulled together a post with Helpful Resources for Tough Times, and you can reach out to other Habiticans in your favourite guilds for support. We really are all in this together!
Hello Habiticans! We’re sure we don’t need to tell you we’re experiencing a unique and stressful time during the COVID-19 pandemic. We hope you’re all taking care of yourselves as best you’re able, as well as being responsible about doing your part to slow the pace of the outbreak and protect those who may be more vulnerable to serious illness.
We hope to bring you content in the coming days and weeks with helpful information to help you keep up self-care and wellness, necessary tasks, and find activities to help you weather isolation or quarantine. For now, we’ve compiled a list here of some past blog posts that you may find helpful:
Use Case Spotlights: These posts feature tips and tricks from fellow Habitica users related to these tasks and goals.
Some select few of you may remember back when we were known as HabitRPG. We had this gradient logo, which was a contribution from the community!
And also, on the original mobile apps, we used this chest icon from Browserquest:
When we first decided that we needed to refresh the brand, we reached out to baconsaur, early community contributor pixel artist behind the Gryphon boss and the Mammoth pets and mounts. They had some great ideas:
Early explorations by baconsaur
Playing around with shapes and scrolls by baconsaur
Color experiments by baconsaur
You can hear the 8-bit MIDI song playing as that title unfurls! But something wasn’t quite right.
It was hard to link the mobile apps to the web site if you weren’t already familiar with what we were trying to do, and we were having trouble figuring out how to shrink the scroll down to an icon. We were also being gently encouraged by advisors, including designers and visual historians, to rethink our approach to be more welcoming of people who didn’t necessarily identify as core gamers, since that was already more than 40% of the userbase.
The clincher was having to explain to more than one kindly elderly gentleman that no, HabitRPG did not mean that you made a habit of rocket propelled grenades.
One offered alternative: calling ourselves Habit. Unfortunately, Habit is already a different app. We also felt that calling ourselves Habit sounded either really beige and boring, or reminded us of hamburgers.
Instead, we decided on “Habitica” to represent the new identity. Habitica was already discussed among the community as the name of the fantasy land we were all visiting while trying to be productive, and it felt fitting to elevate that name to more common usage. As one person put it, renaming HabitRPG to Habitica simultaneously made it more welcoming (because you didn’t have to know what RPG meant) and more immersive (Habitica as the domain–literally and figuratively–for improving your life!)
We also decided to expand our search outside the community for the first time, so we could broaden the scope of what our logo could look like. Our investors recommended 99Designs to help us get a sense of what was out there. We also knew we had a limited budget and were looking for a particular sensibility–something that could communicate a way of bringing a bit of fantasy into your real life.
While we opted not to use the contest option, largely because design contests are unfair to participants, we were able to narrow down to a few standout portfolios, including Zoran Lalic’s aka Camo Creative. Zoran appeared to be present on 99 Designs, but also had a well-established web presence on all the major design sites, like Behance (https://www.behance.net/camo) and Dribbble (https://dribbble.com/camocreative). His work also showed a solid understanding of fantasy themes and a goodly amount of range.
Zoran is one of the exceptions to our usual hiring process, where someone usually has worked with us in the community before coming on board for formal work. We had to do a bit more preparatory work in order to set him up with a strong understanding of what Habitica is.
One of the things we sent him was this imgur post that had gone viral at the time we were talking: https://imgur.com/gallery/GqLQG
Zoran got what we were trying to do pretty much immediately.
[3/6/2015 8:52:17 AM] Camo Creative: i was thinking about a dragon
[3/6/2015 8:52:22 AM] Camo Creative: if you have one in your game
[3/6/2015 8:52:26 AM] Camo Creative: or a knight
We also sent him a bunch of wiki links for Vice, Gryphon, and the Basilist. We also sent over an image of Recidivate Transformed, which was one of our newest quests at the time. (Zoran referred to it as “that spiky wurm thing” in case you needed a nickname to reduce the amount of terror induced by the Recidivate quest.)
[3/7/2015 6:25:42 AM] Camo Creative: YESS
[3/7/2015 6:25:50 AM] Camo Creative: i love the griffin and the dragons
[3/7/2015 6:26:06 AM] Camo Creative: i will try to do 3 different sketches
Then we got to see drafts. Zoran had a clear favorite.
We liked this fantasy based illustration, but realized this was just a higher resolution version of the problem we had with the pixel art logos. We also wondered how to tie this fantasy-based image back to the real world.
At some point in here, we decided to focus on the gryphon as our representative.
[3/24/2015 7:08:30 PM] Vicky Hsu: we’d also like to see something that’s more real-world related, so maybe the griffin can be holding something
[3/24/2015 7:08:49 PM] Vicky Hsu: maybe a toothbrush, maybe a pencil and a clipboard? we’re open to ideas
Gryphon with a pencil.
…a coin with a check mark…
…a clipboard…
…and a fountain pen.
Then we started to think about how to use the logo, and asked if we could have a design that had both an image and the wordmark to be used both independently and separately. We also wanted to nudge the design towards a more logo type style rather than an illustration.
The first instance of the gryphon that would eventually become Melior made his first appearance. Look at that smirk!
Then we went down a side path exploring possible variations. Which way would a gryphon hold a toothbrush? Or wear a tie?
But we didn’t want to come across as a toothpaste company, or a briefcase supplier.
Maybe something a little more general?
It felt like we were getting close, so we did some research on how exactly to incorporate the wordmark while continuing to play with different ideas, like giving the gryphon some neckware and some facial expressions.
At this point, we started asking Sara Olson her opinion. Sara had been working with us on the mobile apps, and in conversation we realized that she had a really good eye and vocabulary for the kind of logo we wanted. We decided that it might be easier if we brought the project in-house to continue developing this logo.
Sara opted to go back to the drawing board and do some brainstorming to see if this is what we really wanted. Here’s her original mind map of what Habitica looked like.
From there, she started to doodle some possible concepts:
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saraolson:
basically it was just:
-gryphon
-polygonal game art
-pixel game art
-game items: gems/weapons/items/scrolls
-the H for habitica
and just exploring within that
Gradually, the ideas were refined into this collection:
She also started playing around with some of these ideas, which you can see below.
We were still fond of the gryphon, though, so we started trying out different variations.
At some point we decided on the purple as the color to focus on, because of its connotations of luxury, royalty, and fantasy. For a while we tried a brighter, more Twitch-like purple, but eventually deepened it to the dark, almost midnight purple that we use today.
(Incidentally, you may see some lighter versions of this deep dark purple show up here and there. We’re always experimenting!)
We also incorporated the red and blue colors that show up in task values, but into the two dots on the i’s of Habitica. It seemed to brighten the logo—a little less serious, and a bit more fun. Candy colors!
Once we had settled on this design, we ran a Name the Gryphon challenge so the community could suggest names for the gryphon. Melior was NobleTheSecond’s suggestion and was selected because, as the wiki states, “[t]he name represents how Habiticans strive to become better at their goals in their quest to improve their lives.”
So there you have it—the long, winding journey of how the Melior logo came to be. I’ll leave you with this amazing work that came out of the community when we announced the change: professional embroidery designer Erich Campbell’s rendition of the gryphon as an embroidered fabric patch!
Habiticans enjoyed yet another April 1st marked by goofy pixel antics this year! This time, the April Fool lulled us into a false sense of security by claiming he’d refocused his life on health and nutrition. We should all know better by now, shouldn’t we? It turns out he went and turned all our pets into cute little fruits and vegetables!
As part of a special Challenge to mark the occasion, many Habiticans shared their avatars with their produce pets on social media! Here are just a few of the many awesome pics you all posted as part of the Challenge!
First, here are the entries from our Challenge Winners! They’re kind of a big dill.
issaleonardo knows when to turnip the volume.
“Just hanging out with my peach of a pet for April Fool’s…” says Bee_
“My lion turned into a banana! Perfect for the banana cake I’m about to bake lol” says alittlebitofeverything.
We hope Zelah_Meyer likes frozen fruit!
kitt-haven isn’t sure where their regular pet went, but it should turnip soon.
Here are some from the Habitica mods and staff! Olive them are looking quite excellent, if we do say so ourselves.
“That banana has seen some things.” says Beffymaroo
Although she is normally a bustling town of foxes, Fox_Town took a moment to experience being a tranquil Farm Fox.
For those who may not have known, this April Fool’s prank was inspired by Socialite and Artisan QuartzFox‘s Art Trello request for fruit and veggie Magic Hatching Potions, hence her guest appearance in the Bailey (er, Carroty) that day !
“Here I am being a sushi chef! Sorta. 😉 I love my pet avocado *so much* and I wanna keep him!” says QuartzFox.
And here are some more of our favorite entries! All your pics were so rad-ish it was hard to choose just a few to feature here.
kakudennu‘s party found themselves a buffet of cuteness!
makura747 and company enjoy a bountiful harvest.
Citrusella gives us three looks! Left to Right: The main avatar look for the day, some fun with CSS in commemoration of the original 2014 April Fool’s prank that inspired this year, and then a variation with a blooming onion on the side!
louvelune has a really interesting breakfast in the library.
imjustarogue is off to travel the world on her royal purple wolf mount with a befriended dragonfruit.
ProbablyASeaBass says, “I’ve heard of sea cucumbers, but not sea peaches!”
Overall it seems like everyone had a lot of fun! We’re glad you had enjoyed it as much as we did. Lettuce wait and see what the April Fool is up to next April 1 – this prank is going to be hard to beet!
Want to see the April Fool’s past antics? Check out our posts from the social media challenges in 2017 and 2018!
Of the recipe, shanaqui says: “I always loved shortbread as a kid but never had it made for me… and then my wife got a Mary Berry book, masses of semolina to use, and a new oven. We *might* have eaten most of the first batch before the oven even cooled. No regrets!”
If you’d like to make them into adorable snails rather than cutouts or rectangles, Alys recommends you slightly reduce the liquid in the above recipe.
To make the snail bodies, roll dough into 6cm long shapes, thinner at one end, and flatten slightly. Place them at least 2cm apart on a lightly greased oven tray.
Make the heads by rolling dough into balls and placing the balls on the thick ends of the bodies. Create the faces with cachous for eyes and mouths and thin strips of liquorice for antennae.
Cook as described in the recipe but cooking time will probably need to be less than the recipe says because the shapes are small.
After cooking, melt white cooking chocolate and drizzle over the snails’ backs with a piping bag or a spoon. Use more melted chocolate to attach shell-shaped chocolates to the backs.
Fox Town offers a delicious (and gluten- and dairy-free!) Ricciarelli (Almond Cookie) recipe!
Preheat oven to 300 degrees F (150C)
Mix 230 g almond flour (a generous 2 cups) with 130 g confectioner’s (powdered) sugar (a scant 1 1/2 cups unsifted), 1/2 t baking soda, 1/2 t salt
In a small bowl mix one egg, 2T honey, and 1/2 t vanilla extract;
add into dry ingredients and mix thoroughly. Dough will be firm and a bit sticky.
roll into 1” balls, roll balls in more confectioners sugar, and place on a parchment-lined baking sheet.
These cookies are traditionally made with a cookie press- an item that often ends up at thrift stores, so that’s a great place to pick one up inexpensively.
Piyo goes for a cookie that’s great any time of the year: Cookies and Cream cookies!
And last but not least, Redphoenix gives us a neat and simple recipe for salt dough!
It’s not quite an edible cookie dough (because I’m still trying to find my go-to cookie recipe!) [editor’s note: Beffymaroo definitely tried to eat this dough as a child anyway] but I have been on a bit of a kick to decorate for the holidays without spending money on chintzy, poor-quality decorations. Hence, salt dough, which is classic, easy, and extremely cost-effective.
Mix 1 cup flour and half a cup of salt. Add most of a half cup of water (not all of it—you may want to reserve some until you have a sense of how much moisture your dough needs. Mud textures are fun but uncooperative in holding to a particular shape).
Roll out the dough. I prefer somewhere around half a centimeter or a quarter of an inch in thickness. Cut out with cookie cutters, or a glass or jar if you haven’t got cookie cutters and you’re ok with round ones. If you have a straw handy, it’s useful for making a nice clean hole if you’re planning to string up ornaments later.
Bake at 200F (93C), but play around with this temperature setting, as every oven is different. Let cool and dry, which may take anywhere from a day to several days. Once it’s dry, you can do things like decorate it with markers, apply a layer of ModPodge (which will seal it and also add gloss), or if you’re lazy and/or a minimalist like me, string it with a pretty ribbon and hang it up.
The “Behind The Scenes” series is a chance for us to give you a glimpse into the inner workings of HabitRPG, Inc., the company that makes Habitica. Every so often, we’ll treat you to some silly staff shenanigans or show you the work that goes into your favorite features. Enjoy!
Hello Habiticans! It probably won’t come as a big surprise to you all that many of the Habitica Staff are huge video game fans. Today we’re sharing some of the (non-Habitica) games we’re currently playing.
Vicky (AKA Redphoenix):
“I Love Hue (iOS and Android) is a soothing mobile game where you put colors in order. I find it just hard enough to be interesting, but not so engaging so as to suck me away from work I need to be doing and thereby cause more stress. When decisionmaking can get reduced to “is this a purple-y grey or a blue-y grey”, I’m in a comforting kind of zone.
Bastion: Oldie but goodie! I’m on my first play through (rather than watching someone else play it) and I’m enjoying a lot about the game—particularly the narration performance and art direction. Did you know it was made by a seven person team?”
Leslie (AKA Lemoness):
“Minit:
A snappy, fun pixel adventure where, thanks to a cursed sword, you have only 60 seconds at a time to run around the world, accomplish tasks, and solve puzzles. I thought this game handled its unique constraint in a very clever way.
Gorogoa:
A beautiful, contemplative, wordless game that uses unique perspectives to drive its thoughtful puzzles as you slowly unfold the plot. Dream-like and fascinating, this mobile game has become one of my recent favorites.
Guildlings (Beta Testing):
Technically this comes out in the summer, but I enjoyed the build that I tested enough to mention it! Fun character banter, great art, and an enjoyable “wizards and wifi” premise… but I probably shouldn’t say too much about it yet. I will note that I particularly loved Syb the Upstart and her various “startups” — a word that has a slightly different meaning in the fantasy world of Guildlings… ;)”
Beth (AKA Beffymaroo):
“Like many out there, I’m playing The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild on the Nintendo Switch right now. I’m shamefully behind and haven’t had a chance to play in a while, so I definitely need to get back to it! It’s a beautiful game with a gorgeous landscape and soundtrack, and I love all the many many things to do and explore. As far as I’m concerned it lives up to the hype!
On mobile, I’m playing Flutter: Starlight (available on iOS and Android). It’s a moth collecting game, pretty much. I love lepidopterans generally, and I chose the “Starlight” moth version over the original with butterflies because I find the color scheme and music more soothing. I also love learning more about all the beautiful and strange moths out there! Vicky is also playing and we like to compare notes on our strategies for collecting moths during their special events.”
Keith (AKA TheHollidayInn):
“Final Fantasy 14 – my default stress relief. I’m a big Final Fantasy fan and this game has been create since the release of A Realm Reborn
Monster Hunter World – A very nice sequel to the ongoing franchise. My friends pushed me to get in to this grind with them, but it is pretty great.
Mafia III – I’m just starting this game because it is on my Humble Bundle Monthly (which I highly recommend getting). So far so good!”
Tressley (AKA Apollo):
“Alien: Isolation
A dark, stealthy survival horror game based on the Alien film series. The game’s plot is set 15 years after the events of the original Alien film. You play Amanda Ripley, daughter of Ellen Ripley, while you try to investigate the disappearance of your mother. I’ve really been enjoying this installment in the Alien game series as the stealth/survival horror aspect evokes the original 1979 film’s feeling and tone.
Golf It
A fun mini-golf game focused primarily on the multiplayer experience. The map editor makes for some frustrating, but exciting games with friends. Best paired with a fun group on Discord.”
Sabe (AKA SabreCat):
“Current game: Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura. Isometric RPG from the early 00’s with a fantasy-steampunk milieu. Has a lot of variety in how you can build a character, from gunslingers to necromancers to diplomats!
“I’m usually playing too many casual games at once, while neglecting a plotty behemoth I should be keeping track of. Right now I’m ignoring my replay of Final Fantasy XIII — I love the whole FF series, but this is not a fave! I do really enjoy strategising with the different class combinations, but I haven’t got to that stage in my replay yet. Casually, I’m playing Kingdom Rush Frontiers, which is a tower defence game with fun Easter eggs now and then. Perpetually, I’m playing Faster Than Light, which I’ve played nearly 200 hours of and won only eight times. I enjoy the mix of luck and strategy, though, and I have some fun mods which make things even more strategic.
Huh, apparently I’m into strategising and tactics? Good to know…”
Sara (AKA piyorii):
“I’m playing Nier: Automata. The game has an existential, calm post-apocalyptic atmosphere to it that I really enjoy exploring. Its one of those games that sticks with you after you turn it off, and I find myself talking with friends about our interpretations. It also has a very in-depth combat and upgrade system that has you learning slick combos and new strategies long into the game. I’m on my third playthrough, but unlike most games, each playthrough is like a sequel built into intended experience of the game as a whole. the first time you beat it, you don’t get all the story! I’m having a lot of fun exploring the world and uncovering all the secrets it’s hiding, and would highly recommend it to anyone who likes third person action RPGs.”
What games are you playing right now? We’d love to hear your recommendations! Feel free to share them in the comments, or pop into the Tavern chat to discuss there! ❤
The “Behind The Scenes” series is a chance for us to give you a glimpse into the inner workings of HabitRPG, Inc., the company that makes Habitica. Every so often, we’ll treat you to some silly staff shenanigans or show you the work that goes into your favorite features. Enjoy!
Hello Habiticans! In this month’s edition of Behind the Scenes, we’re talking podcasts! If you’re not already on the podcast train, we highly recommend hopping on. Podcasts are a great way to learn, laugh, and be entertained when your media choices are limited to audio options. We love to listen to them while commuting, doing chores around the house, exercising, and more!
Beffymaroo, AKA Beth:
“I listen to TONS of podcasts. A lot of them are true-crime podcasts, because that’s a subject I’m very interested in. A pick I think might be more relevant to Habiticans (and easier for Tavern discussion, haha) is Stuff You Missed in History Class. It’s a really fun show from HowStuffWorks where the hosts discuss interesting off-the-beaten path corners of world history, or more obscure facts about well-known events and people. It’s always fascinating and often gives me a good laugh, too!”
SabreCat, AKA Sabe:
“The Fastcast is ‘a podcast for nerds with short attention spans.’ It’s a discussion ‘cast covering pop culture and media, with an emphasis on niche games, each episode edited down to around 20 minutes. I like it because I tend not to be able to concentrate if I have a podcast running while I do other things, so the short runtime is good to sit with, listen to in its entirety, and move on!”
Redphoenix, AKA Vicky:
“Planet Money: One of the great NPR podcasts (next to This American Life, which goes without saying). Covers topics about finance and economics in a really accessible and often entertaining way. Not at all as dry as you would expect given the subject matter.
Martini Shot: roughly four minutes per episode on the foibles of the entertainment industry, but often generally applicable to other contexts. Rob Long, the host, strikes an excellent balance between being respectful but not indulgent of the craziness of show business.
Writing Excuses: This Hugo award-winning podcast takes fifteen minutes to break down a particular aspect of the writing craft. Brandon Sanderson, Howard Tayler, Dan Wells, and Mary Robinette Kowal bring a variety of writing styles and philosophies to the table and are often joined by additional writer friends. A mini lecture series taught by the who’s who of science fiction and fantasy writers.”
Matteo recommends The Indie Hackers Podcast: “It’s a series of conversations with founders of small internet business , how they got the ideas, the customers, the problems they had, etc.” Sounds like a great fit for Habiticans interested in the start-up world or internet-based business!
TheHollidayInn, AKA Keith:
“I definitely recommend Ologies – it has a great host who interviews all different types of -ologists. Then Stuff To Blow Your Mind with two host who delve into interesting facts of life and discuss the research behind it. And finally I recommend Pod Save America because politics can be fun and it’s important 🙂 ”
Viirus, AKA Phillip:
“Currently I like to listen to Under the Radar, which is a 30 minute podcast about iOS development and working as an independent developer and Fragmented, which is about Android development. For non-tech podcasts I also like the Invisibilia podcast, that explores various topics about how humans are shaped by “invisible” influences.”
Lemoness, AKA Leslie:
“I actually spend all my listening time on audiobooks instead! I check them out of the library for free using the Overdrive app. It’s a great way to read books while doing chores.”
What podcasts are you loving right now? We’d love to hear your recommendations! Feel free to share them in the comments, or pop into the Tavern chat to discuss there! ❤
The “Behind The Scenes” series is a chance for us to give you a glimpse into the inner workings of HabitRPG, Inc., the company that makes Habitica. Every so often, we’ll treat you to some silly staff shenanigans or show you the work that goes into your favorite features. Enjoy!
Nothing brings Habitica together like an epic monster battle! World Bosses are some of the community’s favorite events, so in this edition of Behind the Scenes we’ll share the exciting history of Habitica’s World Bosses, plus inside information on all the hard work from the team that goes into making these events happen!
Leslie (AKA Lemoness) is the creative mind behind a lot of aspects of Habitica’s big events, including art, potential features, and quests. She had some great memories to share about the origins of World Bosses to start us off: “After our first successful Winter Wonderland event, I turned my attention to the rest of the year. The spring event would be pretty straightforward, but what about the summer event? There aren’t many classic holidays that land in the summertime, but I’ve always adored oceans and undersea adventures, so I knew that I wanted to incorporate some. Since I’d been looking for an opportunity to expand Habitica’s narrative and worldbuilding, this seemed like a perfect fit. I created a mysterious plot-line leading up to the discovery of a lost underwater city and, since raid bosses had been a common feature request, I decided to develop a World Boss to explain how it had sunk beneath the waves.”
It’s understandable to want to sink beneath the waves if you see this coming at you!
“Implementing the Dread Drag’on of Dilatory was a monstrous task, especially since it was happening at the same time as the first Summer Splash gala, with all the attendant art and coding needs. I reached out to artisan baconsaur, who was doing a lot of art for us and who I knew was fond of dragons; they eagerly agreed to the secret project. We also had art that had been previously submitted for some Mantis Shrimps, whose rainbow splendor hadn’t leant itself well to the usual pet recolors. Seeing an opportunity, I worked them into the plot-line as well. Our exhaustion was kept at bay by the increasing enthusiasm of the community as each new Bailey announcement held more clues about the coming event. When the Drag’on finally attacked, the reaction was tremendous – a fanclub Guild even opened up!”
But it wasn’t all smooth sailing from there. Just before the first Rage Strike, an unscrupulous rogue discovered an exploit in the World Boss code and slew the Dread Drag’on overnight. We awoke to a huge onslaught of confused and despairing messages from the community, who felt understandably cheated that the mighty Boss had vanished while it was still brimming with health. Worse, we had included gold and XP rewards, like with any normal Boss, so people found that they’d inexplicably and abruptly leveled up, and that their gold reserves were completely unbalanced for no apparent reason. It was a royal mess, but we managed to hastily fix the exploit, relaunch the Drag’on (which had “merely ducked underwater to revitalize itself”), and change the prizes to include an assortment of food instead of gold/XP. In fact, it was during this glitch that Beth (AKA: Beffymaroo) earned her very first Habitica contributor tier! She got a socialite tier for answering many, many questions from players confused by the premature end of the battle, and the rest is history. And the remainder of the event went… dare we say it?… swimmingly!
Little known fact about Mantis Shrimp: They love puns.
After the resounding popularity of the first World Boss, people immediately began asking for another. Eek! Doing one during every event would be too much work (as well as anticlimactic), but Leslie sat down and planned out the next three World Bosses and how they would involve the discovery of new lands and characters during other seasonal events. The results of that brainstorming session were spread out over almost two years. If you’ve been around Habitica for a while, you might remember the Abominable Stressbeast, the dread Burnout, and the dazzling but dangerous Be-Wilder!
A shifty-looking bunch for sure!
Since World Bosses have always been such a hit with the community, we decided another battle was due soon! We’d already had a World Boss in each Grand Gala, so we thought that Valentines’ Day would be a great Habitica event for an epic monster to make an appearance. Once Leslie’s ideas and concepts were out there, it was time to make it all come together with the help of the rest of the Habitica team!
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Perhaps the aspects of the World Boss that are most familiar to Habiticans are the pieces of amazing art involved! The Dysheartener was created by talented Habitica artisan AnnDeLune, who started working on the dread creature many months beforehand in order to make it perfectly terrifying.
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We also needed art to show the destructive havoc wrought by the boss when a rage strike occurred! Beffymaroo, using colors and concepts from the boss art, created the scenes for the affected shops showing the effects of the Dysheartener’s attacks.
We will rebuild! But who will be next?? *cue dramatic music*
When it comes down to the all-important mechanics of the World Boss, we check in with Sabe (AKA SabreCat) about what’s needed from a programming perspective! Sabe gets all the ducks in a row for the boss’s health and rage, and how Habiticans will damage it, and then the team takes some time to test out the mechanics so that we know everything will work as intended. Our brave bug-smasher Alys also pitched in to help with testing and with readying the Phobia Protection Extension so that any Habiticans with phobias that might be set off by this creepy-crawly creature had the option to hide the artwork.
World Boss battles are a big event to fit into Habitica’s pixel world, and luckily we have talented designers to help us make them look and feel even more exciting! Tressley (AKA Apollo) and piyorii (AKA Sara) created special designs for the Tavern on web and mobile to help everyone get hyped about taking the monster down.
We’ve been able to make incremental improvements like these to the World Bosses each time, including adding animation in 2016, but this year’s World Boss has had the most improvements yet, including the revamped design in the Tavern, the detailed NPC banners in the event of a Rage Strike, and the improved integration with our mobile apps. And of course, as we look forward to future World Bosses, there will be plenty more fun in store!
With so many moving parts and so many folks involved, it takes a lot of cooperation, coordination, commitment, and time to bring a World Boss to the Tavern. But when we see how much the community enjoys fighting to save Habitica, it makes it all worthwhile!
get organized. stay motivated. have fun. 
