Monday, August 23, 2010

Epic Win App

Doing things were never this much entertaining. Over the years I've been obsessed with tech apps and gadgets that I get so much indulged that consequently sooner becomes boring. Interestingly, being a sort of a gamer from back of the mind, games are the only thing that I never get bored off. And games apart, as a matter of fact, we all love doing thing to win, no matter if there is any competition or not, we love to get more points and get higher rank in whatever leader board it is.

That's the concept the perhaps evolved this killer app for phones - EpicWin. It is basically a to-do list. Yes, plain old to-do list, but the funny thing is, you get points when you do the things in the list. Interestingly, you set points on your own for the things you do. And as you gather points, you achieve levels. Great! so you can be naive or beginner or Swarthy Dwarven Toiler, a C.E.O. of pain, or even a Mistress of Task Domination.

Beware, technology is coming to life!

 


6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Very cool app. You love anything that involves leveling up or points!

Neha said...

Like you, I’ve been waiting months (really? okay maybe a month and a half) for EpicWin—based on the sheer humor value of the trailer.

I also use Things for task management so I have no idea how this will work for me. Then again, I am getting tired of checking off “® Make your bed” every morning (or, honestly, every few mornings). So maybe in chores like that, it’ll help. Maybe get some points for scumming Marie’s swish-and-wipe chore? At least when I fought Entropy with Life Balance, I got some weird zen credit or something. *sigh*

BTW, I haven’t seen you around… err, or maybe you haven’t seen me around. In any case, if it becomes another year again since we touch base, you better start leveling up, or I’ll next time you see me, I’ll be bragging about me leveling to be “lord of the task”…or something.

Ron said...

Wow, thanks for letting us know about this app V! I’ll have to check it out. Making work into a game sounds fun.

Kim said...

I love the app! I got it jut 1 hour after release. The only issue I have with it is going to be fixed in the new update that is already in Apple’s hands. It crashes on startup. I did get to use it for one day. I got more done on that day than I usually do in 3 with 2Do (which is my mainstay ) So major kudos guys!

Sharon said...

hey readers, check out comments on itunes. kinda like, people are going crazy about this ...

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/epicwin/id372927221?mt=8

Sharon said...

the best i loved is by Veraxus:

Veraxus says ...

"The idea of turning real-life chores into an videogame RPG is sheer, unapologetic brilliance. Doing dishes becomes a quest - as does washing the car, walking the dog, or buying roses for your significant other. Where other task managers (like OmniFocus) are *technically* way more useful as actual task managers, I find that I'm just not motivated to use them. They're more work to manage when work is the very thing you're trying to streamline. EpicWin solves this problem by making task management fun!

That said, this app is still very, obviously a 1.0 product. As a task manager it's very straightforward - you create tasks with a short description and those tasks are organized by day. While there's not much in the way of advanced sorting (such as grouping or tagging), this simple, clean system works very well for what EpicWin does. You can, of course, re-order items however you like by dragging them into place. It's very simple, but it's functional, and it works (although I'd LOVE to see a tagging option in a future release).

As a game, it seems the developers created something that hints at much bigger plans... but alas, at the moment there are only mere *hints* of those plans, as the game component is sorely lacking. As you complete quests (tasks), you gain XP and your character travels along a linear path through a fantasy-themed map... occassionally earning loot. Now this is where it starts to get... um... lacking-ey. I don't really see a use for loot, other than to be sort of amusing in it's own right... or maybe to act as an incentive for compulsive collectors who just gotta catch 'em all (of which I am not one). The weird thing is that it's almost as if you might need it for some mini-game that might pop up during your usual questing... but so far, I haven't found any evidence that something like that atually exists. So I have to assume that loot simply exists for it's own sake. Meh.

But here's why EpicWin is destined to live up to it's name. The possibilities... omg, they are limitless. If the developers maintain a fairly regular update schedule, adding features that the community asks for, this could completely change the way you live your life. The good news... the developers are very active on their Facebook community, and seem to be taking all the good ideas showing up there to heart.

For my part, the point where I really see this app getting useful is if the developers add some social features into the mix. Imagine forming a party with your spouse and kids, assigning each other quests instead of chores. You'd get your usual in-game rewards and possibly some out-of-game ones as well. Adding push notices to this would, pardon the pun, push this so far over the top that my eyes bulge from the pressure of the ideas awesomeness inside my head.

But the question you're asking yourself at this point is "Should I buy this?" Well, that's a hard one. On one hand, yes. On the other hand, hell yes. While it's a little lacking in the feature department right now, it's far and away the most *fun* to-do app available for the iPhone - and that means there's a good chance that you might actually USE IT. On the other hand, you could always buy the feature-rich OmniFocus for 10x the money... and then never actually use it because it's a big ol pain in the arse. Really, it's your call."

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