Up until now, I have released very little information about Fuzzlr other than what's on the beta sign-up page: "Complete your real world goals and save fuzzles from danger!" and the general description I give out: "Fuzzlr is a productivity app that uses game-like play to motivate you into completing goals".
Other than that there have been a few images of "fuzzles" and nothing much else besides. There have been a few assumptions as to the nature of Fuzzlr, including one where it has been assumed I am developing some crazy Enterprise application for project management!
The point of this post is to clear up some of these misconceptions and give an overview of the intended application of Fuzzlr and who it is for.
What Fuzzlr ISN'T ... and then IS
First of all, Fuzzlr is NOT an Enterprise app. It is not intended for serious task management. You could use it in business if you wanted to and, if it works, fantastic, but Enterprise is not the intended audience. Fuzzlr IS for the less serious. It is intended to be a fun productivity app for anyone who wants to complete personal goals in a fun, game-like way; particularly those of you who suffer from distractions and want to use something slightly more compelling than a bog standard todo list app or scrap of paper.
The user interface is intended to be simple and intuitive: adding and completing goals will be quick and easy and the app itself will be a pleasure to use. It will be a web app with native apps for both Android and iPhone.
Saving Fuzzles from Danger!
So what's this about saving fuzzles from danger, you ask? The point of Fuzzlr is to motivate you to complete your goals and it attempts to achieve this in several ways. The first way is to save a fuzzle. You set your goal and deadline and then are presented with a fuzzle, frozen in time, just before it falls into a pit of lava (or one of several other platform game-like perilous scenarios) and, most important of all, a countdown timer! Complete your goal to save the fuzzle or else it will perish!
Rewards
When you save a fuzzle, you receive a reward in the form of in-game currency, experience points (XP) and loot. You can even set your own incentives (a bar of chocolate, 30 minutes extra game-time, watch the new box office movie).
Level-Up
You can level-up in Fuzzlr, just like you would in a game. Your XP is spread across various skills relevant to whatever real world goals you have completed. Skills can be anything from vacuuming and reading to brain surgery (depending on your hobbies/chores). As you gain XP in the various skills you will also unlock new titles (Master Vacuumer?) and exclusive site features. This is all stored in your profile along with all the goals you have completed to shows you your progress within Fuzzlr.
Spending Those Rewards
In-game currency can be spent on unlocking site features, purchasing accessories/upgrades etc for your Fuzzle Pet, on Pledges or to Create Challenges.
Fuzzle Pet
Everyone has a fuzzle pet, it is entirely up to you if you choose to engage with this aspect of the app, but it does give you something extra to spend your hard-earned cash on. You can purchase accessories, either from the Fuzzlr Shop or from other users (who may have picked up some rare loot) to customize your fuzzle. You can even customize their environment and upgrade it by purchasing a house which can also be further extended. This can then be shared with friends.
Pledges
Fuzzlr will have its own social network. You can support other users or be supported by them (kind of like Twitter's follow/followers model). You can also give support to individual goals a user is trying to complete or offer pledges - this can be in the form of in-game currency, loot or real world incentives. The user can then choose to accept the pledge once they have completed the goal.
Create Challenges
You can issue challenges to other users, either directly or by looking down a Challenge List and offer incentives in return for completing the challenge. Accepting challenges lets you earn more in-game currency or loot from other users.
And that's it in a nutshell. It's just a fun way of completing goals in a game-like way. With all that in mind, I would be grateful if you could please complete the following survey to make sure the app I'm developing is being taken in the right direction. When answering the questions, please think in the context of Fuzzlr, but also think about how you would prefer to achieve goals (whether it's the Fuzzlr way or not).
Fuzzlr Productivity App Survey
Thanks, you can also sign up to the Fuzzlr beta by clicking here and see below if you're still wondering what fuzzles are.
