I built a virtual pet that gets stronger when you exercise
Hello HN, I built Motion, a fitness app where your virtual pet (we call it a Motmot) grows and gets stronger as you become more active. I wanted a fitness app that didn't feel like a fitness app. Most tools are either data-heavy dashboards or generic streak counters. Neither kept me moving. I thought a creature that visibly reflects your health might create a different kind of attachment. The pet is tied to a broader system: weekly challenges against friends, points for any type of movement, and personalized goals that recalibrate based on your actual activity history rather than fixed…
What it does
In the maker’s words, at launch
Hello HN, I built Motion, a fitness app where your virtual pet (we call it a Motmot) grows and gets stronger as you become more active. I wanted a fitness app that didn't feel like a fitness app. Most tools are either data-heavy dashboards or generic streak counters. Neither kept me moving. I thought a creature that visibly reflects your health might create a different kind of attachment. The pet is tied to a broader system: weekly challenges against friends, points for any type of movement, and personalized goals that recalibrate based on your actual activity history rather than fixed targets. It connects with phones, smartwatches, and other fitness apps so it works however you already track movement. We're also running a beta of Fit Bingo, a bingo card of weekly fitness tasks, which has been more popular than I expected. Would love to hear what you think, especially if this sounds like something you'd actually use.
Does the same job
all alternatives →- FAFitocracy, an RPG for fitness2011 · ▲102
My cofounder and I have been working on a site called Fitocracy (www.fitocracy.com), which is a social game for fitness. The idea was very much inspired by our experiences growing up as nerds playing video games, later on discovering weightlifting, and drawing the parallel between working out and "leveling yourself up." XKCD has a pretty well known comic to this effect: http://xkcd.com/189/. We find that the metaphor of workout out as leveling up in a video game resonates with quite a few people, so Fitocracy is an attempt to bring that to life. On Fitocracy, tracking your workouts earns you…
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