Furnace - For your wellness

We created a mobile app that rewards the user in-game when they develop healthy habits. This is achieved by tracking the user's habits via the Apple Health app to improve their pet's well-being.

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Inspiration

Tomodachi Life and Talking Tom inspired us with the idea that a simple digital pet can create emotional attachment through interaction. We wanted to take that concept further and turn it into something meaningful. ⸻

What it does

Furnace is a virtual wellness companion designed to help users build healthier habits through interaction rather than pressure. Users care for their pet by checking in, completing small wellness actions, and staying consistent. The pet reacts, grows, and changes based on how the user treats it, turning self-care into something engaging instead of overwhelming.

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How we built it

We built Furnace as a mobile app using a component-based UI with custom artwork and animations to give the pet personality. The app tracks user interactions and wellness actions and maps them to the pet’s state and behavior. We focused on keeping the experience lightweight, intuitive, and visually friendly so users could jump in without a learning curve.

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Challenges we ran into

One of our biggest challenges was balancing simplicity and meaning — making the app easy to use without making it feel shallow. We also ran into technical challenges around asset handling, state management, and ensuring the pet’s behavior felt responsive rather than scripted. Time constraints forced us to prioritize core interactions over extra features.

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Accomplishments that we’re proud of     •    Designing an experience that reframes wellness as something supportive instead of demanding     •    Successfully integrating visual design and interaction logic into a cohesive product

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What we learned

We learned how powerful emotional design can be when building wellness tools. Small details — animations, reactions, tone — matter just as much as features. Technically, we improved our skills in UI structure, asset management, and debugging under time pressure. We also learned the importance of cutting scope early and executing one idea well.

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What’s next for Furnace – For Your Wellness

Next, we want to expand Furnace with personalized wellness goals, long-term progression, and deeper pet behaviors. We also plan to add reminders, streaks, and optional reflection prompts while keeping the experience gentle and non-judgmental. Long term, we see Furnace becoming a daily companion that supports mental health, routine building, and emotional awareness.

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