Sprout

Desktop companion keeping you motivated

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Inspiration

So I was playing Cornerpond, a desktop game, in the middle of a League of Legends match, and then it suddenly struck me. Many students like to save their timetable or their TODO lists as their phone wallpaper to be productive. Similarly, if I'm willing to play Cornerpond and have it stuck in the corner of my screen, I could make it to help me stay on top of my TODO list!

The direction of the app mainly takes inspiration from idle growth games, games that require a little engagement every day in order to progress, which is actually quite fitting for productivity, as small habits go a long way.

Alter Ego is a mobile game that served as a heavy inspiration for the direction of the game, elaborated in sections below.

What it does

It is a desktop app that stays at the corner of your screen, always on top of your windows, so you can see your TODO lists.

It has a few features to keep the user coming back to it and revisit the things they plan to finish. One being a little streak progression thing, for every day the user interacts with the app, the sapling grows a little, eventually into a giant tree with a town starting to form around it. Another big draw is that there is a mysterious woman who would walk in and talk to you once every day for a little bit. To encourage daily interaction, the user gets to discover the story of what happened before this sapling is planted here, and who she is.

How we built it

The entire thing was mostly built on PyQt Designer, PySide6 and a lot of shwarma for most of the layout and application. The sprites, including background, character animation, and menu screens, are made with Procreate.

Challenges we ran into

Given the nature of the project, a very large emphasis is placed on functionality and the user experience. Having a well-designed UI that's nice to interact with. This is also the first time our group is trying to build an entire app from the ground up, finding music and implementing soundtracks, creating art and texture, while also trying to make sure everything is serving the goal and atmosphere of the app. It took a lot of coordination, but also very diverse challenges that are not just programming-related.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

As mentioned before, despite difficulties, we are proud that we have built the app from the ground up. Out of all the hackathons we have done, this is the most cohesive thing our group has created, with every part of the app being intentionally designed and implemented to create a specific experience.

What we learned

UI is very elaborate and painful to track. Especially when working with new libraries. We also learnt how to make and compile a functioning app, as most of our team is more experienced with web apps.

What's next for Sprout

We do indeed plan on working on this more, probably posting it on itch.io or other similar platforms.

  • ACCESSORIES FOR OUR TREE!!
  • More QOL functions such as repeat daily/monthly/yearly, copy tasks, edit tasks and give them more attributes.
  • Weather animations overlay, such as rain, snow, and clouds. MAYBE CALL API TO LINK UP ANIMATION WITH REGIONAL WEATHER
  • Change the sprite of the tree depending on day or night, and the season of the year.
  • Random events that change the sprite, like a caravan arriving in the town.
  • More sprites in general, more sprites for the background, more sprites for the woman to allow her to change emotions depending on what she is saying.
  • Completed story and lore revolving around the woman, who she is, why she is here, etc. This will involve special story events where a unique dialogue will play that reveals a lot about her. MAYBE ANIMATED SEQUENCES.
  • Animation for the tree to idle in the background.

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