Escape Boredom with Shuffle My Life
Do you get bored often and not sure how to relieve yourself? Well, do random tasks with Shuffle My Life and banish your Boredom. The application is offered by James Gadsby and is available for free in the Google Play Store with In-app purchases.
Shuffle My Life is simple to play. Find tasks by swiping left and perform the task. You will be awarded with points when you cleared a task. These points will help you level up and unlock tasks that are more difficult. Track your progress in the My Progress section of the app.
With pro version, you can do group tasks, Save the tasks to do later or get notified to do tasks. The pro version costs $ 1.99.
Great Day Readers! To give us more insights into the application development, the developer James Gadsby responded to the questions. Here are the Q&A exclusive to our readers.
1. Tell us about yourself?
I'm originally from England but moved to the USA in 2014. I'm self-taught; I have always had a passion for software that can genuinely improve peoples' lives. I worked on a web version of Shuffle My Life as long ago as 2011, and it went through several versions before I began seriously working on the Android app. I now develop Android apps for a living!
2. What was your inspiration that leads to the creation of Shuffle My Life?
I was bored, at home on a break from college, and I went for a walk at my local park. As I was doing so, I realized much of my life was stuck in a routine - the same kind of days, repeated again and again. I wanted to break out of that cycle but I didn't know how. I realized how fun it'd be to give my free time up to random chance, so I went home and created a deck of cards with random activities ('tasks') I wanted to do. I still remember that night - I had a great time learning new things, trying random hobbies and playing video games I hadn't thought to dust off in years. The next few days, I began working on a web version of the game, where a deck of cards is shuffled and a random task was chosen.
After many iterations of much the same idea, and after building the knowledge to do so, I wanted to make the game more personal and always suggest tasks that people would, and could do at that moment. So I introduced the filters that appear in the app today, and wrote an algorithm to ensure only tasks relevant to the user would show up - e.g. is it raining right now? If so, don't suggest tasks, which require lots of time outdoors. Is it nighttime? Don't suggest walking through an unknown area of the city. Is there a park nearby?
I think the above changes really added a lot to the game - before, people would be put off by tasks they simply couldn't do at the time.
3. What was the biggest challenge faced while developing Shuffle My Life?
The biggest challenge has been, really, coming up with interesting content to ensure the app stays 'balanced' in terms of tasks suggested. The technical challenges were not bad by comparison. There are almost 700 tasks in the app today, and it's becoming harder to imagine new ones. Luckily, the community is really helping this process through the task suggestion system built into the app. I'd say 80% of new tasks added come from my users, so if you're reading this, thank you!
From a technical standpoint, writing the algorithm that I mentioned above was fairly challenging. There's several moving parts and getting a good outcome for the user in terms of which tasks are available was tricky!
4. What features can be expected in the upcoming updates?
As usual, I'm working (on and off) on an iOS port of the app (release date: when it's ready), and am also working to resolve some long-standing bugs and glitches in the Android app. I have a few radical architectural changes to make, but they should make the app feel much more fluid. After that, it's really just more and more content and the possibility of localization.
5. Is there anything else you want to tell our readers?
Thank you for checking out the app! Let me know what you think; I read each and every review.
Shuffle My Life is simple to play. Find tasks by swiping left and perform the task. You will be awarded with points when you cleared a task. These points will help you level up and unlock tasks that are more difficult. Track your progress in the My Progress section of the app.
With pro version, you can do group tasks, Save the tasks to do later or get notified to do tasks. The pro version costs $ 1.99.
Great Day Readers! To give us more insights into the application development, the developer James Gadsby responded to the questions. Here are the Q&A exclusive to our readers.
1. Tell us about yourself?
I'm originally from England but moved to the USA in 2014. I'm self-taught; I have always had a passion for software that can genuinely improve peoples' lives. I worked on a web version of Shuffle My Life as long ago as 2011, and it went through several versions before I began seriously working on the Android app. I now develop Android apps for a living!
2. What was your inspiration that leads to the creation of Shuffle My Life?
I was bored, at home on a break from college, and I went for a walk at my local park. As I was doing so, I realized much of my life was stuck in a routine - the same kind of days, repeated again and again. I wanted to break out of that cycle but I didn't know how. I realized how fun it'd be to give my free time up to random chance, so I went home and created a deck of cards with random activities ('tasks') I wanted to do. I still remember that night - I had a great time learning new things, trying random hobbies and playing video games I hadn't thought to dust off in years. The next few days, I began working on a web version of the game, where a deck of cards is shuffled and a random task was chosen.
After many iterations of much the same idea, and after building the knowledge to do so, I wanted to make the game more personal and always suggest tasks that people would, and could do at that moment. So I introduced the filters that appear in the app today, and wrote an algorithm to ensure only tasks relevant to the user would show up - e.g. is it raining right now? If so, don't suggest tasks, which require lots of time outdoors. Is it nighttime? Don't suggest walking through an unknown area of the city. Is there a park nearby?
I think the above changes really added a lot to the game - before, people would be put off by tasks they simply couldn't do at the time.
3. What was the biggest challenge faced while developing Shuffle My Life?
The biggest challenge has been, really, coming up with interesting content to ensure the app stays 'balanced' in terms of tasks suggested. The technical challenges were not bad by comparison. There are almost 700 tasks in the app today, and it's becoming harder to imagine new ones. Luckily, the community is really helping this process through the task suggestion system built into the app. I'd say 80% of new tasks added come from my users, so if you're reading this, thank you!
From a technical standpoint, writing the algorithm that I mentioned above was fairly challenging. There's several moving parts and getting a good outcome for the user in terms of which tasks are available was tricky!
4. What features can be expected in the upcoming updates?
As usual, I'm working (on and off) on an iOS port of the app (release date: when it's ready), and am also working to resolve some long-standing bugs and glitches in the Android app. I have a few radical architectural changes to make, but they should make the app feel much more fluid. After that, it's really just more and more content and the possibility of localization.
5. Is there anything else you want to tell our readers?
Thank you for checking out the app! Let me know what you think; I read each and every review.
