02 · Gamified productivity · 2025NeuroDrill
A pixel-art idle game where a mining robot only works while you leave your phone alone. Focus is the resource.
The challengeMake “leaving your phone alone” feel like winning
Deep focus is harder than ever, and most productivity apps answer with a timer that feels like a punishment. I wanted a tool where staying off your phone is the fun part — where the reward is visible, accumulates, and is yours to spend.
The ideaFocus becomes an in-game resource
You control a remote mining robot. It only works while you are not using the phone. Switch apps and the mining stops; minimise for too long and the connection weakens and the robot drops what it carried.
The loop: link up → collect → upgrade.
- Link up. Pick a 25, 40 or 60 minute session. The timer starts and the robot starts digging.
- Collect. Finished sessions yield minerals — Ferrosite, Zyronite, Neurite, Crysallium, the rare Aetherore — that land in the warehouse.
- Upgrade. Spend them in the market on robot parts — helmet, body, arms, legs — in aluminium, kevlar, carbon or titanium. Better parts mine faster next time.
MechanicsFour rules that keep it honest
- Distraction penalty. Leave the app and the link visibly degrades; the robot drops resources. The cost of looking at your phone is immediate and legible.
- Dual link. A co-op mode: invite a friend, and if you both stay focused you each get a +20% synergy bonus.
- Habit visualisers. A contribution-style heatmap and daily streaks make consistency tangible — a familiar pattern from developer tools, borrowed on purpose.
- No in-app purchases. Every upgrade has to be earned with real focus time. There is nothing to buy your way out of.
Design notesPixel art, but calm
Pixel art lets the robot, the moon and the minerals read at a glance, and it stays light on the eye during a long session. The palette is dark with one accent per session length — red for 25 minutes, blue for 40, purple for 60 — so the screen you stare at least is also the quietest one. Everything else — warehouse, market, tasks — lives one tab away, deliberately out of reach while the timer runs.