I’m building a wellness app as a fantasy world. Curious if this resonates or if I’m overthinking it.
Hey Indie Hackers 👋
I’m Ed, and I’ve been building software for a long time — mostly serious, complex, “adult” systems.
Recently I found myself stuck on a different problem:
Most wellness, productivity, and habit apps feel like more work.
More dashboards. More guilt. More pressure to be “better.”
So I tried something different.
Instead of building another app with features, I started building a world.
In this world (called Viola), Gratitude, Journaling, Daily Tasks, Goals, Quotes, and Wellbeing aren’t menu items — they’re companions. You move through the world by doing small, real things. Consistency earns points. Progress unlocks rewards. Not to hack motivation, but to make growth feel lighter and more human.
There’s no “fix yourself” vibe.
No hustle language.
Just gentle forward motion.
I’m still early, and honestly I’m trying to validate a few things:
Does story + gamification make emotional wellness feel more approachable?
Is this a refreshing angle… or just unnecessary narrative?
Would you use something like this — and if not, why?
I’m not chasing scale yet. I’m chasing signal.
If you’ve built in wellness, habits, or motivation — or if you’ve bounced off those apps entirely — I’d really value your perspective.
Happy to share more details if useful.
Thanks for reading 🌱
Love this approach. Making growth feel lighter and more human really resonates. Curious, how do you guide users who might skip small tasks? Do they still feel progress without points/rewards?
Congratulations on your launch. It looks impressive! What channels are you exploring to attract early users?
I like the concept, especially framing wellness as a “fantasy world.”
One thing I’ve seen work well is testing the feel early — subtle animations, transitions, and flow matter a lot more than features here.
Even a rough interactive preview can tell you quickly if users emotionally connect or not.
Yo Ed, this is such a refreshing pivot from the usual 'productivity porn' we see everywhere! I’ve personally deleted so many habit trackers because they eventually just felt like a second job or a source of digital guilt. Turning these habits into 'companions' in a world rather than just checkboxes is a clever way to lower the barrier to entry for emotional wellness. I’m curious though, how do you balance the 'gamification' part without making it feel like another thing users have to 'grind' at? If you can keep that gentle vibe while still making the progress feel tangible, you’re definitely onto something unique here. Would love to see how the narrative unfolds as you build it out!
Hey Ed,
This sounds like an interesting approach to a problem, I think a lot of busy people have. I don't use wellness apps anymore because they started to seem like an over-complication of something that could be done much more easily in the real world.
Regarding the things you're trying to validate: I'm not sure how "approachable" gamification makes emotional wellness, but I'm sure storytelling does. I think approachability is somewhat subjective, though.
For this to be effective, I think the story framework would have to resonate with the user. I think I'm missing some context. In some ways, it does sound like "unnecessary narrative," but that depends on the user.
Who is your ideal user? And has it helped you?
Hi Ed - your post resonated with my idea of wellness. I’m building wellbody.me - can you check it out? Maybe we can join forces. DM me if you are interested.