Tiny Guru

A month of side-hustling and I have what I'd call a pretty polished game. The hardest part was probably the aesthetics - instead of following the candy-colored toon-dominated design trends in mobile games, I choose to go for a subdued, abstract, minimalist feel. Not just because it looks good, but because I don't want the game with its reward mechanics to be targeted at teenagers.

So here is what you can do in Tiny Guru now:

Train Gurus. To train a guru, you have to stop using your phone for 15 minutes - if you touch it, training fails and you have to start again.

Use those Gurus to explore your island and claim new houses.

Send Gurus to harvest fruit from the tree of power. Fruit give you a "save-me" mechanic if you touch your phone and they regrow over time. And of course you can always buy more with real cash.

The idea of Tiny Guru is not new - an app that will "lock away" your phone by forcing you to keep the app open. Forest is one popular example.

What if we combined that idea with the mechanics that made FarmVille and Clash of Clans so popular (and addictive)?

I built a super quick prototype in React Native and sent it to friends for feedback and validation.