Guardians: Unite the Realms 9+

I have suggestions

This app is an admirable idea, but a few minor tweaks I think would make it more powerful as a self-care tool.

Being able to go on multiple adventures a day, (maybe only the first one ‘counts,’ for the big reward, but the following ones give minor gold rewards, stamina, etc.,) could help keep the play cycle active and build a habit of doing a minor, positive thing each time you’re compulsively checking your phone.

Also, when doing a custom adventure, being able to type in your custom adventure in will help make it feel tangible. And, having a list of your old custom adventures remembered might be a good prompt, especially for ADHD, when you know you should do something but you just can’t remember in the moment all the things you told yourself you wanted to get done.

Developer Response ,

Thank you so much for the review and suggestions!

We do have plans to include naming and saving custom adventures. That particular feature was too complicated to include at launch, but rest assured, it is on our plate!

Allowing multiple adventures a day is also an interesting idea, and we're closely monitoring feedback on the topic. We wanted to start by mimicking most common behavioral activation therapies that focus on building a daily schedule/habit, but we will be keeping a close eye on how The Guardians can best help people when they need it!

Now what?

Let me start by saying that there are a lot of qualities about this game that I enjoyed. Having a real life goal was something I found very helpful, and, like many other reviewers, I would love to be able to do more than one a day for extra motivation. The art is cute and the game was overall simple but pretty fun.
However, I found myself also spending hours starting quests and watching the roughly 30 seconds pass over and over repeatedly, just as was mentioned in another review. This is certainly a personal problem of mine, but it does seem a bit counter-productive. I found myself doing a project before I started my “adventure” in-game, and then working on my animals while the time passed instead of choosing a new adventure and putting my phone down to accomplish a new task. Might I suggest (if it’s possible) that during an adventure, the game pauses itself until the adventure is completed? I feel that would possibly force people to actually be a bit more motivated to do the adventure when they say they are going to.
I’ve had this game for about a week. I’ve finished chapter one, maxed out several animals, and have no more legendary quests. I can’t open chapter two for 11 more days, which unfortunately means that my impatient self will probably bore of the game before that week and a half passes because I no longer have a goal, but hopefully that won’t be the case. I see a lot of potential here and I am interested in seeing what is added in the future.

Great to get me feel like I’m doing SOMETHING

I really love this app. Even when I’m just upgrading my pets it feels like I am doing something that is better than some of my bad habits when I’m depressed. There are a few things I wish were different: 1) I wish there were more opportunities for adventures throughout the day, even if you don’t get more pets I want to feel like I’m being encouraged to get up and do more real life adventures more often; 2) I didn’t realize when you go to the next land all your pets and rewards go away :( I developed an attachment to my pets and I thought that maybe going to the next land the challenges would start at 50xp with the same characters, not have to start over completely again. This honestly detached me from the game a little. I loved how cute the pets were from the forest and I don’t really care for the Halloween land at all. I also am disappointed you can’t get item rewards in the next land, and you can only get candy, coins, and outfits. The outfits and coins only come few and far between. Right now I’m just racking up candy but I’m not able to do much more because I can’t afford any of the items so I don’t play as much anymore :(
3) maybe add a section for suggestions since it’s a fairly new way and I feel like I have no other way of communicating other than through reviews?
I hope you can take my suggestions and perhaps change them in some way!