After the explorations on the possible use of Stories in Life Planning (see previous post “The Role & Power of Stories“), I was still not certain that I should go full theoretical on my explorations and especially in how to communicate and engage with others. So I made the question “What if we could use a Game approach?”. This could break the barrier of Life Planning not being fun, appeal to younger audiences, create a group dynamic and allow to plan as others, not just our own personal case.

As I expand below, the idea took some ground, survived pre-checks made with friends and is connected with some previously made attempts by others but nothing as I envision. After I invest more in a Framework, I would definitely like to test it, especially the idea of a physical boardgame like Monopoly for Life Planning 🙂

Kinds of Games that could be created

The first option I thought of was a Role Play Game where you act as someone trying to Plan Life in order to reach Goals. This could be any form of card, board or digital game, although I thought of it as a board game. The idea, in a very simplistic fashion, is this:

1. You get assigned Life Context cards like Country, Health, Income, Family…
2. You also get assigned Skills like Time Management, Self-Awareness, Social…
3. You also get Life Goal cards like Open My Company, Have Kids, Be Rich…
4. The Game is played in turns of, for example, 5 years each where you do some decisions and receive changes in your Context cards that come both from dice (luck) and time advancing (age).
5. The Goal of the game is not just to reach the Goals you got, but also to try not to get derailed in some critical context variables while doing so.
6. You could lay against “destiny” in solo mode or in group mode (maybe with some kind of interaction between players, like two being a couple).

Another option is to apply the game idea to each individual case, trying to define my actual state and simulating scenarios. In this case, I imagine it as a physical card with moving papers that you would stand on the wall and review from time to time.

1. You set up your current status and your expectations in up to five Life Dimensions you consider critical (financial, social, time allocation, family, etc).
2. Using a series of supplied matrices built with both your current status and the natural evolution of each with aging and maybe some dice throwing, you would get two scenarios for each future horizon, for example at 5, 10 and 20 years.
3. You would influence these scenarios by choices of Balance like transferring Time from Career to Family or Changing to More Enviromental Habits and check the impact on the Scenarios.
4. The goals of the game are both to acknowledge that luck and Future Horizons are part of Life Planning but you can try to influence them by balancing your focus.

Websites and Apps that already use this approach

By asking some friends and exploring the internet I come across some existing Life Plan Gamification that could contribute with rules, ideas and understanding of what works or not with different audiences.

Physical Games

1. Lives Full of Nothing – a super simple game divided into Life Horizons and what lessons you can get at each one.
2. Not easy to find more, not even searching by “life simulation” in large repositories like itch.io.

Life Simulation Games

1. Sims – By far the most popular. Extensively complete. You can live apparently “real lives” in the game. No focus on Life Planning.
2. Second Life – Like Sims but adds a link between real money and virtual in-game money, so you can actually make a living while playing it.
3. Virtual Families– There’s a nice idea of spanning various generations.
4. Kudos 2 – Played in turns. Nice ideas on planning week and on social interactions and jobs.

Life Gamification Apps

1. Habitica/HabitHunter – Increase your points and unlock adventures by… tracking and following your personal habits. Much more like those in this review.
2. LifeRPG – Create Missions that actually relate to your Life Goals. Only available for Consoles.

Life Gamification Frameworks or Platforms

1. Octalysis Framework – a solid and extensive framework to use gamification to change your behaviors. Includes a book and a lot of references but some part is paid
2. Adventures to Authenticity – Coaching in turning your life into a fantasy quest or adventure.