tolarewaju3

It's a real-world game to beat social anxiety called Roadmap. It's not super complex. Here are the main technologies I'm using.

AWS DynamoDB

AWS Cognito

AWS Lambda for AI calls

Cocoa Control libraries for showing players challenges, progress, and unlocks

OneSignal Push Notifs to notify players of changing game state

I know that all of these have Swift libraries or probably some similar ones. And I've written some swift code. But I'm just wondering about the syntax shift or other gotchas that I may not be thinking about. Even things like connecting to the storyboard seem like they might have minor differences

This is good and actionable. I work for Red Hat, so I actually love this

Good idea!!

I’d never thought about this actually. I’ll definitely check out hacker spaces

LOLL

Ahh this is good advice. Thank you!!

Thibault did an excellent walkthrough of my landing page and found some points that were confusing with my game.

They actually posted on reddit and i got a review for free but I'd actually pay for it.

I've found that there is one common root for Social Anxiety: an extreme desire for approval.

When we want others' approval so bad, we become anxious when thinking about losing it. This fear becomes a discouraging spiral.

Fear of what you think --> Running from opportunities & ruin my life --> Regret & feel more discouraged

And so, to combat this, we need encouragement to take even the smallest step to break that. Ultimately, I'm trying to create a success spiral.

Take a small step --> Celebrate / track your win / see growth --> Get encouraged to take a bigger step

Little by little, this rewires us to let go of people's approval, build confidence and live more fulfilling lives.

Nothing is perfect, but sometimes simplicity can lead us to believe that it doesn't address a complex root.

I love games. I think they are (when done correctly) the single best way to motivate us to do good for ourselves

Yeah I didn't realize that the screens made it seem like it was all about work. Most of the categories in the app aren't.

I myself mostly struggle with Social Anxiety outside of work.

This is good feedback though.

LOL. This made me chuckle. It's actually the opposite of what I think a side project is. I was actually referring to things done for my own goals outside of work.

For example, sharing Roadmap would be what I would do for that step

Nice tip!

Eye contact is hard but crucial

I am the same way! Most of my Social Anxiety comes down to sharing things that are weird about me or confronting people.

I also find it easier to do these things when I don't know the person. With people closer to me, it's actually worse.

Nope. But I will update the screens to show that. It's really any type of thing that people get anxious about. Here are some of the categories

- Speaking in public

- Sharing Ideas

- Going to Social Events

- Disagreeing with people

- Meeting new people

- Asking for help

Glad you were able to overcome it!

Agreed. People are not thinking of us nearly as much as we think

Thanks!

And yes, I know I'll have to strike a balance between "here's what helped me" and disclaimers. But this essentially expresses my views.

I do understand that there are things I'll need to do to put people's minds at ease and like the author of the comment said, avoid negative discourse.

Bingo.

It's a mix of exposure therapy and CBT. I understand that people are concerned over the simplified approach. But like most things (therapy included), if it's not simple enough to understand, it doesn't get used.

Many Social Anxiety therapists first go will be exposure therapy -- gradually exposing their clients to fears until they don't feel it as much. We employ a version of this in Roadmap. The levels start out small and then gradually introduce larger steps at the player's pace.

CBT - This practice comes in two parts: identifying the underlying thoughts / beliefs of the anxiety. And then forming skills / behaviors to tackle that.

Social Anxiety is focused on our future failures in front of people. In Roadmap, that central belief is uprooted when we capture your wins and replay them to you over and over.

Instead of focusing on future failures & being discouraged, we rewire the mind to appreciate past wins & build confidence.

First of all, thanks so much for your feedback. You have a fair point that I'll have to consider while building.

And while I agree that the reasons for Social Anxiety may differ, I've found that there is one common root: an extreme desire for approval.

This drives the anxiety. When we want others' approval so bad, we become anxious when thinking about losing it. This fear becomes a discouraging spiral.

Fear of what you think --> Running from opportunities & ruin my life --> Regret & feel more discouraged

And it starts over again. Social Anxiety is discouraging. And so, to combat this, we need encouragement to take even the smallest step. You have no idea how many people I've talked to who were so happy to just be able say hello to someone. Encouragement is the lifeblood of overcoming Social Anxiety.

Ultimately, I'm trying to create a success spiral.

Take a small step --> Celebrate / track your win / see growth --> Get encouraged to take a bigger step

Little by little, this rewires us to let go of people's approval and live fulfilling lives.

I am not a therapist. But I have struggled with Social Anxiety for most of my life and have been involved with helping that community for years now too. This game is also one I've played for the past 7 years -- and it's helped me grow.

Some people may need a therapist. Others need a personal encourager

Hey. This is a good callout. Honestly, I should have done more due diligence with generating privacy policies before this. I do not have any plans to sell user's data. I wrote my full thoughts on that in my reply to the top comment.

But we do store data in the cloud and use analytics to understand usage data. So technically, I am disclosing certain data with those companies.

* first name

* the type of step you took (ex. Commenting on a social media post)

* email address

The data that is collected is to understand how people are using the app, if it's helping them overcome Social Anxiety, and to contact them for stuff.

This thread has made me realize that I need to re-work the privacy policy. Most policies are made to be pretty unclear and actually obfuscate what will actually be done with data. I hate reading those and just want to know:

* What data is collected & why

* Where it's being sent

If anyone has other concerns, you can drop me a line at teeoh@roadmaptogrow.com. I am quite committed to being upfront with this -- even if people don't like the all of the policy.

Apart from having your data locally hosted on your phone, what else would put your mind at ease?

I understand the frustration and mistrust with things like this. I don't know if I can answer every qualm on here. Because honestly, most of them are valid and have examples of companies that have mishandled our data. That being said, I'll say a few things.

1. I will not sell people's mental health data. As someone who has struggled with Social Anxiety (the fear of being judged), the last thing I want is my personal life made public or revealed without my consent.

2. I think this does deserve some eye-roll, since many people say they won't do that at the beginning. But after spending a lot of my life struggling with hiding stuff, there's not a monetary value that could make me do that to someone else.

3. I'm also not really a fan of advertising. I plan on charging for features people actually find valuable. Some people will probably get angry at that too, but a price tag upfront means I don't need to sell you (and your data) behind your back.

There's always a cost to things. I plan on being painfully upfront.

I truly appreciate your comment though. I know going forward that I'll need to be very clear about privacy and data governance to put people at ease. And then, actually stick to what I say.

I'm curious though, are you talking about Apple as the platform that can't be trusted?

Thanks so much for the nice feedback! I'm glad you enjoy the little things like I do :)

I like it! Clean landing page.

I'm also a big fan of practicing gratitude daily. It's great for stress relief and overall well being. I think the audio prompts are an easy way to get people started.

My main feedback would be to get clear on the end result. Is it capturing life's moments or achieving goals?

I'd also consider have a middle section with "How it Works" so people can visualize what they'll be doing. Like a 3 step process.

For the framework, the iPhone app is written in objective-c with a bunch of open source controls from cocoacontrols.com

Thanks for looking!

Oh wow. Thanks for looking into that. I'll have to fix this

Are you sure? Just tested them again and they seem to work. What country are you in? I did have to recently fix the availability in certain countries

Haha thanks for the tip!

Woah, this is a great site! Thanks for the heads up

Exactly. It seems like there's not really a good place for me to read others work OR post my own

I probably wasn't as clear as I thought. The problem I'm trying to solve is this: we often put of tasks because we don't know where to begin. But someone has likely figured it out already.

Thanks for the feedback!

Can you help me beta test this? I'd absolutely love your feedback along the way. I'm at tolarewaju3@gmail.com