🐾 Task-Buddy

Overview

Task Buddy is a MEN stack CRUD app designed to make staying on top of your to-dos fun and rewarding. Every completed task earns you rewards to interact with your very own digital pet! Stay productive, level up, and turn your to-do list into a game you actually want to play! 🎮✅🐾

Task Buddy App - Try it out!

Youtube Demo:

Techstack

🛠 Built With:

• Node.js + Express
• MongoDB + Mongoose
• EJS templating
• HTML/CSS/JS

Credit to Caz-creates-games for the character sprites.

🚀 Installation

To install this app, please install the project dependencies and run it locally. Task Buddy is currently hosted on:

Heroku

1. clone the repo
2. Run a terminal and cd into folder Client
3. Install dependencies npm install
4. Seed initial data node seed/items.js
5. Start the app npm run dev
6. See the magic on your http://localhost:3000

Wireframes and Data Model

More information and details can be found on:

Trello.

Data Model:

💭 Difficulties/Unsolved Problems

• Inventory sync timing: Sometimes items earned on level-up don’t appear until after a manual refresh. Needs better real-time sync.
• Pet animation quirks: Sprite animations occasionally flicker or flip unexpectedly, especially on edge collision or smaller screens.
• Responsive design bugs: On mobile, some UI elements like the inventory or pet environment lose spacing or scale poorly.
• Session state persistence: Keeping selected pets and equipped items persistent across sessions needs improvement.
• Modal on level-up: Modal popup with rewards on level-up is not consistently displaying as expected.

🚧 Future Development

• Mood-based tasks: Add a mood tracker that influences or is influenced by the user's tasks (e.g., a task marked with "tired" might give more points if completed late at night).

• Mood journal / calendar view: Include a component that visualizes the user's daily mood entries alongside task completion.

• Multiple pets: Allow users to unlock, adopt, and switch between multiple pets. Each could have unique idle animations or effects.

• Drag-and-drop decor: Give players the ability to customize their pet's environment by dragging and placing unlocked decor wherever they want.

• Inventory expansion: Add support for equipping multiple items at once (e.g., hat + background + toy), with possible save/load functionality.

• In-game store: Introduce a cute coin/reward system to "buy" cosmetics and pets beyond what’s unlocked by level.

• Cloud save & login enhancements: Add password reset, email verification, and potentially OAuth login for easier access.