TUAW review: EpicWin for iPhone

As a gamer and productivity fetishist, I've been anticipating EpicWin for iPhone since we first saw the app's trailer. It aims to enhance the drudgery of a to-do list with elements of a fantasy role-playing game like World of Warcraft, thereby adding a bit of fun to your daily tasks. I've been using it for a couple of weeks now and, while it's fun in a I'm-gaming-while-I-should-be-working way, EpicWin feels unfinished. The developers have promised (and delivered) new features via updates, but EpicWin still feels like an internal beta. Here's what I found.

Choose your character

Like many fantasy role-playing games, the first thing you've got to do when launching EpicWin is create your character. There are five to choose from, all familiar to the genre: a dwarf, a warrior priestess, an "undead" skeleton warrior, a male warrior and, oddly enough, a living tree. Think of a happy-go-lucky Ent and you'll get the idea. The first three are free; the others can be purchased in-game.


Let the questing begin!

Once that's done, it's time to enter some to-do items. This process is simple. At the top of the screen, you'll see a pencil icon next to your character's stately visage. Give it a tap to bring up the compose screen. There are five bits of information that each item needs, some of which will require explanation:

• Due date
• Description
• "Epicness"
• Category
• Repeat

Due date, description and repeating are self-explanatory. The fun is in Epicness and Category. Since this to-do list is a role-playing game, your mission is to gain experience points as you complete real-world tasks. The more points you gain, the further along your character travels on his/her journey, earning loot and status.

How many points a given task is worth is up to you; EpicWin calls this number "epicness." To begin, slide your finger across the badge to make it a higher number (pull out) or a lower number (push in). I'll shamefully admit that this took me a few seconds to figure out, tapping away uselessly and wondering if I'm too old for this sort of thing.

Finally, you must assign a category to your task. Instead of options like "office" or "phone," EpicWin offers the following:

1. Strength
2. Stamina
3. Intellect
4. Social
5. Spirit

In keeping with the game theme, your character gains points in all of these skill areas to his/her benefit. Here's how.

Gaining XP

That's experience points to you, bub. Take a look at the Profile page. You can see your character standing proud in the howling wind. Progress bars show your acquired skill levels and XP -- the amount of epicness you've acquired by completing tasks -- is measured as you try to move to the next level.

On the Loot screen your character stands on a map, moving ever onward as you get things done. After acquiring a certain amount of XP, he gets a nifty bit of treasure to carry around. You can also share your accomplishment via Twitter or Facebook.

No, it's not a "serious" task manager like many of the stodgy alternatives. Instead, EpicWin tries to interject a bit of fun. It mostly succeeds. Mostly.

Try again, quest-seeker

The biggest problem is the lack of sound. What, no sound, you say? Version 1.0 was released in full silence mode, with no sounds at all included. They've since added some with the release of version 1.01, like the aforementioned howling wind on the profile page, but there are still glaring omissions. For instance, you mark a task as done by "shooting" it into oblivion. Just touch and hold an item and your character appears, weapon blazing, to destroy that pesky task once and for all. It's rather satisfying, no? Well, no, because there's no accompanying rattle of gunfire, zing of sword blade or clash of armor.

Also, the graphics aren't optimized for the retina display, and look jaggy. This app's look is a huge part of the fun, and users like me have been spoiled by the razor sharp images in other apps.

Finally, there's no indication of how much XP I must accumulate to move to the next level. It sounds silly, but that little bit of motivation is extra fun.

I understand the desire to get your app out and into the hands of users as quickly as possible. In fairness, the developers promise to address many of my issues in the next release, and putting all of that out at once would a resulted in a huge file, possibly exceeding the 3G download maximum. Still, I wish they had held off just a bit until at least the sound was done.

I'll also say this. Version 1.2 sounds super, and I'm eager to get it. All of the flaws I described are cosmetic and not core to gameplay (or task completion. It's hard to distinguish with this game). For now, I'll say wait for version 1.2. Once it's up, I'm sure you'll love EpicWin.
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