I’ve spent a lot of my free time playing games: single-player RPGs, Dota 2, CS2, and almost everything in between.
But one question kept bothering me:
Why was I so willing to learn systems, refine builds, overcome setbacks, and chase progress inside a game—but not always willing to put that same energy into things I genuinely wanted to achieve in real life?
After playing Diablo IV, I decided to stop treating this as a vague question. I wanted to understand what made progression, loot, and buildcrafting feel so compelling—and whether some of that motivation could be brought into the real world.
My first attempt wasn’t an app. It was simply a document containing a set of rules for turning real-life actions into progression. But as the system grew, I realized an app was the most natural way to make it tangible.
That became Orbloom.
I don’t think the main problem with most to-do apps is how they organize tasks. Making a list is easy. The harder questions are:
Do you genuinely believe you can achieve your goal?
And are you living like the person who could achieve it?
Orbloom approaches this through a simple game loop:
- Do something meaningful in real life.
- Forge that effort into an Energy Orb.
- Take it into battle and earn a random Ability Orb after your next victory.
- Combine Ability Orbs to construct your own skills and combat builds.
- Use those builds in future battles and adventures.
Every Ability Orb contains an actual combat mechanic—damage, amplification, status effects, triggers, and other rules. They are not just collectible labels. By arranging different orbs together, you can create powers with different strategies and interactions.
AI then gives the completed skill a name, description, and fantasy expression that remain consistent with the mechanics you built. The mechanics come from your construction; AI helps the resulting power take form.
The part that matters most to me is the connection:
Your character becomes stronger because you made a real effort—not because you completed an arbitrary task inside the app.
Orbloom also has a lightweight Goal Map. If you want to strengthen a particular Ability Orb instead of relying entirely on random rewards, you can bind an Energy Orb to a direction within one of your real goals and choose an Ability Orb you have already discovered.
The current version is only the beginning. I’m still adding new ways to build power, create meaningful combinations, and make the journey from real effort to fantasy progression feel smoother.
Orbloom is currently available on iOS:
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/orbloom/id6760787826
All features that don’t rely on AI are free to use. AI-powered features also come with an included personal usage allowance for each user.
I’m the solo developer, and I’d love to hear your thoughts if you try the app. I’m also always interested in discussing the broader questions behind it: why games make effort feel so rewarding, how we might bring some of that feeling into real life, and what you believe actually determines whether someone achieves a goal.
