The Chinchillers™ origin story and how I built this mobile app by becoming a totally new person.
Chinchillers™ helps you take healthy phone breaks using super cute virtual pets. Read on below for how I built Chinchillers without any coding experience while being a dad of three, husband, and an employee.
About the Chinchillers App and How it Works
Chinchillers are a very unique species of chinchilla. In the game, you get your very own Chinchiller and it wants nothing more than for you to be happy and to chill. You keep your Chinchiller HAPPY by putting your phone and CHILLING. A while later, your Chinchiller will start to become SAD. Just put your phone down again, CHILL, and your pet gets HAPPY. You can earn and spend CREDITS, there’s an in-game leaderboard, you get bonuses for streaks, and there’s some MTX in the game as well for purchase. The app is currently in Closed Alpha testing with friends and family but the Beta is next up on the roadmap.
The Chinchillers Origin Story
I got started down this road because my kids tried unlocking my iPhone too many times and it bricked itself for five minutes. It was amazing. I found myself picking up my phone out of habit and being surprisingly pleased I couldn’t use it–much like those rare days when Facebook or Twitter goes down and everyone is suddenly freed from their social media feeds.
But that one small experience got me thinking: we all know we should probably spend less time on our phones. Science backs that up too: virtually every measure of human happiness has steadily declined since 2012 and a lot of scientific literature links phone usage to that decline.
So, what if I could help myself and also maybe help the world by building an app that gamifies the act of putting your phone down? I decided to answer that question. Even if I failed I would learn new skills and better myself.
Over the last 12 months I spent every single night after the kids were asleep working on this project. I focused all of my efforts outside of my family and full-time job into Chinchillers. I quit watching TV, quit playing video games, and quit drinking during much of this time–all to optimize the three hours I had each night to build this. I learned more about data architecture, UI/UX, and CX working on this than I did in my entire career. I learned how to use a no-code platform called Adalo, formed an LLC, a DBA, and got a trademark filed. It was a long journey to get here and this is literally just the beginning for Chinchillers. This project is putting good into the world and I’d be delighted if you joined me.