I built an app because a 2002 video game taught me how to skill up

All heroes and villains have an origin story. So why shouldn’t apps have as well?

Levely and its underlying philosophy are the product of countless hours of playing, sorry, I meant studying one of the masterpieces of the 21st century: the third video game in the Elder Scrolls series, Morrowind.

In case you haven't had the privilege of playing it, Morrowind is basically Skyrim's weird, xenophobic cousin.

Meeting our hero

Our story will be told through the eyes of my in-game character, Cedric the Persistent. Cedric can't swing a sword without hurting himself and he can't cast even the most basic of spells. He's weak, poor, and probably illiterate. He's got the charm of a brick wall.

But what do a 20 year old video game and our hopeless hero have to do with learning new skills? Well, Morrowind, by design or by accident, has one of the best models of skill acquisition in any video game. It's the closest match to how you get better at casting spells in real life.

Let me briefly explain how it works. Let's take Cedric here for example. He's not the brightest tool in the shed, but he has a burning desire to become the best wizard there is.

So, what does he do? He goes to the local shop and buys a tome that promises to teach him how to cast a huge, beautiful Fireball. It takes some time for Cedric to understand the tome. He can barely read after all. But eventually he thinks he's got a good enough understanding of the spell to try it out.

He focuses intently and attempts to cast the spell and ....... nothing happens. He tries again and guess what? Nothing happens.

Cedric is devastated, his sole dream seems impossible right now. How will he become the greatest wizard in the realm if he can't even cast a simple fireball? The locals are relieved however and put down the water buckets. Having your house burn down because of some over-ambitious wannabe wizard ain't fun.

Start with a tiny spark

Cedric went in over his head. His skill level in casting spells is only 20 out of 100. In non geek terms, it means he's an idiot for even attempting to cast such a complex spell.

Any normal person would think that maybe wizardry isn't for them, but not Cedric. He is called the Persistent after all. He is not prepared to abandon his dreams of fame, glory and riches as Morrowind's top wizard. The next day he returns to the shop and he buys another spell tome, this time for a much easier spell. A spell that creates a tiny spark.

Eager to try it out, he walks to the middle of the town and prepares to cast it. The townspeople panic and prepare their buckets again. Cedric focuses all his attention, makes the magic hand gestures and this time the tiniest spark emerges from the tip of his index finger.

He is overcome with joy. He actually did it, he cast a real spell! His skill in magic increased from 20 to 21, not because he read a tome, but because he actually cast the damn spell. Though for Cedric, managing to read the tome was an achievement in itself.

If he managed to create the spark, the fire will soon come.

Practice at the edge

Without realizing it, our hero has applied one of the most important lessons in learning new skills: focused practice at the edge of your current ability.

The game let him waste his savings on a spell tome, attempt to do something way beyond his skill and then fail in public. At the same time this pushed him to reconsider his options and start with a smaller step.

Does this sound a bit familiar? I'm pretty sure we can all empathize with Cedric.

Have you not bought a guitar thinking that you will become the next Jimmy Page?Have you not tried directly to play the most complicated solo you could think of and fail miserably?And only then, if you were actually persistent in your goal, you went back to square one and learned how to play a damn chord first?

Come to think of it, there is not much difference between our fictional hero and ourselves.

The Persistent

Each successful spell cast, every spark got him closer and closer to his goals. He continued to show up every day until creating sparks became trivial. Cedric knew that casting the same spell over and over will eventually lead him to a plateau of his abilities so he continued to seek out harder and harder spells to master. He kept practicing and pushing himself and eventually he reached quite a respectable level in his magical abilities. His reading skill improved a lot as well. Did he become the most famous wizard in the land? Not quite. Getting better at anything takes persistence, but judging by his name, he has a great shot at making it. The same can be applied to us, the only difference is that we don’t have a skill bar that accurately tells us our level. We must continue to practice and show up without knowing exactly where we stand.

Adding real life skill bars

What we can accurately measure however is the time we take to practice in a focused, deliberate manner. I can’t build a skill bar that tells your competence, but I can build one that measures your dedication to leveling up.

This is how the idea behind Levely was born. I realized that the reason for replaying the same RPGs over and over was because I felt the thrill of growing a character. Recently I decided that I’d rather that character be me.

P.S. The mechanics of the game are even more in-depth than I’ve presented here. For example, tiredness has a huge effect on your success chances. Trying to cast a spell after sprinting up a hill will most likely fail. I also took a bit of literary freedom with the tome acquisition part. In Morrowind, spells are bought directly from vendors, though buying a spell still doesn’t guarantee you can cast it.