A Week in Covenant: Guilds, Quests, and Better Sign-In
This has been the week I've worked the most on Covenant. Here's what's new.
Sign in like a normal app
I used to send magic links for user authentication. It felt clever, but it was annoying. Digging through your inbox or waiting for the email to arrive was a pain in the ass. So I've changed authentication to a simple email and password now. You stay signed in for a month instead of a week, so you won't get logged out mid-streak. Forgot your password? Reset link is one click away.
Guilds are here
Guilds are small groups of players who share a chat room, see each other's progress, and (soon) tackle goals together.
Grinding alone is just spreadsheet work with extra steps. It doesn't have to be like that.
- Create a guild, invite your friends with a link, or join one
- Roles for owners, officers, and members
- A chat room to share anything you want with your guild
- Member list with avatars, levels, and who's been active
Invite links can have an expiry date or a use limit. Click one while logged out? You preview the guild, sign up, and land right back in.
Quests: a real adventure layer
Covenant used to have a public activity system where players contributed to an objective. But for the people who want a solo experience I've created a quest system with a simple combat system, inspired by Pokémon (please don't sue me (⊙＿⊙')).
Daily journaling
Journaling has helped me a lot to reflect and think about my life. It has been kind of therapeutic. So I wanted to create an approachable experience in Covenant, where you can write anything about the day and describe your mood.
- A clean markdown editor for your journal entry.
- Pick your mood (associated with a color) — it feeds a calendar heatmap so you can see your week at a glance
- Creating an entry rewards you with mana to keep fighting.
Write about your day → get mana → destroy a demon. The pipeline of mental health.
Better first thirty seconds ( • ᴗ - ) ✧
It's kind of overwhelming to enter a new app with many different options. For a first approach, I've set a tutorial to explain the basic mechanics of Covenant.
- A tutorial walks new players through tasks, habits, objectives, and quests.
- Every empty list now tells you what it's for and what to do next
Emails actually arrive now
Covenant switched email providers so signup links actually reach your inbox. Emails now render in English or Spanish.