
Show HN: Nebula – Alarm clock where you grow stars while you sleep - rocketsloth
https://alextumanov.com/
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kovek
I really like it. I didn't try it yet but it feel like I would enjoy this
points system for waking up on time. I noticed that over the summer, when I
was excited about my work (and trying to meet deadlines), waking up on time
was not an issue. Now that I'm back to going to school, it's easier to
snooze/sleep in. Also, it's easier to go to bed at more random times.

What if you could also collect some points by going to bed at approximately
the same time every night? Check the accelerometer for movement at the set
time (example 8pm) and every fib(n)'th minute after that to make sure the
person is sleeping?

~~~
rocketsloth
Reinforcing good bedtime habits is a really interesting idea. Even if that
can't guarantee a person is sleeping, it can force people to set their phones
down for the night which is something at least I could definitely use. Maybe
something like if a user moves their phone past a certain time, the star is
destroyed. Going to explore the points option and a few others. Thank you for
your feedback

~~~
wpietri
I'm glad to hear it. I've built an automated lighting system to encourage good
sleep habits [1], which has helped a lot. But I'd still like to do better.
Maybe the star is bigger and brighter with good sleep, and ends up a brown
dwarf if you don't get enough?

[1] [https://github.com/wpietri/sunrise](https://github.com/wpietri/sunrise)

~~~
rocketsloth
That's so cool! A lot of people swear by the sunshine alarm clocks and I'm
definitely gonna have to try it out one of these days

------
rocketsloth
Hi HN, I just wanted to add that I'm looking for any kind of feedback on the
app. I've been working on it since graduating in may and released it a couple
of days ago.

~~~
t_fatus
Some feedback here on your website: you've got the best testimonial section
I've ever seen, you're mom should be really proud

~~~
alexpetralia
This was fantastically creative. Bought the app just for this.

~~~
rocketsloth
That's very kind of you, thank you :). I didn't think anyone would notice the
testimonials.

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mholt
Clever! I just installed it, and I like how this works so far. The store has 2
options for disabling ads. You can buy three of the first for a dollar which
deplete each time your star explodes, or you can permanently disable ads for
$2.50. I like this "choose your strategy" approach: you can buy incentives to
get up in the morning, or just pay to have the ad-free experience.

~~~
rocketsloth
Thanks! I didn't want to force people in to the "money shredder" mode, but I
think that it works really well and provides an effective uninstall/force quit
protection for users who try to take shortcuts to dismiss the alarm in the
morning.

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SubiculumCode
Not all gamification of life is a bad thing. The app seems very nice!

My problem in life is not waking up. Its going to bed early enough to get
enough sleep. Encouraging an early bedtime would be a great feature :) IMO.

~~~
rocketsloth
Really appreciate the feedback, I'm exploring several options for this that
will be added in the near future and think that you're right, snooze is only
half the battle.

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osrec
Congrats on going live :)

The quotes from your mom are rather funny, especially because they remind me
of what my parents used to say while I was building my own SaaS (URL in
profile if anyone's interested)!

~~~
rocketsloth
Thank you, I knew I wasn't the only one. Really like Bx too

~~~
osrec
You're definitely not the only one! I think parents that care also tend to be
much more risk averse where their kids are concerned. I'm told that I'll be
the same when I have kids! Also, thanks for checking out Bx, glad you liked it
:)

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mentos
Game dev here. Should you include some sort of maximum amount of sleep per day
to prevent people from setting alarms to grow their stars when they aren't
sleeping?

~~~
telesilla
Doesn't that defeat the purpose of personal satisfaction? Or if I'm just in it
to grow some stars, does it matter how I use the app?

~~~
mentos
Yea I guess my thought is that the 'carrot' in this system is growing a
constellation. You dangle that out there as incentive for people to sleep
healthy and wake up on time.

If people can circumvent the healthy sleeping by growing stars during the day
then it cheapens the experience and I would argue reduces personal
satisfaction for the average user.

But maybe the move is to leave the system as is and log how often users are
'cheating' the system to grow constellations and maybe the pivot is towards a
game where all you do is grow stars.

------
mythas
I like the app but am offended by the idea of stars being made from cosmic
dust. Can you add a divine intervention option?

~~~
deusum
Expect DLC for polytheists in time for Xmas.

------
yulapshun
Did you design the UI yourself? For me (and maybe most programmers) the
hardest part of building an application is UI design. You did a really nice
job.

~~~
rocketsloth
I did do it by myself and I really appreciate you saying that. I used/modified
a few icons and pictures that I found online though and their awesome creators
(who released them under attribution licenses) are credited in the graphics
credits section. I struggled a lot with the design and it was by far the most
time consuming part of the app.

~~~
technics256
Nice! Where did you find the icons? Been looking for some for my healthcare
startup website. Thaks!

~~~
rocketsloth
[https://material.io/icons/](https://material.io/icons/) is great, all open
source and you can edit their vectors to make your own variations

[https://thenounproject.com/](https://thenounproject.com/) is also awesome, a
lot of variety

[https://www.flaticon.com/](https://www.flaticon.com/) is great for colorful
things

------
alanfriedman
The testimonials section is hilarious and the app looks great too.

~~~
rocketsloth
thank you!

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aagha
I'm so glad to start seeing more and more apps come out on Android first. What
a big change from a couple of years ago.

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federicoponzi
I like the concept, and loved the reviews. Definitely gonna give it a try :)

~~~
rocketsloth
much appreciated :)

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clearing
This reminds me of apps published by ShaoKan Pi. Particularly, SleepTown.

[https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/sleeptown/id1210251567?mt=8](https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/sleeptown/id1210251567?mt=8)

Can't wait to try it on iOS because I love idle-growth apps like this. Might
be worth looking into how Sleeptown/Forest implement features you're
interested in.

~~~
rocketsloth
That's a really well designed app, thanks for sharing. I really like their
bedtime reinforcement mechanism. Sleep town seems to be much more focused on
the scheduling aspect of sleep and reinforcing strict routines whereas at the
moment Nebula is much more focused on going after the snooze button, but both
of these things are quite related.

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k_bx
Just wanted to mention (maybe someone finds this interesting) another "sleep
gamification" app Ukrainians made –
[http://wakeapp.com.ua/index_en.html](http://wakeapp.com.ua/index_en.html)

Every time you snooze – you donate to the Army, thus money goes to the people
who make sure you sleep in piece. I find it quite nice :)

~~~
rocketsloth
beautiful app, well done :)

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lab3726
Really cool idea. On the website...is there a reason an iPhone template is
used to show off an app that is Android-only?

~~~
rocketsloth
Thank you, the template I used had these nice phone graphics and I thought
they were just generic phones because I wasn't paying attention. Going to fix
that now.

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markoutso
Nice idea but not executed to it's full potential.

I use an alarm for waking up. I expect a fast, usable ui to be able to set the
time fast and options like recurring alarms,weekly scheduled alarms etc.

I wouldn't replace my vendor's slick, feature full without ads app for
something that is not as least as good.

~~~
rocketsloth
Very fair, this is just version 1.0 and I have lots of plans for things I
think might persuade you soon, but for now I totally understand. I'll be back

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firefoxd
I have to mention The Alarm Clock Problem:
[https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ebQAM5ADfYQ](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ebQAM5ADfYQ)

Maybe a way to entice the user to sleep early in the first place could improve
it.

~~~
rocketsloth
I agree that sleep is a complicated thing and that bedtime routines are vital
to overall healthy sleep habits. I think you're right and that reinforcing
good sleep scheduling is the next step with the app in terms of big features

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caio1982
Any app that guarantees I will not snooze nor ignore it (as in my brain simply
gets used to the alarm and I won't even have a chance waking up with it if I
want to)? It might cost $5.000 USD, I'll buy it.

~~~
diggan
How about one of these, requires you to solve a puzzle to turn off.

[https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/mathe-alarm-
clock/id82353291...](https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/mathe-alarm-
clock/id823532916?mt=8)

[https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.wroclawstu...](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.wroclawstudio.puzzlealarmclock&hl=en)

Otherwise I also remember some friends back in the days having an alarm clock
that shoots away a thing in the other corner of the room, requires you to
fetch it to disable the alarm.

~~~
caio1982
I tried that one for iOS and it requires you to enable the alarm every night
manually (which often I just forgot to) and I COULD solve some of them without
even remembering I did later :-(

My current setup is an alarm clock with an actual bell that is noisy as fsck.
Yes, an old school alarm clock :-(

~~~
vlasev
Balance the alarm clock on the edge of a tin pot, so that when it goes off, it
will just fall inside and make a bunch more noise.

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jerezzprime
Is it possible to make it start automatically? I like that generally I don't
think about my alarm on my phone, I just go to sleep and it goes off the next
day.

~~~
rocketsloth
I'm considering a few options to give more freedom with the alarm (such as
repeating and multiple alarms), but I'm working on making sure they integrate
with the overall design and concept before jumping the gun.

------
Waterluvian
This is beautiful. Can you encourage me to get a good night's sleep somehow?
Make my stars a special colour if they're made from plenty of sleep rather
than just a bit of sleep?

~~~
rocketsloth
Thank you! I have gotten a lot of awesome suggestions about the idea of
reinforcing bedtime and helping promote good sleep habits and am looking in to
a few options for that in future updates

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noxecanexx
Is there any reason why this isn't available in Nigeria

~~~
rocketsloth
very sorry about that, I'm fixing that now. I messed up the country options
when I was uploading.

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dom96
Really awesome app! Any plans for an iOS version? :)

~~~
rocketsloth
Thanks and 100%! The moment I get a chance I'm going to dive in

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superasn
Only installing it because of the great testimonials it has gotten from your
mom

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edpichler
Gamefication for an alarm clock to make people wake up on time. Well done!
Inspiring idea!

~~~
rocketsloth
thanks very much

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sbussard
love the reviews on the site

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greenmango333
I swear by the sunshine alarm clocks. I really like it.

~~~
rocketsloth
I've heard really great things about them

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irq
Could we consider adding [Android only] to the title?

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plttn
Random note: the fact that you're showing an iPhone device frame but using
Android screenshots is one of those things that makes me unreasonably unhappy.

I do like the idea of the app though.

~~~
pbhjpbhj
Funnily enough your complaint that the small generic rectangular outline
representing a phone is the wrong brand is the sort of thing that makes me
unreasonably irritated.

~~~
plttn
The problem is that even though there's Play Store and App Store badges, to
me, my brain subconsciously parses "this app is available for you" based on
the existence of the home button in the mockup.

I saw the home button, I assumed iOS only.

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agumonkey
gamifying sleep, what a surprising concept

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amelius
This reminds me of the ringtone era, where some people made tons of money by
making useless things.

~~~
rocketsloth
I'm sure a lot of people will feel the same way as you and I completely
respect that. I made this app above all else to learn as much Android as I
could after graduating. I tried to expand on a simple concept to make
something I thought was cool and really had a lot of fun doing it, but I know
this isn't everyone's thing.

~~~
jmiserez
I studied with these guys:

[https://www.theverge.com/2014/1/4/5273474/google-acquires-
bi...](https://www.theverge.com/2014/1/4/5273474/google-acquires-bitspin-
timely)

They did exactly what you did after graduating and their company got acquired
(acqui-hired) by Google. Timely was the number one alarm clock app at the
time. It was buttery smooth and beautiful but beyond that didn’t even any
special functionality.

So, don’t take the parent comment too seriously!

~~~
amelius
> [...] got acquired by Google [...] It was buttery smooth and beautiful but
> beyond that didn’t even any special functionality.

I think you just confirmed my comment.

I just want to add:

\- It saddens me that a lot of sentiment here is about making easy money.
Imho, we should not stimulate people who just graduated to write screensavers
to be sold to Google.

\- In a world full of distraction, these apps provide even more distraction
(here they even interfere with sleep).

\- The people who make these apps have skills that can be put to use in much
better and interesting ways.

\- This kind of news does not contribute to the "high-tech news" that I really
want to read.

That said, I applaud the OP for learning the Android APIs in a creative way.

~~~
rocketsloth
"That said, I applaud the OP for learning the Android APIs in a creative way."

Appreciate that and thanks for your feedback.

