The Mission

Zima’s mission is to help people build healthier screen habits in a fun, social, and rewarding way. Following the last edition where we reached the finals, won the Audience Award, and received the Jury’s Rabobank Voucher, we return with momentum: a stronger Zima app, an expanded team, and a Zima Pod prototype. We were recently added to the Impact Gaming network as well as having a fruitful meeting with John Janssen at Rabobank. We expanded our team to boost our development efforts. We consulted with fellow finalist Rafael from HydroTjip to accelerate hardware exploration while keeping Zima as the core product. In today's world words like doomscrolling and brainrot are becoming the norm, it's clear we're all feeling the effects of too much screen time. Zima is here to change that. It’s a Tamagotchi-style virtual pet that reacts to how you use your phone. Healthy screen time? Your Zima is happy, growing, and unlocking new outfits and customizations. Too much scrolling? It shows, becoming tired, sad, or grumpy. A soft, visual nudge to be more mindful. You can even see your friends Zimas, so you're not doing it alone. Zima turns screen time into a game with a real impact. Zima is more than just a virtual pet, it’s your personalized digital wellness dashboard, transforming screen time data into clear, visual insights. Rooted in behavioural science, Zima uses gamification and social dynamics to turn habit change into a rewarding, community-driven experience. By making your habits easy to understand and engaging to track, Zima empowers you to take control, build awareness, and create healthier patterns with purpose. We’re twin brothers, one studying Data Science & AI at Maastricht University, the other Business & Marketing at the University of Edinburgh. Growing up with the rise of social media we've felt the screen time struggle firsthand, and now we're combining our skills to build something that actually connects. With a mix of technical know-how, creative strategy, and a personal stake in the problem, we’re not just building Zima for the users, we are the users.

The Challenge

Across the world, on average people are spending over 6.5 hours a day on screens, health care experts recommend at most 2. It's leaving all too many feeling drained, distracted, and disconnected. Excessive screen time is linked to poor sleep, anxiety, reduced focus, loneliness, and exposure to harmful online content. The younger generation is especially at risk. Most screen time apps out there are either boring, naggy, or don’t really give you a reason to come back. Zima takes a different approach, making it easier (and more fun) to build better habits, one small step at a time. Unlike apps like Forest or Opal that gamify temporary focus timers, Zima gamifies your entire lifestyle. We don't just track sessions; we account for every moment of your day, on-screen and off, capturing the full picture to make digital wellness a game you are always playing.

The solution

Our solution is to gamify screen time through a virtual pet that reacts to your digital habits. Healthy screen use keeps your Zima happy and unlocks rewards, while overuse affects its mood and progress. Last edition, a juror noted a critical paradox: an app to reduce app time. We took this feedback to heart. To solve this, we are prioritizing a feature that keeps you mindful without pulling you deeper into your phone: The Zima Home Screen Widget. We are placing a massive emphasis on developing a complex widget that puts "everything Zima at a glance" right on your home screen. Now, Zima lives on your home screen, reacting to your usage throughout the day and encouraging healthy habits. You can see your pet’s mood and check your stats just by unlocking your phone, without ever needing to open the app itself. This establishes Zima as a constant, mindful presence on your home screen, offering instant feedback while reserving the full app for deeper interaction only when you need it. This is a significant technical milestone and innovation. Implementing a widget that pulls real-time states from a game engine built in Unity3D is virtually unheard of and notoriously difficult to execute. We are bridging the gap between a robust game engine and native Android widgets, allowing the core experience to live on your phone's surface. While we are also exploring physical hardware like the Zima Pod (currently in early prototyping with previous help from HydroTjip), our primary focus for addressing the "paradox" is this widget technology, ensuring Zima is a helpful presence rather than a distraction. Key Features of Zima App: •The Zima Widget (Core Innovation): Zima lives on your home screen, reacting throughout the day with real-time mood and stats to encourage better habits just by unlocking your phone. •Quest System: Daily and weekly challenges that reward healthy habits. •Streak System: Earn extra rewards for consecutive days within goals. •Habit Tracker & Reading Timer: Build routines and track non-screen activities. •Focus Mode: App blocking tools to lock in productivity. Zima Pod (Future Exploration): •Concept: A pocket-sized ESP32 device with a display to track movement. •Status: Currently a secondary prototype extending the ecosystem down the line. The Current State of Development: We have a working Android prototype that accurately tracks real screen time and reflects it through your pet’s behavior. The core game loop and animation system are live. Crucially, we have successfully prototyped the Zima Widget. We have overcome the technical challenge of communicating state data (moods, streaks, stats) from our Unity3D engine to a native widget. This breakthrough ensures users can engage with Zima directly from the home screen without launching the app. We have expanded the team to finalize this integration and aim to launch the Zima app with full widget support before the end of the year. ★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★ The screen time space is growing, with many new apps. None share Zima’s pet-centric, social, and hardware-extendable vision. Our innovative widget technology allows your pet to live directly on your home screen, combining social gamification with instant, passive feedback. Our focus remains the Zima app and widget. The Zima Pod is a down the line extension we are already prototyping.