Timez Attack Cubed

Times Attack Screen Capture

CUBE Analysis for Timez Attack

Timez Attack (http://www.bigbrainz.com/index.php) is an educational or “meaningful” game designed to help children learn their times tables. It has an engaging and intuitive interface and players learn without realizing they are doing so.

Face 1 – Market Focus

            This product is really aimed at the K-12 sector and more specifically the K-7 portion of that sector. Having said that, it could easily be used in a remedial program in a high school setting.

Face 2 – Type of Offering

            This is definitely a content type of offering. It is a pre-packaged “meaningful game” that can be used as either a stand alone or a school district wide application.

Face 3 – The Buyer

            This product really has several different types of buyers. An individual could buy a stand-alone copy for home use (as I did when my son was having a hard time learning his times table!). A district could purchase the software for installation on all its computers or a school could purchase it for the same application. It also might be possible for a clearing house such as EBSCO to buy this software and then be able to offer volume discounts to educational buyers that are members of its consortium.

Face 4 – Global Market

            While there are a variety of buyers for this product I feel there are numerous markets for it, also. The first potential market is “wired Anglophone countries”. The product is American and all the language is American English. However, because there is a limited amount of actual language and the game is quite intuitive (even my 5 year old daughter was able to figure out what to do) I can see European and Asian countries as being other potential markets. Because it is a game with a need for a fairly good monitor and game card, it is somewhat limited to developed countries. Having said that, the home page advertises that their product is used in 200 countries. The product is available in English and Spanish at this point and I would imagine that, given a large enough demand, it could be translated to other languages fairly easily.

Face 5 – Development of the Market

            Educational or meaningful gaming is on the rise and students who have high quality graphic games at home are not easily impressed with poorly designed games. I would think that the market supports a game like this only in relatively developed and wealthy countries and communities. While the game itself is not too expensive, you need a good computer to play it. This particular game was developed by an educator, giving him some “cred” in the market. His product is fun to play and unique and as such is, in my opinion, well positioned in the North American market place at the very least.

Face 6 – Educational Integration

            Timez Attack is a game that would works well in a school setting, as extra reinforcement and practice for students who are learning the concepts taught. It would also work well in a home school setting. I do not think you would want to use it to replace the teacher, nor do I think the designer would desire such an outcome.

Although we were not asked if we would invest in this company, I am certainly a satisfied customer and would invest if I had the opportunity!