Of course! Gamification (and other extrinsic motivators) are best used sparingly and short-term in order to get over an initial hump before something fun or easy. Think of climbing a hill to get to a playground.
Basically, our goal is to make the kid's progress tangible and visual for them so that they can start enjoying it, and then use our gamification mechanics to reinforce the child's growing intrinsic motivation so that they enjoy and appreciate the feeling of making progress
Hi - Mentava founder here (we make gamified early literacy software). Obviously I believe in the value of gamification, though I think it's difficult to do correctly.
There's certainly a market for "calm" learning, though you've already identified the main challenge: there's a smaller larger market for people who want to be educated than entertained, and the market for "calm education" is going to be an even smaller subset of that education market.
Essentially you're looking for the people who are saying "I want to be educated, but I'm not looking for the most efficient way to do it. I would prefer to move at a slower pace being driven purely by intrinsic motivation, rather than using extrinsic motivators in order to encourage me to move more quickly"
That market certainly exists, but it's a small enough niche that you'll likely have to be compete at a high price point to be viable. As point of comparison, Mentava costs $500/month, so if I were building a calm learning app (for an even smaller market), I would try to figure out a way justify an even higher price point than Mentava's.
Mentava | Founding Engineer, Founding Art Director | Remote | $100k-$200k base | 1%-5% equity
Mentava is building software to support accelerated K12 learning. With gifted programs getting cut nationwide, it’s the perfect time.
Customers are already paying $500/month for our no-code MVP, and we have 2-year-olds in our pilot reading at a 2nd grade level. I expect our students will complete college level math and computer science in elementary school.
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Basically, our goal is to make the kid's progress tangible and visual for them so that they can start enjoying it, and then use our gamification mechanics to reinforce the child's growing intrinsic motivation so that they enjoy and appreciate the feeling of making progress