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Turing Tumble

By Kevin Andrews on June 3, 2017

Let you and your kids build real mechanical computers!

We all need to detox from our screens and computers. It is a common fact that the amount of time children spend glued to a screen has risen dramatcally in the last 20 years and to make matters worse children are also now multi-screening – using more than one device at the same time. The question now becomes how can we keep kids engaged and excited to learn while programming without having them in front of a glaring device? Enter Turning Tumble, a mechanical board game created by programmer Paul Boswell – he’s well known for programming complex games for Texas Instruments calculators – and maker Alyssa Boswell, the Turing Tumble lets you use small parts to create logic flows in order to solve puzzles. It’s multi-tasking without the multi-screens.

 

The game is simple. The set of marbles roll one at a time from the top of the board through a series of pins and “logic” pieces. When the marble hits a flipper at the bottom it releases another ball – creating a computing cycle.

Players add logic to the game board by placing six different types of parts onto the board. The ‘Bit’ is a particularly important one. Each time a ball runs over it, it flips to point the opposite direction. Pointing to the left is like a ‘0’, and pointing to the right is like a ‘1.’ Gear bits are the most interesting part, though. Gear bits are just like bits, except that they can be connected to one another so that when one is flipped, it flips the connected gear bits, too. It’s these parts that make the computer Turing-complete.

The important thing to remember is all of this is presented in the guise of a puzzle game. A book includes 51 games that teach kids how to make XOR gates and other computing principles.

The project is entirely bootstrapped and the pair hopes to raise $48,000 to start building the game.

Boswell created the game to teach everyone how to program. It rose out of frustration. In his work at the University of Minnesota he found himself stuck with scientists who couldn’t manage programming or computational analysis.

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16 Jan Posted on Turing Tumble

Yes I would invest in this venture. The market gap is clear: How do you teach programming without increasing screen time? The inventor, Paul Boswell, has come up with an original solution in “Turing Tumble” which mechanically illustrates the concept of 0/1 decisions, the basis of all computer operation. The disruptive brilliance of this product makes differentiation simple because it is the first of its kind, there are no alternatives or therefore no competitors on the market yet – the perfect moment for an EVA to jump in. It seems marketing has been done completely online, especially through the Kickstarter which has raised 10x the initial ask, a sign of intense market interest (and that he doesn’t actually need any more investors). Paul Boswell has had to turn entrepreneur to get his idea out there and his Venture Pitch is compelling. The actual state of the product today that it has just come onto the market and is selling for $65 under pre-order option (they likely have not had a chance to revise the site from pre to post market). Although he clearly did not need the help, I probably would have changed the name to something more compelling like “Turing Torrent” of “Game of Stones”, but the Turing Tumble name has that educational-game ring to it and that is exactly what it is.

16 Jan
1 Thumbs Up!
JoAnna Cassie @pascha21

Yes I would invest in this venture. The market gap is clear: How do you teach programming without increasing screen time? The inventor, Paul Boswell, has come up with an original solution in “Turing Tumble” which mechanically illustrates the concept of 0/1 decisions, the basis of all computer operation. The disruptive brilliance of this product makes differentiation simple because it is the first of its kind, there are no alternatives or therefore no competitors on the market yet – the perfect moment for an EVA to jump in. It seems marketing has been done completely online, especially through the Kickstarter which has raised 10x the initial ask, a sign of intense market interest (and that he doesn’t actually need any more investors). Paul Boswell has had to turn entrepreneur to get his idea out there and his Venture Pitch is compelling. The actual state of the product today that it has just come onto the market and is selling for $65 under pre-order option (they likely have not had a chance to revise the site from pre to post market). Although he clearly did not need the help, I probably would have changed the name to something more compelling like “Turing Torrent” of “Game of Stones”, but the Turing Tumble name has that educational-game ring to it and that is exactly what it is.

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4 Jun Posted on Turing Tumble

Sign me up. As a venture analyst, I would invest in for the Turing Tumble. Paul Boswell says that kids have become overly dependent on the screens and other digital devices that are so ubiquitous. The Turing Tumble gets students off their devices and thinking about the types of patterns that are used by computers. No one has combined a set of puzzles and a non-digital device that uses a story to keep children moving through the puzzles. The venture’s leader, Paul Boswell, has excellent credentials as a professor at the University of Minnesota, and his passion comes from the natural place of being a parent that sees how much time their child is spending on a screen. His wife is a "maker-person" but does not appear in the video. The Ask is low, $48,000 for injection molds to make the plastic parts. I think he should go bigger and better. The Final Message This is a good pitch but I feel like it lacks a story that inspires buyers or venture capitalists to step up. Although Boswell is very educated, his passion and personality do not shine through. His partner (wife?) should be on screen with him talking about her personal story as a parent. Paul Boswell has a great idea that helps to get kids off their devices and at this point in time that may be enough to sell the Turing Tumble. I am rooting for this product, but it could use the passion and back story that creates game-changing money to start flowing.

4 Jun
1 Thumbs Up!
Ryan Dorey @rdorey

Sign me up. As a venture analyst, I would invest in for the Turing Tumble. Paul Boswell says that kids have become overly dependent on the screens and other digital devices that are so ubiquitous. The Turing Tumble gets students off their devices and thinking about the types of patterns that are used by computers. No one has combined a set of puzzles and a non-digital device that uses a story to keep children moving through the puzzles. The venture’s leader, Paul Boswell, has excellent credentials as a professor at the University of Minnesota, and his passion comes from the natural place of being a parent that sees how much time their child is spending on a screen. His wife is a "maker-person" but does not appear in the video. The Ask is low, $48,000 for injection molds to make the plastic parts. I think he should go bigger and better. The Final Message This is a good pitch but I feel like it lacks a story that inspires buyers or venture capitalists to step up. Although Boswell is very educated, his passion and personality do not shine through. His partner (wife?) should be on screen with him talking about her personal story as a parent. Paul Boswell has a great idea that helps to get kids off their devices and at this point in time that may be enough to sell the Turing Tumble. I am rooting for this product, but it could use the passion and back story that creates game-changing money to start flowing.

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