Don’t be fooled — Little Alchemists might look like a game that’s just for kids at first glance, but there’s a lot going on under the hood once you begin layering in the content unlocked in later chapters. We’ve designed Little Alchemists for both children and families, specifically with scalability in mind. This includes offering something for adult players who may not have kids at all. It’s a game that grows in depth and complexity with the skill of players, proving a unique challenge for a wide range of gamers.

Curious about whether Little Alchemists might be right for you? Here’s more info about the game and why adult players might find it an appealing addition to their gaming collection.

If you’re not familiar with the game or its predecessor, here’s the rundown. The original Alchemists, designed by Matúš Kotry and released a decade ago, is a heavy duty deduction euro game for 2-4 aspiring alchemists, featuring worker placement, potion crafting and selling, and theory publishing. It was innovative for its time, as one of the first board games to utilize a companion app as part of the core gameplay. In the years since, Matúš started a family and began designing a version of the game to play with his younger daughter...which he eventually expanded into a fully standalone game.

In Little Alchemists, you play as a group of kids who discover their grandpa’s dusty old alchemy set and decide to open a lemonade stand…only the lemonade is magic. The game revolves around making different types of potions to sell to visiting adventurers. Using the companion app and a phone or tablet device on your turn, you’ll start by simply scanning ingredients and marking down the results on your deduction grid. Eventually, you’ll be able to publish theories to score additional points, and progressing to further chapters opens up more strategic depth and scoring options.

Across multiple replays of the game you’ll earn key stickers that work towards unlocking new chapters, which lets you open up surprise boxes and add more physical components and fresh mechanics to the game. It starts very simply, but grows more complex as you go, ultimately spinning out into a more medium weight game that’s challenging for even more serious gamers.

So what makes Little Alchemists fun for adults?

It pares down the complexity of the original game

There’s no denying it. For a lot of gamers, the original Alchemists might be a little too…extra. It’s a sprawling, densely-packed heavyweight euro experience. It’s big, has a lot of moving pieces, and takes a substantial amount of time to play (and even longer to master how to play it well). If you like games in that weight class, however, then the original might be a perfect fit for you! After all, it’s a fan favorite for some very good reasons. But if you’ve tried to play it before and found it a bit overwhelming — or if you bounced off it because it might be a little too heavy for your tastes — we don’t blame you. Also, maybe you enjoy the original but simply don’t have enough time anymore to play through a game of that length.

Little Alchemists streamlines a lot of the complexities of the original game, removing the worker placement and more advanced theory debunking elements to simplify and speed up the game. It also condenses everything into a more accessible, bright and colorful children and family friendly experience.

Each chapter layers in new gameplay elements, causing the game to gradually grow in complexity over time as you unlock new content. It’s super easy for the first few chapters (which are designed to teach kids the basics of the game and give them time to grow their skills). But by the middle and later chapters, the types of potions and ingredients you can use to make them grows, along with the deduction grid itself. New mechanisms that introduce more point salad, euro-style scoring methods also expand the strategic possibilities as more of the game is added in each chapter. The seventh chapter is essentially the full game that utilizes all of the components. It’s definitely hearty enough to engage and challenge adult players, but it’s not nearly as heavy as Alchemists.

Also, for adult gamers, we recommend skipping straight to the second chapter so you can get right into the core loop faster, since the first chapter is more of a tutorial for younger players.

It’s a good introduction to the concepts from the original game

Conversely, after playing Little Alchemists for a while, you might find that you’re ready to take on the original game! That’s another cool element of its design. While it doesn’t have all of the exact same mechanics of the original, it does have many of the same themes and core gameplay concepts. You’re still crafting potions, selling them to citizens, and writing theories on what ingredients make what potions based on your experiments and deductions. The fact that Little Alchemists scales gradually over time also makes it a good choice for an easier onramp towards playing its older sibling. It’s a lower barrier to entry, giving you the opportunity to test the waters and see what you think before diving into the deep end.

It can be a gateway game for more complex games

If you love heavier games but you have a gaming group that prefers lighter fare, Little Alchemists can be a perfect fit to help you gradually nudge your friends towards playing more complex eurogames. Starting off at earlier chapters is a great way to get your group warmed up, and as they master the basic mechanics, you can continue layering on more complexity in later chapters. It makes for a very digestible way to ease into the full Little Alchemists experience, which also features some light eurogame elements your group might really enjoy.

Also, the theme skews towards the cuter, more vibrant, and lighthearted end of the spectrum, which might appeal to some of your gaming friends that aren’t finding themes they connect with in heavier euros.

Thanks for reading! We hope you’ll check out Little Alchemists, which is available now! Learn more about the behind-the-scenes of Little Alchemists in our article series here.