Little Alchemy 2

Little Alchemy 2 is a puzzle game available on the web and for iOS, Chrome, and Android. It's an update of the original Little Alchemy game with more items, new art, and more. Players start with four basic "elements" -- air, earth, fire, and water -- on the right side of the screen. They can then drag and drop these elements to the workspace on the left, combining and recombining to create new elements such as puddles, energy, the planet, lizards, love, humans, zombies, robots, and farmers. There are 720 elements in total. Each new item discovered is accompanied by amusing flavor text. As long as it isn't the final element in its branch, each time an element gets created, it gets added to the column on the right and can be used in new combinations. Students can use the encyclopedia to keep track of elements they have unlocked, reread the flavor text, see the combinations that create each element, and browse by element category. The concept might sound simplistic, but it's a highly addictive experience. It's easy to lose minutes or hours figuring out new combinations and discovering new elements.

At first, students will make new connections very quickly, as most early elements combine with each other (and themselves) to make new ones. But soon only some elements are combinable, and students must think more critically about what might be possible. Most of the elements are things from real life, but some are fantastical, such as zombies, dragons, and centaurs. There's generally a logical, if not always scientific, reason for the results of combinations. For example, mixing water with air creates mist, and mixing soil with a seed creates a plant. If students try to combine two elements they've successfully combined before, the game briefly shows them what the result was. Once you've combined an item in all of its possible pairings, it becomes depleted and is removed from the available library. It is still accessible in the encyclopedia, however.

As students play, they'll reach invisible goals that unlock new basic materials, such as metal, which can then mix with many existing elements. For example, mixing metal with a duck creates an airplane. There are also elements that aren't things at all, such as "big" and "time" and "motion." Additionally, sometimes combining two elements creates more than one new element, such as when combining two humans to make both love and a family.

Little Alchemy 2, in its own unique way, lets students learn through discovery and experimentation. While it's not a product designed for content learning, it offers an irresistibly fun experience that can lead to content learning if teachers are flexible. For instance, teachers could use Little Alchemy 2 to discuss how things combine in real life vs. in the game, or the logic behind certain combinations. As the game gets more difficult, students will need to use their creativity, systems thinking, and educated guesses to discover new combinations. Combining air and animal, for example, creates a bird, so many of the combinations are logical, but many are less straightforward. After a while, few elements will combine, so students will learn patience and how to curb their frustration.

Since Little Alchemy 2 is an open-ended sandbox puzzle game, it can be a boon to classroom learning, or it might lead to playful chaos. Students can easily get through the game through trial-and-error (at least to a point). It would be helpful to wrangle the trial-and-error a bit, by encouraging students to approach play more thoughtfully. Students could map and diagram their choices, or talk through their logic and engage in prediction. There's not much support for this approach in the game itself, though, which could frustrate some teachers. However, teachers more comfortable with the open-ended nature of the game -- and doing some extra work to guide students to learning -- will find the experience inspiring, useful, and engaging in a way few more traditional educational games can be.