Wrapping up Elementeo

In a quiet end to an exciting 13+ year journey, the last Elementeo Chemistry Card Game sold on Amazon on December 27th, 2018. I still remember my parent’s garage being filled with the first manufactured shipment of games back in 2008. When I was in middle school, the prototypes used to be printed at the local FedEx Kinkos and element and compound characters drawn by hand. I poured through endless library books to learn about the elements in hopes to bring them to life. With the help of some exceptional artists, I gave elements faces and personalities. Cards were printed and boxes were assembled in a factory and games were tested with kids. Soon, Amazon had contacted me about partnering with them and Elementeo games started shipping across the country.

Short snippet about Elementeo:

The Elementeo Chemistry Card Game (v2) brings elements, compounds, chemistry, and science to life. Elementeo includes five different levels (element, reaction, compound, alchemy, and fusion) and has 50 elements, 25 compounds, and 25 alchemy cards, not to mention blank cards for you to create characters of your own. The goal of the game is to cross the field, capture your opponent’s electrons, and reduce them to zero. Elementeo (V2) can be played by 2 – 4 people and is recommended for kids of ages 8 and above.

Check out Aurora Lipper’s review on Elementeo and more on Amazon. Hopefully they haven’t taken it down yet :)

I spoke about how I made Elementeo in a TEDx talk here. The app we launched at that event is no longer available, but this is what it looked like:

Theodore Gray even let us use some of his awesome 3D videos of real elements for it.

There are too, too many people to thank. In no particular order:

1. Sandra McGonagle and Jon Entous for believing in a sixth grader who was really into card games
2. California Association of Gifted for trusting me with $500 to develop Elementeo
3. TiE, a Silicon Valley nonprofit and advisors Satish Gupta, Jayaram Bhat, Ravi Amble for their business advice, constant encouragement, and sponsorship at TieCon
4. Allison Tilley at Pillsbury for their probono services and helping us incorporate Alchemist Empire, Inc
5. Theodore Gray for advice on chemistry to business and being an incredible mentor (check out his website periodictable.com)
6. Amazon, Exploratorium, MIT Museum, Educational Innovations, and Rainbow Resource for carrying Elementeo
7. Alsop Louie Partners and Gilman Louie, Corey Reese, Eli Chait, and Ricky Yean for their wisdom, never ending encouragement and treating me like an entrepreneur and not a teenager
8. Peter Adkison and Hidden City Games for their sage advice on manufacturing and designing card games
9. My family who are far happier than I am that the old days of editing, shipping boxes, and driving me places are over
10. Davidson Institute for their encouragement and $25,000 Davidson Fellowship for Elementeo
11. American Chemical Society, National Academies of Sciences, American Chemical Society Puerto Rico, Maker Faire, National Association of Gifted Children, Lyceum, TEDx San Jose, and many others for hosting us
12. Sean Seal, Enroc, White Lions, Cara Nilsen, Massive Brain, Ginormous Industries, Deborah Saez, Webgrity, and Cartamundi USA: the best artists and designers and manufacturers I could have asked for.

13. My teachers

    A few more fun pictures:

    Screenshots from the app!

    

    From Maker Faire! (Thanks whoever took the photo!)