We gave this game to our 8 year old granddaughter.  It took her and I a while to figure out the rules, but they are well written out, and once we applied the "example" game, we figured it out.  We've played it several times with older brother, parents and grandfather.  What a game!  It definitely is challenging and I know, as a retired teacher, it is extremely good for thinking, spatial knowledge, and conceptual development.  Getting a "qwirkle" is one of our goals when we play.  10 year old brother got 7 qwirkles in one game and I still can't get over that!  This really is worth every penny for kids.  It is similar to scrabble, but uses shapes and colors in the "crosswords" of patterns. Everything has to match in some way - either by color or shape.  Exceptional game and really expands the brain!