Artwork for the original Candy Land game by Milton Bradley from 1955.

I have a vintage Candy Land game from 1955 by Milton Bradley and I was about to sell it so I thought I would add it to my personal art history course concept I’ve been doing. I’m going to try and see if I can find out how this game was created, designed and why?

Here is what I found out about this game

https://candy-land.fandom.com/wiki/Candy_Land_Wiki

Candy Land is a board game about children exploring a world made out of candy and other sweets that originally came out in 1949.

In every version of the game, there are a group of children that go through Candy Land. In the earliest versions of the game, it was a realistically drawn boy and girl.

Drawing of the Candy Land kids I did on my phone ☝

https://board-games-galore.fandom.com/wiki/Candy_Land

The game was designed in 1948 by Eleanor Abbott, while she was recovering from polio in San Diego, California.

It's rumored that Eleanor also did the original artwork but I didn't find anything that confirms that.

Here is something I thought was interesting:

The game was made for and tested by the children in the hospital polio ward where Eleanor stayed. The children suggested that she submit the game to the Milton Bradley Company.

The whole concept was to create a game that you didn't have to know how to read to play!

Artwork for the original Candy Land game by Milton Bradley from 1955.

Candy Land became Milton Bradley’s best selling game surpassing its previous top seller, Uncle Wiggly, and put the company in the same league as its main competitor, Parker Brothers.

Eventually, they revamped the game with new art, adding characters and a storyline in 1984.

Due to the design of the game, there is no strategy involved: players are never required to make choices, just follow directions. The winner is predetermined by the shuffle of the cards.

It’s referred to as a racing game. I had to see what that meant because it made it sound like there should be cars involved or something. After looking it up it made a little more sense. It turns out it just means that the object is to be the first to move all one's pieces to the end of a track on the board.

But all in all, if you ever get a chance to play Candy Land again, you will soon realize like I did the game kind of sucked.