About Candy Land

History

• Candy Land came into being as the brainchild of Eleanor Abbot, who had been stricken with polio as a child in San Diego, California. Milton Bradley Co. took the ideas she sent it and came up with the game, which has changed only in the form of the look of the game board since its 1949 introduction.

Goal

• Players start out at the beginning of a color-coded path that leads through Candy Land, with the goal to be the first one to finish by reaching the Candy Castle. The game pieces are moved according to the block of color of the card the player turns over on a shuffled deck when it is her turn, with the pieces moved to the next corresponding color on the path.

Features

• There are some cards in the deck that correspond to certain characters that occupy a space on the board. Players who draw these cards move their piece to that space, which can mean either moving forward from where they are or backward if the space has already been passed.

Shortcuts

• There are shortcuts through Candy Land that players can use if lucky enough to land on the space that allows them. The Rainbow Trail and the Gumdrop Pass offer players the chance to get ahead or catch up if the game piece lands on that part of the path.

Penalties

• The spaces for the Molasses Swamp, the Gooey Gumdrops and the Lollipop Woods penalize the player unfortunate enough to land on them. The player must remain there until he draws the right colored card to escape from the penalty area.