Candyland Adventure concept

Hosted Games Works In Progress
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Hello! Long time fan of CoG and lurker of the forum but recently decided to make an account for the times I feel like giving my thoughts. This here is my first post, though…

I’ve been writing some WiP stories on my free time (in hopes of finishing them eventually!) but after some trouble getting motivated to continue writing on one, I took a break from it and got an idea for a different game. (Hopefully this hasn’t been done or thought of before…)

It’ll be like what American McGee’s Alice did in his updated rendition of the Alice in Wonderland tale: the once cheery whatever-land you traveled to is now a grim setting.

But instead of Wonderland, it’s Candyland, and instead of just pictures to play, you’re reading… a lot!

To flesh out the idea a bit, I made a small demo; one scene with two options kind of small.

I’ve been a bit shy about my work, especially incomplete work, so it took me a while to actually post this. (Notes: Conquer Candyland is a working title and this scene might not be in the finished version if completed.)

Demo: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/215063938/Candyland/web/mygame/index.html

I drew the sketches because if the game were to happen, it’d be enjoyable to have actual art in some scenes (wouldn’t you love to see the colorful backdrop of Candyland or some art in general? maybemaybenot…).

I say “were” … because it’s still just an idea.

So far, the details I have for the game are: Candyland is in trouble, there’s a villain (guess who?), Sweet/Sour is kindness/cruelty and changes by how you act, Delightful/homely changes by how you respond verbally, Saved % is how many of the CL residents you saved (which some are optional), Mr. Mint is a companion to help out when needed kind of like the Chesire cat but Mr. Mint is always with you, you can play as a boy or a girl (but the demo plays girl).
Depending on the percentage of delightful/homely, you’re given special dialogue/action options. (ex: If you’re Sour you can be nice or mean or be extra mean. Being sweet can be nice or mean or extra nice)

Since the working title is “Conquer Candyland”, the decisions you make could alter your ending to if you rule Candyland or not, and if you do, you see if you rule it as a respectable monarch or rule with an iron fist.

I don’t know if I want to continue it, pass the idea on to someone else that feels ambitious, or if I’ll continue it with a willing partner.

Just curious of anyone’s thoughts or comments on this idea. Every bit of feedback is appreciated. :slight_smile:

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Have you played the Twine candy-ant princess game? https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/3549705/Candy%20Ant%20Princess.html Just mentioning it since the title reminded me of it. It’s completely different.

Have you read The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland by Cathyrine Valente? It has a fantasy world that uses something similar to this concept. (Not with candyland mind you but another fantasy world). It’s a young adult book, took me a while to get into but I enjoyed it when I did.

I do love this concept. I think Conquer sounds a bit violent though. I do like alliterative titles.

I think your pictures need colour. Candyland should be bright and colourful.

It’s your idea. You should write it. You can do it. Start small. Think of a single vignette and do that. One strange encounter. From what I recall of Alice in Wonderland it was filled with vignettes, so it may be the perfect sort of story to base this on. Just a series of odd encounters.

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Personally, I think this is a great concept. Definitely something I’d play and enjoy :smiley:
My only suggestion would be: maybe some description on how Candyland suddenly appears so grim. Perhaps even a comparison between your past memories of the place and how it seems now? Nothing too much, maybe just a sentence or two. But it’s really up to you to decide, no need to listen to me if you don’t want to.

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@FairyGodfeather Thank you for the suggestions! I checked out the Candy Ant Princess game and I love how it plays differently than previous CYOA games I’ve played. The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland sounds like an interesting read. I’ll definitely order it for Kindle when I’m able to.

Thank you! & Conquer does sound violent, but like you, I like alliterative titles. It can change since it’s still a working title.

I agree the pictures need color. I only did quick sketches for the demo because I didn’t want to put a lot of effort into something I’d either put off until a much later time or end up dropping.

You’re right, I guess I should stick with the idea I made. It could be the fact I didn’t try as hard to start small and simply went with the thought: “Why Candyland as a CYOA game? What can you do?”

@LOR Thank you! I’m glad a few people like the concept; I was a bit worried someone would think it’d be dull or too silly or be the type to say so without any reasoning behind it.

I’ll make sure to put in a description of grim Candyland. :smiley: I just wasn’t sure if I wanted to describe it… in the imaginary page prior to that or after the demo scene when you’re finally traveling through Candyland.

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@Judairis A description is certainly necessary. Getting dropped straight into the world, without knowing what on Earth was going on, had a rather disquieting effect; which, in turn, stopped me from being properly engaged with the tale, and hence, from giving a damn.

I think ‘Conquering Candyland’ would read better than ‘Conquer Candyland’ - More of a descriptive title, than an imperative one. Sounds mildly violent, yes, but so what?

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Twine can be fun. Candy Ant Princess is just so sweet, and strange and different. It’s wonderfully short too, I’d love to see it expanded into a full game.

The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland is a very interesting take on the whole fantasy trope of someone from our world travelling to a fantasy realm. It’s clearly got some inspiration from Narnia and from Alice in Wonderland, but at the same time it has a different take. It’s dark in places, while still remaining a young adult tale. It’s the story of one of the secondary characters that I think most relevant to this thread, but I can’t say anything more without spoiling it, and it really is a book best read without any spoilers.

I’d suggest, if you’re doing the pictures, and intend for the game to have a male or female protagonist, don’t include the protagonist in the images, or make them appear very gender-neutral. Otherwise you’ll be making so much work for yourself.

I’m sure that people will say that it is silly. Just ignore them though. There’s nothing wrong with silly, or light-hearted, or having such an interesting premise.

I just did a little bit of googling since I’ve never heard of Candyland before.

I’d suggest renaming. And don’t use Candyland itself since that’s trademarked and likely will have copyright issues. So no Mr Mint either. Use it as inspiration though to create your own world, a land of confectionery and sweets and candies.

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Candyland Crusade? / Crusading Through Candy Land.

Anyway, the idea, damn man. I love it!
It’s so… Novel! xD

I think it could be absolutely hilarious, if that’s the way you want to go.
Comedy is something CoG is definitely missing, so it’d be nice… If you could add that sugar and spice? Y’know.

Forgive me, I couldn’t help myself. Best of luck with this!

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@Drazen I’m sorry to hear that, but I understand what you’re saying. I suppose it was a bad move on my part to start and end the demo in the middle of the story if I were to gain an interest from readers. The demo is there to give readers an idea on how your choice can affect the responses from characters. I was using the demo to try out codes that’ll improve the gameplay and story, but figured I’d still share for anyone curious. An improved demo will come out when I get some time to work on it.

‘Conquering Candyland’ does read better, but to be on the safe side (after reading FairyGodfeather’s comment), I might keep Candyland out of my title and change it to something different.

@FairyGodfeather I can see the inspiration from both tales in The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland; even the illustrations for the story remind me of Alice and Wonderland. I downloaded the sample to my Kindle to read it for later. :smiley:

You’re right, I wasn’t exactly thinking when it came to the drawings. Since I had a girl in mind, just for the demo, I drew her in. I don’t want to put in THAT much work in pictures for a game that relies on writing.

I had actually thought about creating a game using Candyland as an inspiration, but thought that using Candyland itself would be fine as long as I had no plans of gaining profit from it. I guess some companies wouldn’t like it either way, even if I did write a disclaimer. ^^;

@CJW Those are good! I would’ve used ‘Candyland Crusade’ if it wasn’t for copyright issues. ^^;

Thank you! xD I’m glad you like it. ^^ I’d love to put some comedy in the story; I would just need to see where in the story it’d work… once I have the full story.

No worries, and thanks for the luck! I’ll be needing it. :stuck_out_tongue:

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Inspiration is good, but you can’t use any of the characters from Candyland, or the name. But, that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t continue with your idea.

Personally I’d immediately leap towards baking as well as candy.

There’s plenty of baking in fairytales and nursery rhymes, from the Gingerbread Man, to the cottage in Hansel and Gretel, to the Four and Twenty Blackbirds in a Pie, The Queen of Hearts who made some tarts, Little Jack Horner and his plum pie, do you know the muffin man? and the little red hen with her bread? Expand to other food and you have Little Miss Muffet, Peter Piper, the couple who had 3 wishes and wished for a sausage, Snow White and her apple.

So there you have fairytale-esque, based on baked goods.

I think the Candy Zoo song is great inspiration too. http://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen/225763

You can create your own Candyland, with its own name, just let your imagination go wild. Even Alice in Wonderland, with the potion, the cake, the mushroom, the tea party, mock turtle, there’s plenty of food inspiration.

I suggest that you include tooth fairies too. Whether as enemies or not. And dentists.

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Teeth and dentists would definitely be well-placed in a game revolving around a realm of candy! I love the idea, and I agree with CJW- CoG is definitely missing comedy, and this would be a great game to make into something funny if that’s what you’d want to do!

For the drawings, you could do it as if you are looking through the character’s eyes where the gender will not matter. For example, you could do one where you are looking back at the-character-formerly-known-as-Mr.-Mint and all you see of your character in the picture is their shoulder. Or you could have the-character-formerly-known-as-Mr.-Mint shaking your character’s hand after saving him, and you would only see your character’s arm and hand.

I’m looking forward to the next demo you post so that we can begin to give more criticisms that will actually mean something. What you have now really isn’t enough to accurately reflect what we can expect from the rest of the game, though the idea is very good! And I’d say to definitely stick to alliteration in the title!

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Oh dear, im a girl named porter. But i like it so far and i really want to see where this is going

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Oh the Nutcracker too. Although all I remember about it is the Dance of the Sugarplum Fairy.

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Right in the childhood

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Possible names:

Claiming Candyland
Sweet or Sour in the Land of Candy
Crying for Candyland
Colour for Candyland

I like the idea! It’s an honest, friendly game and we need more of these!

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@FairyGodfeather Thank you for all the help! :smiley: After reading your comment about the name, I started thinking of ideas on what I could do instead of using Candyland.

I was only able to think of types of desserts and characters I’d want in the game, until I returned to see you commented. Your suggestion of tooth fairies helped out when I was stuck for a story/game.

*Since it’s a new day and I wrote the plot last night, I might take a look at it again to see if I’ll be changing one or five things…

Though I’m sad to have to change my original idea. I wanted to create fanwork for anyone familiar with Candyland to experience something different, while still feeling nostalgic. For those not familiar, they’ll enjoy the sweetness of Candyland and take a moment to do some research on it (like you did).

This just gives me a challenge to accomplish. I might still work on the first concept, for personal enjoyment, but I’ll change the names and a few other things in it in case the story gets shared anywhere else.

For the new “Candyland” idea: boy or girl, same details as before except no Mr. Mint. You still have a companion, but it is a tooth fairy. You’re traversing Sweetopia (placeholder for the land of sugary-goodness) because you were told the King – whose sanity has been deteriorating over the years – has finally snapped and you’re there to confront the King and solve the issue. You’re the ‘chosen one’… but not. Your fairy companion seeks glory by any means, even if it involves taking a random passerby and claiming them(you) to be the one to save the sugar residents. It happened to be you that was picked up by the fairy because your house was built very close to the gateway of their land. The reason the fairy is your companion is to make sure you complete your task.

There’s some backstory that explains the tooth fairies, the origin of Sweetopia, and different dessert… people (I’m calling them caretakers), and having a party system. If you have certain characters in your party, they can help overcome obstacles specific to them. If the required person isn’t in the party, it can still be done, but will take time and effort to

There’s more, but I want to organize all the details I have right now and figure out what I want to remove and which ones I want to keep. I’ll be taking my time with this story, since the plot underwent significant changes. :-S

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@Galador I might make it so that most of the humor goes into the “sweet” path… maybe dark humor down the “sour” path. I’ll be sure to add something, though!

I’ve seen some game illustrations where they drew as you described! I might just draw the images the way you’d see looking through the character’s eyes. I think I’ll draw the scene prior to a choice; say if candy cane man wanted to shake your hand and you could say yes or no, the image in the page would be of candy cane man offering his hand. I’ll be able to focus more on depicting the world around them and less on the player’s supposed hand which might not come in their preferred shade. .

Thank you! I’ll mention when I’ll be updating the demo. For now, I’m taking a little break to sort out the game details to make sure it runs smoothly story-wise. And alliterative titles are fun! :smiley:

@P0RT3R Thank you!

@Ninjasplaycardgames2 Haha, I was waiting for this comment. :stuck_out_tongue:

@andymwhy I like Claiming Candyland the best. But I can’t use it, to play it safe with copyrighted material. ^^;

Thank you! The game is definitely friendly… if you choose to play that way. :stuck_out_tongue:

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I do like the idea of the tooth fairy being your companion. Will it be sweet like the Angel in Waywalker’s or will it be bossy and can you get into arguments? I think a tooth fairy would work fantastic as the narrative voice too.

I’m suddenly thinking of Scrooged. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ak1dPU8uXiE or Tinkerbell.

I first read caretakers as caketakers, seems like I have baked goods on the brain. I think you’ll do a brilliant job.

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I have played your game and you have a good start and hope you finish it. I think its unique to turn a board game into a cog, rock on.