Candyville Chaos, the (birthday Party) Game

Like some of my other instructables, this one too was made as part of my kid's birthday party celebration. To make handing out treats at school a bit more fun, I made a game out of it.

It's basically a path finding game for children, but you can make it more interesting and challenging by changing the rules or by adding obstacles. That way it's also a fun game for adults.

In this instructable I'll show you how to create my version of the game, with candy treats for buildings.

Supplies

Needed to make the game:
- Colored paper/cardboard or a color printer
- Knife or scissors
- Glue or double sided tape
- white paper and a marker or pen
- Buildings (I used candy, but pretty much anything will work)

Optional:
- flat cardboard box to put the game in
- round corner punch

To play the game
- dice
- cars (I used winegum cars)

Step 1: The Board

There are many ways to make this game your own. I based the dimensions of mine on a cardboard box I had lying around to put the game in. This isn't necesary but helps to keep all the parts together.

Basically what you want to make is a grid of squares with roads in between. Depending on how big you want to make this, you determine the size of the squares and the width of the roads. I made mine 6 x 5 squares with the squares being around 50x50mm or 2x2 inches. The roads measured 15mm or about 1/2 inch.

To make the playing board a bit more interesting I added some green areas, a pond and a parking lot. What I ended up with were 26 squares to put buildings on. That way I could give each building their own letter (or adress).

You can create the board using green, grey and blue paper or cardboard or use paint or markers. Or, you can download the printables and scale them to whatever size you like. Both the board and the squares are designed to fit, so as long as you scale both equally, they should fit together neatly.

I printed my base graphics on A3 paper in 2 pieces and used double sided tape to stick it to the inside of the box.

As an added game play feature you can number all the entrances into the city on the edges of the board.

Step 2: The Tiles & Address Tokens

The tiles with the buildings on them are separate pieces so each time you play, the game will be different depending on how you place the tiles on the board.

Because I made mine to be played at school I stuck the buildings to the tiles so they wouldnt fall off during transport. If you make this game to be played over and over again at home, you can either make (or 3D-print) your own 'permanent' buildings or choose a different treat each time you play ;)

When creating the tiles make sure they are the same size as the squares on the board. You can make these yourself or use the printables from the previous step.

I used a corner punch (see 2nd image) to round off the corners on the tiles to make them less pointy and look more professional.

TIP: make some extra tiles in case one goes missing ;)

For the addresses I simply wrote down the entire alphabet on a piece of white paper and cut it into 26 small tokens. Write the same letters on 26 of your tiles and leave any extra tiles clear.

Step 3: The Cars (or Pawns)

Because the game is about finding your way through Candyville I chose to use candy cars for pawns. These car shaped winegums are sold here in The Netherlands and were perfect because they come in a nice package that -on its side- already kind of resembled a garage.

I used some cardboard to wrap the candy package and make it look more garage-y.

If you dont want to buy sweets every time you play this game you can also make your own permanent pawns or 3D-print little cars.

Step 4: Game Set-up

Once the board, the tiles and buildings and the cars are done the game is finished.

If you want to keep the game you can make a lid to keep all the bits safe and secure. Write the rules down and use zip-bags to put the address tokens and buildings in.

Next step: playing the game!

To set up the game place tiles on all empty squares on the board. Place your buildings on the tiles. Get the address tokens and pawns. You can either place the addresses face down on the table or let the players draw them with their eyes closed from the bag.

Step 5: How to Play

The main goal in Candyville Chaos is to reach your assigned address(es) as quickly as possible, following the rules that you decide to put in play. Below are a few different playing styles:

- School Birthday Celebration (ages 4-6): let the kids, in turns, choose a candy car to play with, draw an address token and let them find the quickest route to the address. The goal here is to let the kids recognize and find the same letter on the board as the one on their token. Depending on how many kids are in the class, there may be some unused tiles.

- School Birthday Celebration (ages 5-8): same as above, but with the added rule that you can only make either left hand or right hand turns (and drive straight). Or drive with your eyes closed and see how close you get to your destination without destroying the other buildings.

- Basic Game Play: divide the address tokens among the number of players. The youngest person with the most tokens begins. Keep the tokens hidden from the other players. Throw the dice (1) to determine the amount of blocks you can drive on your turn. Try to reach all of your addresses as quickly as possible. When you reach an address, you place it face up in front of you on the table. If another car is in front of you at a crossroads, you cannot pass it and will have to take a detour. If it's the last part of your drive you can choose to place your car behind the other car and continue on your next turn when the other player's car has moved out of the way. You can choose to allow multiple address tokens to be reached on a single turn or stop your turn once you reach a destination.

- Advanced Game Play: if you want to make the game more Chaotic you can choose to play with multiple cars each. This way you can use your car to block other players and try to reach your destinations before they do. You can split the number on the dice between your cars to spread your chances or put them all into one car to focus on one target.

I hope you enjoy playing this game as much as I had fun creating it! See you in Candyville!