Candy Box | Cheerful Ghost

It Is Finished - My Candy Box Review!

jdodson gives this a solid "Rad" on the Ghost Scale

This is fun, with very few issues, and is well worth your time.

jdodson gives this a "Rad" on the Ghost Scale

This is fun, with very few issues, and is well worth your time.

I always get a sense of satisfaction when I beat a game for the first time and today was such a day in that I finished Candy Box. If you didn't know, we launched a Games BBS on Cheerful Ghost and Candy Box was one of the first wave of games to launch on it. It was one of the original games in the web clicker genre and it proved that you can do really creatively simple things in JavaScript. If you haven't played Candy Box I recommend trying it out, it really is just a couple clicks away => "Games / Candy Box."

That said, you start the game by collecting candy one piece at a time. The only controls you start with are the ability to eat the candy or throw it. If you... Read All

Play Games On The New Cheerful Ghost BBS!

I am beyond excited for the launch of Cheerful Ghost Games through our new BBS. It's a launch that Travis and I have been working for the whole year through a series of little projects that are finally complete.

Cheerful Ghost is A New Wave BBS!

Back in the late 80's and early 90's if you could get the Internet it was expensive and having access to a desktop computer wasn't common. In my family my parents always set aside some money for a family computer even if it wasn't top of the line. Our first desktop computer that had a modem was a Gateway 486 SX/25 with a 2400 baud modem running Windows 3.11 for Workgroups and DOS. At the time that wasn't the fastest modem out... Read All

Travis Admin wrote on 08/06/2018 at 01:56pm

As much fun as I've had over the past few years designing things for the site, this change is up there in my favorites. Designing something to look like you're using an old pre-GUI computer in the browser was a load of fun, and I hope you guys enjoy the retro feel as much as I loved making it. We have a retro feel in a few other aspects of the site, from the regular Classic reviews on Cheerful Ghost Radio, to the 80's/90's feel of the RAD and MUST PLAY ratings on the ghost scale, and now this. I've found a lot of different ways to do scanlines over the past few months and I was surprised that it was pretty easy in CSS :D

Just in case you haven't scrolled down past this post, I posted a review of the Candy Box games. Spoiler alert: they're amazing. https://cheerfulghost.com/Travis/posts/3827/candy-box-and-candy-box-2-double-review-a-real-sugar-high

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 08/07/2018 at 02:59am

I used to play Legend of the Red Dragon and Usurper. I've also run my own BBS for a limited time.

Travis Admin wrote on 08/07/2018 at 03:09am

You ran a bbs? That’s awesome!

vdogmr25 wrote on 08/07/2018 at 07:26pm

Oh boy! Here I go playing candy box again!

Travis Admin wrote on 08/07/2018 at 08:15pm

Hahaha, it’s so fun right? I ended up playing through both for my review but then playing it again the day we launched. It’s strangely deep.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 08/08/2018 at 02:51am

I still can't seem to be able to get the armor on the Castle entrance level. Like I made it through fine but never got the armor. It's kind of strange, i'm not sure how to avoid the projectile except that randomly my character makes it through.

Travis Admin wrote on 08/08/2018 at 03:32am

Yeah that one seems to be that if you kill them fast enough, you'll get past the projectiles. If you linger too long, you get hit.

And I think I got the armor on the first trip through, strange. May be a %chance instead of a guarantee.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 08/08/2018 at 03:33am

Ok so just keep grinding. Makes sense.

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 08/10/2018 at 03:36am

So, ah, I'm sorry if I missed it, but how exactly do we access the BBS? Do you we just go to the games list and select them that way?

Is there a chance we can get L.O.R.D. and Usurper? I'd love to see those games again.

Travis Admin wrote on 08/10/2018 at 12:17pm

Yeah just click Games up top.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 08/10/2018 at 03:31pm

Straight up i'm planning to remake LORD next year. Porting it would be cool too but I think that would honestly be more work to port old LORD to Cheerful Ghost than remake it in our style on the web.

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 08/10/2018 at 07:26pm

@Travis thanks!
@Jon aww, LORD was good. But, a remake might be good, too.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 08/10/2018 at 07:59pm

LORD is one of the coolest games of all time. I think our version should do it justice.

#crossessfingers

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Candy Box and Candy Box 2 Double Review: a Real Sugar High

Travis gives this an astounding "Must Play" on the Ghost Scale

This achieves something special, and it would be a shame to miss it.

Travis gives this a "Must Play" on the Ghost Scale

This achieves something special, and it would be a shame to miss it.

Candy Box is a tricky game to explain. Jon told me about it. the other day and I tried it out, and I was initially very confused. It's a candy counter that constantly goes up right? And you can either eat or throw the candy? That's all? What's the big deal? But you realize something else is behind the initial facade when a merchant (who looks like the fourth Doctor in ASCII) shows up to sell you things. The game does not tell you what you can do, and the merchant is no different. You don't have the option to buy things until you have the candy for it. But when you buy a wooden sword, you get your first glimpse into this game's surprisingly complex mechanics.

I don't... Read All Candy Box is a tricky game to explain. Jon told me about it. the other day and I tried it out, and I was initially very confused. It's a candy counter that constantly goes up right? And you can either eat or throw the candy? That's all? What's the big deal? But you realize something else is behind the initial facade when a merchant (who looks like the fourth Doctor in ASCII) shows up to sell you things. The game does not tell you what you can do, and the merchant is no different. You don't have the option to buy things until you have the candy for it. But when you buy a wooden sword, you get your first glimpse into this game's surprisingly complex mechanics.

I don't want to give too much away, because the discovery of what the game is all about is part of the fun. But in brief, Candy Box is an RPG/Adventure style game. Candies and lollipops are your currency, which you use to buy things for quests. But on top of that you're managing your income of candies and lollipops like you might in a Cookie Clicker style game, only in Candy Box you don't have to keep clicking. Part of the game is idling, especially at first, so it's a good game to kinda keep open and flip back to every hour or so.

Candy Box 2 is more of the same, but things are balanced better, and the gameplay has way more depth. Definitely play the first one before you play the second one. Again, I don't want to say much about the changes in the sequel because so much of the fun is in discovering what you can do.

I found myself wholly engrossed by these games. They aren't super long, you can complete both in the span of a couple of days, but a significant chunk of that is idling while waiting for your candy/lollipops to build up. But there are multiple wikis, walkthroughs, and Youtube let's-plays of it. There are arguments over the best strategies for accomplishing certain tasks. The game is written in javascript, and there are a few instances where it really seems like the developer expects you to cheat by using your browsers developer console to find the right values for something (but you don't have to).

There's so much depth here that a review can't, and shouldn't, show. This review is short, intentionally, because going into too many specifics would ruin it (I may have already said too much), and it's an ASCII based game so a lot of things reviews normally talk about (environment, graphics, sound, controls) don't really apply here. It's stick figures and buttons and a strange, compelling, satisfying gameplay loop.

If you haven't played these games, you need to play them right now!

And you can play them right here:
https://cheerfulghost.com/games/candybox
https://cheerfulghost.com/games/candybox2