In this board game, designed by Vincent Patti, Erica Simon, and Christopher Soto, players engage with the major themes of Milton’s Paradise Lost in a loose Candy Land-like structure. Players need not have read Paradise Lost to enjoy the game; in fact, as Soto points out in his reflection, the game could be used as a way to introduce the poem to children old enough to play board games but too young to appreciate Milton’s epic.

As Simon notes in her reflection, the imagery of the board game is drawn directly from Milton’s descriptions. The group paid careful attention to opposites, such as light and dark, to represent the opposing forces of good and evil, and mixtures of color to represent chaos. “Like a painting, a board game can convey ideas through its images and visual design,” Patti explains in his reflection, but unlike a painting, a board game enables its audience to “interact with the world” portrayed. This interaction is facilitated by ? cards, some of which take effect immediately, others of which can be held by the player for future use. Each card refers to a concept or event in Paradise Lost, and many quote directly from the poem.

While the game form is appropriate for all the reasons given by Patti, Simon, and Soto in their reflections, the mixture of skill and luck required to win also reflect the balance of free will and fate at the heart of the poem itself.

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