Milton Bradley American game developer Date of Birth: 08.11.1836 Country: USA

Biography of Milton Bradley

Milton Bradley was an American game developer and the unofficial "father" of the American tabletop gaming industry. He was born in Vienna, Maine and grew up in Lowell, Massachusetts. After finishing school, he worked as a draftsman and then attended the Lawrence Scientific School in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

In 1856, Milton secured a position at the 'Watson' company in Springfield, Massachusetts. However, the company dissolved in 1858, and Bradley became a draftsman and patent agent. He also ventured into lithography and established the first color lithograph shop in Springfield.

After his lithography business failed, Bradley decided to pursue tabletop game development. He had previously attempted to trade lithographs of Abraham Lincoln, but Lincoln grew a beard which made the lithographs outdated and unappealing. With the failure of his lithography endeavors, Bradley quickly transitioned to the world of game development.

Bradley's first successful game was "The Checkered Game of Life," which he had envisioned for a long time. The game was an instant hit, and he sold the first set of several hundred copies within two days. By 1861, Bradley had sold a total of 45,000 copies of the game.

"The Checkered Game of Life" involved spinning a spinner and moving along squares, with each square representing a virtue or vice that would increase or decrease the player's score. The objective was to be the first to reach 100 points. While the gameplay itself was not significantly different from other existing games at the time, Bradley's creation stood out due to its ideological component. Most games during that period focused on the path to a virtuous and blameless future, but Bradley managed to create a rather unconventional "business" game that aligned with the rising bourgeois morality in America.

Despite the impressive income generated by his games, tabletop gaming did not become Bradley's primary focus. Once he resolved his financial issues, Bradley shifted his attention to supporting and developing educational and scientific projects. In 1869, he began promoting the ideas of Friedrich Wilhelm August Fröbel, a German educator who had developed a series of educational games and revolutionized the concept of early childhood education.

Bradley published a series of treatises and pamphlets praising Fröbel's ideas, and his company launched two new magazines, "Kindergarten News" and "Work and Play." These magazines did not bring financial success, which eventually led to a disagreement between Bradley and his business partners. However, they successfully achieved their intended purpose.

In the following years, Bradley's company released many more products for children, such as the world's first set of watercolor paints with a standardized color selection. Bradley also became deeply interested in the use of colors in education and published a series of works on teaching children to differentiate colors.

Milton Bradley passed away on May 30, 1911, in Springfield, leaving behind a significant legacy in the game development industry and his contributions to education.