Oregon Trail Type Game

[RGBrasel]

I’ve been tasked with creating an educational game based on the old Spanish trail in Florida, and I don’t have the time, expertise, or resources to create it from scratch in Java. So what I’m wondering is if GameDevelop will allow me to:

1. Create a map view that will allow a sprite to move from one point on the map to another (the answer is yes, it can do this).
2. When the “city” is clicked, it will load an HTML page. (I suppose this is yes.)
3. Have random events (e.g., disasters, attacks) that affect parameters like health, party number, inventory, etc.
4. Have some sort of back-end database for storing inventory, score, etc.

The aim is to select a player/team, go from St. Augustine (the starting place) and visit various Spanish missions and native American cities along the way, trading goods, replenishing supplies, and facing random events, until they player reaches Pensacola. The game will be hosted on a touch-sensitive PC kiosk and will be educational in nature (clicking on a town/settlement/feature will open a page with explanatory text or a video in a modal dialog)–though there will be a score.

Any thoughts, tips, or tricks?

[mtarzaim]

1. Create a map view that will allow a sprite to move from one point on the map to another (the answer is yes, it can do this).

Might be more easy to allow full control of the sprite to the player. So he could wander in the desert and die from starvation, and then respawn at the last stop. Managing routes between points might be more difficult.

2. When the “city” is clicked, it will load an HTML page. (I suppose this is yes.)

There’s no browser capability in Game develop. You should either take a screenshot of the webpage and show it as a picture, or recreate it with text objects.

3. Have random events (e.g., disasters, attacks) that affect parameters like health, party number, inventory, etc.

It should work.
It depends mainly on how those events will be shown ingame, since there’s no ready-to-use weather effects as in RPG Maker for instance.

4. Have some sort of back-end database for storing inventory, score, etc.

There’s no database per se. You must store your parameters in variables or group variables (inventory.slot1, inventory.slot2, health, etc.).
Then, you can write them in xml file, to reload it later (read and set the variables).

hosted on a touch-sensitive PC kiosk and will be educational in nature (clicking on a town/settlement/feature will open a page with explanatory text or a video in a modal dialog)–though there will be a score.

So all the game must use one-click only interactions.
Might be more streamlined if, when you arrive in a city, a scene appear where the player can manage its supply, with on the left side, historical informations about the city. You could also ask the player to remember those informations for later, to gain bonuses.
Ex : the player encounters a lost caravan, asking if there is a well somewhere. The player remembers reading about a well in the xxx city, and point the lost caravan to it. The lost caravan gives him more supply as thanks.

Instead of score, use people as a counter. If player takes bad decisions, some of its people die. Good decisions, more birth or new caravaners join him. The objective is to get to the goal with as minimal death as possible, matching the historical datas of that period.

You can also throw in moral choices, with a money element : spend your money to buy medecine, or keep it to bribe bandits so you can use the bridge and get faster to your goal.