Considering an "Oregon Trail" game

Project Ideas & Discussion
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I’ve been working on a game kind of like Oregon Trail for a bit (just the menu framework mostly), and wanted to get some feedback on it’s concepts or if there’s any interest in it at all. I’ll be referring Oregon Trail as “OT” for the rest of the post.

The main version of OT I’ve been basing it on is the original apple II version since it’s the most simple and recognizable.

Setting would be the wagon party of 5 going through food/sweet themed locations with the goal of reaching their destination. I’m a little torn on the story dressing though. I’m torn between the party members being a group of adventurers like an rpg, or a group of settlers trying to make a build up a town at the end of the trail (like the game it’s based on). The main character in either set up is just a hired driver/caravan master for the group. All characters will be able to be named by the player, but they will come with default names if you don’t care to name them.

Gameplay in the current framework is very similar to OT, main differences would be a weight gain system (naturally), a more tangible “energy” system (determines if you are able to travel that day), health is removed since the characters can’t die (blobbing out is what replaces death, more or less), wagon weight load (owning more oxen = larger wagon weight. Equipment and party weight add to wagon weight).

I’m thinking of having 6 visual weight stages for each character to start, then make another 5 stages in the future (just to avoid artwork being a main time sink early on). I want the main traveling screen to be similar to the Apple II OT, but with more detail than a black background and green/orange grass.

Pretty much all of the same items you can get in the original OT game are in mine, but due to the setting, I replaced “bullets” with “tools” (used for dealing with random events, like fallen logs or removing rocks in your path). The main difference in terms of items is that food is separated into light (lose weight and energy), average, and heavy types (gain weight and energy), and clothing has three sizes (medium, XL and XXL).

Random diseases would also be present, though since they can’t kill you, they act more like random status debuffs. For example, one disease I already made just simply causes slight weight gain over the next few days, and another disease causes a character to be 100 pounds fatter for a week or so (weighing down the wagon potentially, and causing energy for that character to deplete faster). Having a character clothed will reduce the chance of getting sick.

I would want to have a story mode, with cutscenes that go more in depth with the character interactions, and an endless mode that just focuses on the gameplay more or less. Both modes having a scoring system once a playthrough is over, though with some slight differences between the modes (for example, story mode would reward you for beating the game quickly, while endless judges you on how far you got).

I also want to have “scenarios” you pick before you start playing, which alter the game rules a bit, such as randomized party starting weight, party members randomly switching their diet settings without telling you, gaining weight while resting, events involving chocolate appear more often etc. I’m aiming to make it so it’s possible to play with any combination of scenarios you want.

thoughts?

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I haven’t played Oregon Trail since (some) computer still had floppy drives. My current rig doesn’t even have a disc drive. I feel old.

Anyways, sounds like a cute idea, though I don’t really have specific criticisms/recommendations. Career, interest, et cetera.

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I like the adventurer idea, more-so than the settlers, especially if you’re going for magic weight gain via diseases. Also has potential for more varied random events.

Overall the idea sounds like a lot of fun, and I like the idea of scenarios cause they’re good for replayability. Though, is that just for endless mode? or rolled into the story mode as well?

Personally, I kind of prefer one gainer at a time (and usually playing as the gainer) but I’ve loved everything you’ve put out so far, so I’m willing to be proved wrong.

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I want the scenarios to apply to both modes, all optional, all unlocked at the start.

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Maybe make the choice between settler and adventurer optional at some point?
Basically, make the difference between the two matter. There probably could be monsters that the adventurer is useful for taking down, and the threat from the monsters could be that failure to defend would equal someone or multiple people getting forcefed. Opposite of that, you could have settlers be folks that have skills that are useful for removing the more mundane problems you mentioned. I don’t know if you have a fail state planned for that, but maybe have it be that if it’s a candy themed land then they have to eat the obstacle if they can’t remove it, which takes time.

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This is another Oregon Trail based game that world serve ans an excellent reference point for how you should structure things. Obviously you’re running with a different core dynamic (wg instead of tf) that is going to change how you handle a lot of things, and you’re bringing a very different experience to the table, but it’s a good look at a successful adaptation of this very unexplored type of game.

PS: Big fan of Marcel’s, hope this works out well enough to get the juices flowing for it if you plan on going back to it

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I think the settler group would work better for the game than the adventurers. Since I want the party members to stand out from each other and have certain skills they bring to the table, the skillset of a bunch of settlers (A carpenter, a mercenary, and a homesteader) is more relevant to the gameplay than adventurers (would have been a warrior, mage, and thief/treasure hunter).
The main character was always the driver, and one of the characters I had in mind were also going to be in the group no matter what (a financier of the expedition).

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