Independence Staging Ground
April 1848, the edge of Independence, Missouri. The game opens here: no menu of screens, just a morning camp you can pan across. Matt's General Store is at the town end, your half-loaded wagon at the other, with the corral, your party at the fire, and the trail sign pointing west. Every thing you must do before leaving is a place you click. The scratch pad keeps a "Before we leave" checklist that ticks itself off. Drag the scene or use ← → to look around (A–G belong to the party, so they're not used for the camera). Hover a place to highlight it, then click it.
Click the scene first for keys. ← → or drag: pan · click a place: open it · Tab wagon · N checklist · M route · A–G party · Esc close. In the store: 1–7 choose an item, ← → change the amount (hold Shift for ×5).
Start at the staging ground, not a house
Should the game open in the player's house, or straight at the staging ground? For Phase 1, the staging ground.
Recommendation · Phase 1
Open on the staging ground. It is faithful: the 1985 game goes from choosing your occupation straight to Matt's store in Independence. It is also fast: the first click is a real decision (oxen, food), and you can be on the trail in about three minutes.
Why not a house first
A house scene would be a second hub with nothing to decide yet. It delays the first real choice and splits outfitting across two places. It would also add a new building set to author before Phase 1 has shipped anything.
The prologue does the house's job
What a house scene would give you (who you are, why you're going) fits on page 1 of the scratch pad: the newspaper notice that brought you here, plus a line in your own hand. It's optional and costs no art.
Phase 2: the home camp grows here
This same patch of ground becomes the home camp. Switch to the Home camp · Phase 2 state: the tent is now a cabin, the loading pile is now a storehouse, there's a garden, and a trail board sits by the fire. The store, corral and sign don't move, so returning players already know their way around.
Hotspots
On hover, a place gets a 1px gold outline (traced from its own pixels, so it hugs the shape) and a small label. A bobbing marker sits over any place that still has an unticked checklist item.
| Place | Opens | Checklist item | Key |
|---|---|---|---|
| Matt's General Store | The store: the original's goods and prices, a running total against your purse, and Matt's advice | Buy oxen · Food · Clothing | click |
| Your wagon | The bag: the cargo grid and the load against 2,000 lb | — | Tab |
| The corral | Choose which yoke you buy (names and traits; they're Phase 2 hooks) | Buy oxen | click |
| Your party at the fire | Assign roles and tools: Carpenter, Healer, Hunter, Scout, Teamster | Assign roles | A–G |
| The trail sign and guide | The route planner on the scratch pad: stops, miles, departure month | Plan route | M |
Onboarding: "Before we leave"
A checklist, not a tutorial
Five lines on the scratch pad: Buy oxen · Food · Clothing · Assign roles · Plan route. Each one ticks itself when the world state is true, in red ink with a strikethrough. The pad's peek line shows the count ("Before we leave 2/5"), so you never have to open it to know where you stand.
Optional prologue
Page 1 is a clipping pasted into the pad: "OREGON! Free land…" from a Missouri newspaper, with a note in the leader's hand. Skip it and nothing is lost. Read it and the trip has a reason.
Leaving is a conversation
When all five are ticked, the guide at the trail sign says "Ready when you are." You leave by talking to him, not with a button, and the camera pans west as the wagon rolls out.
No forced order
The checklist has no order and nothing is locked. An expert can go store, then sign, and be gone. A newcomer can wander, and the markers show where the work is.
Matt's General Store
A native-resolution store screen in the walnut-glass panel language. The shop scene on the left is set dressing, so the store feels like a place rather than a spreadsheet. On the right is the ledger. Matt's advice changes with the selected item and paraphrases his lines in the original.
| Item | Price (1985) | Matt says |
|---|---|---|
| Oxen | $40 a yoke (2 oxen) | At least 3 yoke |
| Food | $0.20 a pound | At least 200 lb a person |
| Clothing | $10 a set | 2 sets a person, for the mountains |
| Bullets | $2 a box of 20 | — |
| Wagon wheel · axle · tongue | $10 each | A few spares are wise |
The total is set against the leader's purse (a Carpenter starts with $800), with a bar that turns red if you go over. The same screen shows the wagon load, so weight and money are traded off on one screen. At forts the same UI returns with prices 25% higher at each fort.
Art notes
Missouri, not the Platte
A local copy of the engine (engine.local.js) drops the bluffs and Chimney Rock. The layers are blue ridges, wooded hills with redbud and dogwood in bloom, a meadow full of other emigrants' wagons, a near tree line, and the town at the east end: courthouse, steeple, smithy and hotel.
Morning light from the east
The sun rises screen-right, so lit edges face right and shadows fall west, toward the trail. The same palette-table grading gives dawn, noon and dusk. Window glass reflects the sky by day and turns to lamplight when it gets dark.
A lively camp
Smoke from the chimneys and a dozen cookfires, drawn with depth fog so the far ones fade. Mist lies in the hollows at dawn and burns off. Oxen shuffle, chickens peck, townsfolk walk the boardwalk and the forge glows.
Depth for panning
Seven parallax depths from clouds (0.04) to foreground grass (1.35). The play plane is 1,320 native px wide, about two screens.
Open questions
- Occupation vs role naming. A "Carpenter" leader (money and score) can also hold the Carpenter role (tool). Should the occupation be renamed (for example "Tradesman"), or is the overlap a feature?
- The sign's mileage. The sign reads "Fort Kearney 200 mi" as briefed, but the original lists about 304 mi, and the new Fort Kearny on the Platte only opened in June 1848. Do we fix the number, or pick a different first landmark for an April 1848 start?
- How much to show of the home camp in Phase 1. Should Phase 1 already mark "your spot" (a stake, a name on the sign) to foreshadow the home camp, or keep the Phase 1 ground purely faithful?