Hi everyone!

Im looking to develope a small tycoon game for a specific nitch. But i have no idea, which engine i should build it on ...

I am asking here, because i serched the internet for a whole day and couldnt find satisfiying answers. I guess thats because i miss the correct terms known in the gamedev world to express my questions properly ...

Here is my idea of the basic structure of the game:

It does not have to have a fancy 3d world map or anything like that. Basically you will just have an account with your balance and a feed with randomized upcoming deals which you can choose to buy or not (for example a business or real estate). So the deal will cost you money upfront, but put small amounts of money back into your pocket every "month" (acually every other 2 minutes or so). To found the deal you will be able to get a loan from a bank. So at the bank you type in the stats of the loan you need and the bank will check your account for worthyness of the loan. Later on you can try to optimize what ever you bouhgt (for exaple install balconies at a piece of real estate and raise the rent). So the game is actually mostly made out of mathematics. Its supposed to be GUI-only (i could not find a common term for a game that is played olny in a gui, an not a map, niether 2d or 3d). The upcoming deals should be generated by an automated algorithm, so that i dont have to create every deal my self and its also gonna be infinite posibilitys for the deals.

I want the game to be played within a browser, so you log on to your account on a website and then you can play it there.

NOW MY QUESTION: which engine would you reccomend for a project like this? 

I know that there is gonna be a lot of coding to be done to get the mathematic concept working and im not afraid to learn a new programming language.

ALSO: how do you properly call a game that has no world map/ levels/ anything to move around in, but just a gui to manage thngs?

Thank you so much for your advice!!!!!

Cheers, Matt

4 hours ago, Pepsidog said:

Honestly, plain old HTML, CSS, and javascript would do the trick.  You don't even need any libraries.  If you want proof, you can check out civclicker.  As to what kind of game it is, I honestly have no idea.

Thanks for replying! 

Do you mean one out of HTML, CSS or Javascript or all three combiled toghether? 

I guess HTML ist necessary in any case, since its in a browser environment.

Cheers.

17 minutes ago, MadMatt said:

Do you mean one out of HTML, CSS or Javascript or all three combiled toghether? 

I guess HTML ist necessary in any case, since its in a browser environment.

Pretty much everything you see on the web uses a combination of the three; they're more separate components of the system you use to build webpages than truly distinct things. All three are moderately ugly to work with directly, so it's reasonably likely you may want to use some libraries or frameworks that make your experience easier anyway.

You really have three options:

1. Use Flash

2. Use HTML, CSS and JavaScript and create the UI and logic as you would a web service

3. Use the Canvas that HTML5 offers

To use Flash i consider it to be overkill for this type of projects and it's arguably obsolete. So what you're left with is the old HTML, CSS and JavaScript combination in the traditional form or you could use the new and more powerful Canvas that came with HTML5. My advice is, unless you want complex animations and graphics for which Canvas is more suitable, use a simplistic bare bones CSS framework (to have more control over your design) and build the game like you would a normal webpage with JavaScript (use jQuery) running your logic. 

47 minutes ago, bubbleout said:

1. Use Flash

Along similar lines there are also Java and Silverlight, and a few other plugin-based web technologies you could use. They all suffer from the same, and IMO fatal, flaw: modern browsers hate them. Getting them to run is a pain in the neck. They're constantly being blocked for security issues if you're not running the very latest version and often need additional user interaction to activate.

Which is a long-winded way of saying: I agree with bubble out ?