Is this even the right engine for my concept?

[IndigoAK]

It's probably telling to anybody who makes games as more than a hobby or who has even made one that I don't even know if I've picked the right engine, but I find myself unable to decide which is the best or if any of the pre-existing ones will ever suit my needs.  Lacking a inkling on where to even post to ask that question though, I figure that if there's a place that can at the very least tell me that AGS is most certainly NOT the right engine, this is said place.

So here's the concept.

You're a writer for the local paper and you've been asked to write a human interest piece on a man who's recently committed suicide in your small town.  All you really know is that he's dead, he killed himself and that he probably suffered from sort of PTSD, though not because he served in the military and saw combat.  The idea is that as this writer, you have to interview his family, friends and other people that knew him and piece together his story, decide what information is and isn't important to the piece that you're writing and then actually write the piece.  And by write the piece, I mean actually have the player write a newspaper story and then have it published.  There is no violence (except maybe heated reactions from family remembers and friends, but no killing or such), there's no goal other than to write the story and there's really not even any guidelines for that.  If you wanted to, you could just go to your desk after getting the assignment and write a bunch of baloney.

There are several things I'm unsure of regarding AGS that make me ask my initial question. 

The first is that at said desk, I want the player to be able to interact with a semi-functional computer desktop. A word processor, a web browser for doing Internet searches on topics that come up throughout researching for the piece, an email program for interacting with other writers and reporters at the paper and a chat client for a more immediate way of doing the same.  My main source of inspiration and main model is the the web browser that was available in Grand Theft Auto IV, but more advanced.  This would obviously take an immense amount of advanced scripting and probably a fair bit of AI work.

The second is the actual writing part.  I've searched these forums a bit and I haven't really come across anybody trying to do this, so I'm guessing this is probably new territory for AGS.  Would it even be possible to build a semi-functional word processor inside an AGS game?  One capable of not only text manipulation, but possibly image manipulation as well (for the layout of the article and such).

The third is that the game would need to be able to keep track of very detailed information about characters; their emotional state, what you've talked with them about and what you haven't, as well as keep track of environmental factors.  For instance, you're talking to the man's mother.  When you first meet her, you get right to the point and start asking her questions instead of trying to get to know her a bit first.  Because it's hot out and you're standing on the front porch, she's uncomfortable and less likely to answer important questions because a) it's hot and b) you've ticked her off with being rude and c) you're asking her touch questions on her porch of all places.  The engine would need to be capable of remembering that she doesn't like you and why she doesn't like you if you ever decide to talk to her a second time.  Basically, in the same vein as Emily Short's Galatea, the engine needs to be capable of giving me the tools to make my characters as human as I care to make them (which is very).

[cat]

Very interesting concept.

The first is that at said desk, I want the player to be able to interact with a semi-functional computer desktop. A word processor, a web browser for doing Internet searches on topics that come up throughout researching for the piece, an email program for interacting with other writers and reporters at the paper and a chat client for a more immediate way of doing the same.  My main source of inspiration and main model is the the web browser that was available in Grand Theft Auto IV, but more advanced.  This would obviously take an immense amount of advanced scripting and probably a fair bit of AI work.

There is an AGS game that uses a chat AI, you should try that, it's pretty good:
http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/site/games/game/1059/

The third is that the game would need to be able to keep track of very detailed information about characters;

This should be fairly easy in AGS.

The second is the actual writing part.  I've searched these forums a bit and I haven't really come across anybody trying to do this, so I'm guessing this is probably new territory for AGS.  Would it even be possible to build a semi-functional word processor inside an AGS game?  One capable of not only text manipulation, but possibly image manipulation as well (for the layout of the article and such).

This is going to be the hardest part. There are textboxes you could use, but that would hardly be considered a word processor. I don't think layouting is possible (at least it will require some VERY advanced scripting).

What I'm most curious about: How is the game resolved then? Once you hand in your article, is it going to be evaluated in some way?

[IndigoAK]

There is no grade or evaluation.  No reward other than knowing the article was published.  I want to do it that way because I'm interested in how people would respond to there not being any real resolution.  I'm a big fan of unconventional storytelling in games or games that challenge our existing ideas about what even constitutes a game, so I wanted to try my hand in that arena myself. 

The story for this concept is wholly in the things you learn about the man's life from the people you interview or the information you find in the game's version of the Internet.  Emily Short's Galatea, which I mentioned in my original post, is a huge inspiration for what I want to accomplish.  I want most of what people get out of the game to come from how they go about finding the information they want or need, in the conversations, etc.