Trailhop Games

The Spice Trail

Around the world with Magellan

A history adventure for children aged 6 to 10 about the first voyage around the world, 1519–1522.

Coming soon for iPad

Your child commands the fleet that sailed from Seville under Ferdinand Magellan to reach the Spice Islands by sailing west: buying the stores, choosing the route and the pace, meeting the peoples along the way, and bringing the ships home. As the voyage reaches each place, the Chronicle tells what really happened there.

Every card, letter and piece of news can be read aloud, so a child who cannot yet read can play. There are no advertisements and nothing to buy inside the game, and it collects nothing about your child.

Pictures from the game

  • The title screen: the fleet at sea below the towers of Seville, beside the game's menu
    The first voyage around the world
  • Seville in August 1519: the quay, the market, the Royal Shipyard, the Casa de Contratación, the Tavern of Triana and the church
    Outfit your fleet in Seville
  • Magellan's fleet under sail, with the ship's stores and the chart beside it
    Command the fleet across the oceans
  • The chart of the Pacific: the fleet's route in red, the Spice Islands far to the west, and blank paper where no European had charted in 1519
    Watch the map of the world fill in
  • The cannon duel: the fleet's ship fires at a corsair across the waves, the shot's path drawn in green dots
    Fend off corsairs with your cannon
  • Fishing over the side: a line hangs from the ship among tuna and other fish, beside a gauge for a big fish
    Fish over the side to feed the crew
  • The noon sighting: an astrolabe held up to the sun over the sea
    Find your way by the sun at noon
  • Trading with the Tupi villagers: bells and mirrors offered for fresh food, on a balance scale
    Trade with the peoples you meet
  • A tempest: Íñigo de Zubieta, the ship's master, asks for orders, with three choices to pick from
    Choices read aloud for young sailors
  • The Naturalist's Journal open at the sea lion, sketched by Ana, the ship's page
    Fill the Naturalist's Journal

At a glance

Ages
6 to 10
Plays on
iPad
Price
One purchase, then nothing more to pay
Advertisements
None
Purchases in the game
None
Information collected
None
Internet
Not needed to play
Sign-up
None
Read aloud
Yes. Every card, letter and piece of news, in the game's own voices, so a child who cannot yet read can play.
Game Center
Optional. When the device is signed in, only a voyage's final score and the weight of a fish your child lands go to the game's leaderboards, under the Game Center nickname, never the name typed in the game.

Command the fleet

  • Outfit your ships in Seville: food, water, trade goods and a crew
  • Sail from harbour to harbour across the Atlantic, through the strait and over the vast Pacific
  • Decide what to do when storms, sickness, mutiny and unknown coasts come
  • Trade with the peoples you meet, on a balance scale that shows a fair deal
  • Bring the cloves home to Seville, and see how your voyage compares with the real one

Five small games on the way

  • The noon sighting: find your latitude with an astrolabe
  • Fishing over the side
  • A cannon duel with corsairs
  • The search for fresh water on an island
  • Finding the way through the Strait of Magellan

Each one shows its goal and has a Show me button, and each can be left to the crew, so nobody gets stuck.

Learn as you sail

  • The shape of the world as it was found: the chart begins as Europe knew it in 1519 and fills in as the fleet sails
  • Why the seasons are upside down south of the equator, and what the trade winds and the monsoon are
  • How sailors found their way by the sun, the stars and the compass
  • Why fresh food mattered, how food was kept and why water went bad
  • Trade and barter, and the value of things far from home
  • Words of Malay and Cebuano, knots and sailors' tools
  • The Naturalist's Journal: a sticker book of the animals, fish, plants and stars of the voyage, filled over many voyages

Made for young sailors

  • Every card, letter and piece of news can be read aloud in the game's own voices, each word lit up as it is spoken, so a child who cannot yet read can play
  • Four challenges, from Story, the whole voyage on gentler seas and in gentler words, to Admiral of the Ocean Sea
  • The ship's page explains each new thing the first time it comes
  • The named crew never die: an illness sends them ashore to get well, and they come back aboard
  • The peoples the fleet met are portrayed with respect, and the hard parts of the real voyage are told honestly, as choices with consequences

For parents

  • No advertisements, no in-app purchases, no sign-up
  • Collects nothing about your child, and plays without an internet connection
  • Game Center is optional: when the device is signed in, only a voyage's final score and the weight of a fish your child lands go to its leaderboards, under the Game Center nickname, never the name typed in the game
  • The voyage saves itself, and the Journal and the Halls of Fame are kept from voyage to voyage
  • A page for grown-ups on the title screen explains what the game teaches and how it works

Help and privacy

Answers to common questions are on the game's help page, and what it does with data is in its privacy policy.