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! The game is in active development !
Hey everyone! I’m solo-developing a game using Unreal Engine 5.
Researchers is a blend of roguelike, automation, and survival.
Imagine a simplified Factorio, but where each run is unique — with procedurally generated worlds, climates, and a constant threat looming over you.
⚙️ What’s already working:
• 📌 Basic Resources
– Energy: Powers your buildings
– Water: Boosts resource generation
– Organic Matter: Used to push back the Darkness
– Metal: Needed for construction
– Science: Required to unlock new technologies
• 🚚 Conveyor logic — resources automatically move between buildings
• 🗺️ Procedural world generation — based on noise maps (height, temperature, climate)
• 🧱 Modular construction — buildings are made of blocks, each placed separately during construction
• 🌑 Darkness — currently works like fog of war, but will eventually be the main enemy, evolving and attacking the player
• 🏗️ First 5 core buildings implemented, plus a few extras
🏁 At the start of each run, you get:
• Conveyor – moves resources across the map
• Extractor – mines solid resources
• Solar Panel – produces energy for other buildings
• Lamp – lights the area and keeps the Darkness away
• Lab – lets you unlock scientific progress
A simple and clear start to every run.
🌍 Planned Features & Core Mechanics:
Biomes — each with its own unique gameplay twist
🌳 Forest — Growth Mechanic
• Every tile has a growth bar that fills when it rains
• When full, trees, bushes, and flowers appear (organic resources)
• The biome feels like a living farm
🌋 Volcanic Lands — Overheat Mechanic
• Buildings work faster, but accumulate heat
• If overheated, they shut down for a while
• Each building has different heat capacity
• Overheat can be reduced with upgrade modules
🏜️ Desert — Mirage Mechanic
• Tiles can have a “mirage” status (true/false)
• If you try to mine a tile with mirage = true, the resource teleports to a random nearby tile
• If the new tile is also a mirage, the process repeats until a real tile is found
❄️ Frozen Wastes — [Mechanic not yet decided]
• Intended as a late-game biome with high yield over time
• All actions slowed down by 50%
• Logistics become harder
• Some resources spawn frozen and must be thawed first
🧠 Mind Biome — Network Mechanic
• Certain tiles are linked
• Buildings on these tiles share buffs (and debuffs)
• Feels like a single smart factory
• Inspired by a “collective consciousness”
🌀 Corrupted Lands — Polarity Mechanic
• Tiles have polarity: Positive, Neutral, or Negative
• Positive = buffs, Negative = penalties
• You can change polarity using upgrade modules
• Occasionally glitches: items duplicate or vanish
Each biome has its own mechanics, events, buildings, and dangers. For example:
In the desert, sandstorms can randomly hide all objects in an area — buildings stop working and resources can't be mined.
At the end of the storm, mirage statuses are shuffled.
You can research a special building that clears mirages in a radius, keeping your mining stable even during storms.
🌑 Darkness — "The Living Unknown"
The Darkness is your main enemy.
At the start, your base has a lamp and a small amount of organic matter, which powers light.
If an area is left unlit, it gets consumed by the Darkness. You must constantly fuel your lamps to hold it back.
• As you light up new areas, Darkness gains experience
• When it levels up, it becomes stronger and gains new abilities
• Every few levels, it gets a Planet Influence:
– Volcanoes get hotter
– Forests always have thunderstorms during rain
– Etc.
Eventually, new runs will start with higher Darkness levels — harder, but more predictable for experienced players.
• In early runs, Darkness only has a couple of abilities
• As you discover more of the world (via relics), Darkness gets stronger — both at the start and during runs
🧩 Modules = Building Upgrades
Each building has slots for modules.
They grant bonuses like:
• More capacity
• Heat resistance
• Larger radius
• Faster production
🗿 Relics = Ancient structures lost in the Darkness
You can cleanse them once — after that, they remain permanently cleansed.
To cleanse one, you must meet a special condition.
Early relics will be partially visible in the Darkness to motivate exploration.
When players first encounter one, they’ll learn how they work.
Example: Echo Tower (Taiga Biome)
• Needs water to cleanse
• Water is rare here — you must research and build a pump
• While active, the tower shoots “droplets” into the darkness that damage buildings
• After cleansing:
– Grants a module that increases building radius
– Remains cleansed in future runs
– The Darkness gains a new ability: shadow droplets
Relics affect global progress and world state.
🧬 Scientific Progress = Augmentations (choose 1 of 3)
When the Lab receives Science resources, you gain research XP.
Once filled, you choose one of 3 augmentations.
They only affect the current run and do not give boring flat bonuses like “+speed”.
Each new augmentation costs more than the previous.
Instead of passive bonuses, they unlock:
• New buildings
• New blueprints (modules)
• Global effects (e.g. “Heavy Rain” can now occur in forests)
Examples:
• Rain Summoner: consumes water to trigger rain — helps grow resources in the forest
• Thermal Generator: generates energy from heat — ideal for volcano biomes
• Drill Platform: mines metal from special deposits
Your choices depend on the map generation and your strategic direction.
🌍 World Content:
• Dead Civilization — I want to fill the world with signs of a long-lost society
– Not just rocks and trees, but ruins, factories, broken railroads, anomalous plants, etc.
• Mountain Generation — Additional content coming with:
– Wind turbines
– Elevators
– Mines
• Rivers Generation - Additional content...
• Abyss Generation - Additional content...
At this stage, I want to create a basic build where the player can complete their first run. Initially, my concept was a bit different, and I had to rewrite some elements several times. But now I have a clear vision of the game and I’m developing it step by step.
I’d love to know if anyone else finds this idea interesting, or if it’s just me who thinks it’s fun 😄
I’d really appreciate any feedback — feel free to criticize, ask questions, or share suggestions!
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