Idle Research news & patch notes

Hey everyone! I'm back with another set of developer standup blogs from my discord. Posts have been less frequent because of College. I'm about 2 weeks away from graduating! Anyways, I present you the last 14 episodes! *Looking at the earlier posts now... wow, do I love to change shit all the time haha. Just let me cook :)

Episode 2 - Posts XI-XIV

1/30/25-4/29/25

Dev Standup 11.0: Boring Day - Water Pipeline Map Validation & New Water Features

Nothing super exciting to show off... But I am writing unit tests in game development for the first time ever! Basically I have it set up to check for mistakes in the maps I make. In this case, I'm missing 3 drains that spawn on the map by default. Additionally, I have set up basic configurations for the new 12-13 water features, that's quite a bit :o Demo still not approved, not looking too good. On the bright side, I'm already on making the start of the game 10x better TLDR;

Dev Standup 12.0: Water Inventories & New Water Currencies

Water is now entirely managed by Water Pipelines... So all of the previous features will be accessed on this map (I haven't made that yet). Each block will have a water inventory with all of the above currencies. Debuff ones are bad, bad news!

Dev Standup 13.0: Secret Map

Dev Standup 14.0: Water Drains New Look

Made the Water Drains prettier and matched the colors with the right water resource. On top of this, I will being implementing the new features, start with Water Filtration!

Dev Standup 14.1: Renewed Feature, Water Filtering

Previously Hydro-Pollution Analysis, this feature converts Polluted to Filtered Water. All the different processes will have a unique look to them.

Dev Standup 15.0: Ugh... (The Paradigm Shift Post)

Basics Slowly upgrading current codebase to an even cleaner codebase, which will make it easier and more fun for me to work on Idle Research 2. It will make creating new features so much easier too! Center is the Distilled Water Drain. Left is what the setup was before the cleaning. Right is after. Technicals So I have encountered a major design problem with IR2's code and prefabs. I've been using something called "Inheritance" and it's a long story on why it's not going to work long term. I will be converting most things to something called "Composition" which will allow me to make customizable features much much faster. I will be utilizing both Inheritance and Composition. For example, this Distilled Water Drain prefab is made up of 2 components. If I were to make 100 more of these drains, I would have to readjust a lot of these drain settings and it's a ton of manual work. That's the problem with Inheritance and how I have these magic prefabs set up. Composition essentially splits those 2 components into many, but a lot of these more broad components (such as Cards and Dialogs) are already dealt with and assigned at more broad levels of the Drain prefab (such as Card prefab, Dialog Card prefab, ... eventually Distilled Water Drain prefab). When making new drains, all I need to do is: Copy the parent prefab: WaterDrainDialogCard Change the colors (which can also be done in the code) Add the new Drain script, such as Distilled Water Drain Add other scripts that are needed for this drain Done Previously: Copy the parent prefab Change the colors Add the new Drain script Hook up the close button and distilled water chip Jerry rig setting up the main drain views (the drain effects and the chips) Add other scripts that are needed for this drain Copy and paste a new prefab for the Pipeline Config view Other BS Death Done! ❤️😢 Each of these scripts are also very small and reference each other in a chain. Card shouldn't have access to Dialog, but Dialog should have access to Card. It is the Dialog's job to set up Card and maintain its' lifecycle. The Ughs I have spent to past week trying to figure out why Water Pipelines was having issues displaying the Water features using Dialogs. This solution will completely solve all the problems I am facing and make my life much easier, and it will feel like the past week has been a waste. I have a ton of components, so it will take a long time to transition. Fortunately, I can do it one item at a time as I work. I wish I went with this system earlier, but it is very good that I have noticed this issue now. Game Developer Takeaway Relying on Inheritance is amazing with web applications, but terrible in Unity. Use Composition if you plan on using prefabs with lots of extensions that add new configurations/features to its parents. I will likely make a video covering this later down the road

Dev Standup 16.0: Back to Features - Water Purifier Concept

Finished most of the annoying stuff I had to redo, but we are so back! I have most of the remaining water features planned out, now I just gotta design them.

Dev Standup 17.0: Getting Busy Again

I am currently in the process of moving apartments, so development has been taking a toll this past week. Here are some more screenshots on Water Purifier and the new neighbor feature Star Collector Lab. I'm mainly in the process of designing as much content as possible instead of implementation, before I lose that creative momentum

Dev Standup 18.0: The Fog (Is Coming)

Despite the exciting title, I unfortunately do not have anything interesting to show, even though it's been over a month. I do have a bit of yap in me today, so let's do this! I have been really stuck on a project migration, primarily reworking buttons and game navigation. Buttons have been moved over and they are great. Far easier to customize animations and button effects. While I have been working on this, a lot of code has been moving around. I have started to use an assertion pattern to make bugs easier to find in case I fuck something up :goofyblob: . This will hopefully make it easier for me to test in between updates so I can run the game and make sure all the assertions pass. I was inspired by Lex Fridman and ThePrimeagen discussing the satisfication of getting all of the asserts to pass in a codebase. Fridman says, "I get to see the payoff of the mindfield of asserts I've laid out before me in my kingdom", which I thought was funny. "Discover errors before they become real bugs". I highly recommend chiming into the interview they had, very inspiring story to new devs or people in tough places. Anyways I called it THE FOG because idk. It's alright. Here is a picture of the reworked buttons as well. (While I am editing this, I want to mention I hate the fact that pictures don't embed in text on here anymore. Bad discord!) A lot of this UI library bs I've been working on is basically investing in the future. Whether it's for my current and future projects, moding support, etc.. I'd rather redo stuff a few times till it's perfect than rush something mid. Plus I always learn new things :) Stay on the look out for live streams in ⁠social. If there's advice to get more of y'all to attend, please let me know! :KekYOU:

Dev Standup 19.-1: It's Big Brain Time

Reworking on Research again, adding actual game play rather than standalone research theories (unlocks) Involving a library and reading books

Dev Standup 19.0: It's Big Brain Time

After a few hour livestream and some time off, here is the UI for the Library for Research. This will be the new very beginning of Idle Research! You earn knowledge from books and it will be a new cost for research theories (unlocking features).

Dev Standup 20.0: Hired AF!, Context Switching, & Color States/Themes

Hired AF! > You read that right, I recently accepted an offer as a fulltime software developer :hmmyes~1:. **How will this effect development?** Since I will be out of school, I strongly believe I'm going to have more time and motivation for Idle Research 2 development! I think the reason why I'm struggling is because of a combination of senioritis and rapid context-switching. Context Switching > I've learned over the past few weeks that rapid context switching can be disruptive to programming sessions. Since I have multiple responsibilities (work, school, life, etc.), I'm stuck with this environment, hence the struggle. It's important to take breaks though :heart:. When I graduate, that's 1 less dimension I need to worry about. I'm hopeful for the future of Considera + Idle Research. Color States/Themes > Ok ok here's the actual update. I streamed a little bit of this on YouTube, but I struggled to finish this button color situation during those sessions. Today, I'm happy to wrap up this mini-project! All buttons can be assign a "Color State". So in Unity, their buttons have 5 different colors, for each of the states: Normal, Blocked, Selected, Holding, Hovering. My color states allow these button states to change the color of buttons, either with a single controlling color, or colors for each state. > This is probably not making sense, but essentially I have complete control over button colors, and it's automatic **= LESS MANUAL/REPETITIVE WORK** :psychedelic_pray: . With a factory, I'm able to create buttons, here's a code snippet:

// Factory method public static ButtonSingleColorState CreateButton( ButtonData data, Color core, Func coreFunc = null) => new(core: core, stateFunc: () => data.State, coreFunc: coreFunc); // ButtonData states private void VerifyState() { if (Blocked) State = ButtonState.Blocked; else if (Selected) State = ButtonState.Selected; else if (Holding) State = ButtonState.Holding; else if (Hovering) State = ButtonState.Hovering; else State = ButtonState.Normal; TriggerChange(); }

> ...an example color state for the FAR LEFT button drawer in the picture:

public static readonly Color WaterColor = "#1CB7FF".ToColor(); public static ButtonSingleColorState ResearchSparkyButtonColorState = new( core: ResearchColor, normalAlpha: 0.050f, selectedAlpha: 0.100f, hoveredAlpha: 0.025f, pressedAlpha: 0.010f, blockedAlpha: 0.005f);

> With thanks to @CreeperKing for the hex-to-color converter! > Additionally, I touched up the animators and now the main drawer can collapse/expand. Very pretty too. @podrik is working on sound effect for me. Collapsed is second picture (next post)

Dev Standup 21.0: Finally working on features again

Now that I have the color themes and the button states all figured out, I finally have made some progress on the Library functionality. More details in the meantime.

Dev Standup 22.0: Working on Library functionality

This has been a pretty rough week since I have many essays due. On the bright side, I had a solid session working on the gameplay for the new research library. Not much to show this time, hopefully next post!

Dev Standup 22.1: Working on Library functionality II

I'm not working on my essays like I should be... But Tasks and Jobs are mostly complete, next is the IQ prestige, IQ tree, and then back to Research Theories. Please motivate me to work on my stupid essays tho :( Dev Standup 24.0: Working on Library UI - IQ/Lift Prestiges Howdy lads! Today I present you some new UI I've been working on today. This will contain 2 simple prestige systems for the library. For context, this will be BEFORE Theories, which is also before water... Lots of depth is going on already! IQ will be the standard prestige, you gain IQ and unlock new levels of the library. Each milestone will have unique titles displaying in the UI (though I have a goal, I'll explain), and rewards such as new features and multiplicative boosts. There will be a maximum of 7 levels, the last two are named respectively: "The Einstein Memorial Museum" and "The Library of Singularities". The first level is "The Empty Droid Library" Lift to Experience is the name of one of my favorite post-rock bands, and I mention this because it sounds cool to me. This button will reset everything except your milestones and their rewards, but in exchange get Research XP (counted as Lifted XP). The XP counts towards your Research skill, which is vital for the Library Job. I'll also have an upgrade section for lifted XP, but I don't have plans for that yet. So yeah, that's pretty chill :hmmyes~1: If you can't tell already, my favorite color is purple haha. My apartment is feeling a purple RGB for today

About Me

For those who don't know me, I am Zach. I am the only developer for Idle Research 1, Idle Research 2, and other Considera games. This is more of a free-time hobby, so development can be unstable. Outside of Idle Research, I am a part-time (soon to be full-time) Software Engineer, and a full-time senior in uni. I greatly appreciate patience and understanding for the slower development these past few years =)

Are ya winning?

If you are reading this, then YES!! 1. Join the Discord: https://discord.gg/9A9CjrSxeu 2. Wishlist Idle Research 2: https://store.steampowered.com/app/3420280/Idle_Research_2/ 3. Lastly: Thank you! Have a wonderful day/night :)

Starting today, I will be reposting 10 days of developer standup blogs that I write on my discord server. These will be delayed but highly detailed posts about what I have been working on for Idle Research 2. You will also see the progression of changes over time, so some things may come and go. Obviously, there still isn't a demo out... I missed the deadline for the Steam Idler Fest because of a failed Steam review and I decided to completely rework the entry feature. You will see the initial idea in Standup 10.0. Also I have been moving to a new apartment, so the past few weeks have been unproductive. Anyways, here are the first posts! The earlier ones are a bit rusty

Episode 1 - Posts I-X

1/18/25-1/29/25

Dev Standup 1.0: First

Me from the past few days... Building rule logic implemented (valid/invalid tile highlighting soon), Blocking building counts, QoL, and build confirmations (delete confirmations soon). The new dialog component will make creating necessary pop ups super simple. Making it absolutely sucked tho lol When I finish all of the above, I will connect the existing drains feature to the pipeline, then build out Water Purifier feature {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/45372407/ac07982364e388f6f4d59fcfdd1aa5c5431d99b4.png Here's the validation {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/45372407/839d7dadafd78bf4594f0b96237b2846bdc5a3c8.png

Dev Standup 2.0: Water Drains in Water Pipelines

Today I will be moving the existing water drains to the pipelines feature. Attached are concepts of the new UI After this, I will move on to getting pipelines attached to Research as part of the unlockable feature chain, then on to Water Pipeline skill upgrades {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/45372407/be75c790d8f62b4c7ec7165f7f62b2fa5aa01bb2.png {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/45372407/1daf5da05c973bea55443ec6132e0c35b47f0aa7.png

Dev Standup 3.0: Building Out the Gameplay for Exploration

Hey everyone! Here is my standup for today: Yesterday I started to work on hooking up the Water Exploration pipeline block to the Exploration feature. The idea I came up with is that you actually unlock Exploration before you unlock Water Pipelines. You will go explore to a mystery location that will unlock this new feature. You will be able to gather a different set of materials at each location. For Pipeline Fields, I may do some scrap or valuable materials, don't know yet. I also moved Cartography out of Research, to Exploration. Cartography isn't prob wont be a research thing anymore since you unlock locations via exploring (unless I make an investigation/inspection feature). Today I will get the exploring feature complete and make the cartography map look more like an actual map. The new design for the exploring feature has improved semantics, plus it's simpler. Anyways this morning, I fixed up some bugs I made while reworking Exploration and Cartography. Later today I'm going to move some researches around to make the Exploration => Water Pipelines gameplay smooth. If I can get this done and dive into more deeper progression for the Exploring and Gathering features, it will be one giant step closer to a demo... I do fear that it will be very short and lackluster. I'm accepting any opinions on this :) {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/45372407/97f05be4a13c6ba72f013d5c8a6e4b8c3b07074f.png

Dev Standup 4.0: Hardening + Save System

Gonna keep this quiet but I've spent all day getting IR2's save system working, which was a very annoying process, especially related to the Water Pipelines. Also spent the day fixing many small bugs (hardening) as Demo date creeps closer and closer

Dev Standup 5.0: Research UI + Gameplay Overhaul

It feels like it's been a while since I posted... time is moving slowly I suppose. I've been focusing on improving UI and fixing bugs. My main tackle is to completely overhaul Research. I wasn't a fan of the discrete math stuff and the old UI. This will be far more simple to work with, and colorful :^) Attached is both the new UI concept, and the old UI Old: {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/45372407/feda67777fd74a7d7d0da1a304c85c9471304d11.png New: {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/45372407/488c8fe1c4c52ecff6ca24510dd6b0e82ddcf271.png

Dev Standup 6.0: Research UI + Configs 2.0

Today I was able to get the new configs and data working with the new UI. The unlock requirements and rewards look really cool, the entire thing tbh This overhaul was meant to heavily simply the most important (and the first) feature of the game. Also my goal is to have lore attached to all of the descriptions, changing the card name from "Subtheory/Statement Description" to "Lore". But yeah I hope it looks cool to you all {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/45372407/c6a32af75e4051886df343ef255f1a2554ee5541.png {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/45372407/6f044d8f675cf0a1a8156574e28af1e673be6843.png {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/45372407/dce46eab45527616bf4f89204f2a3793b79d36b1.png {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/45372407/bbe1ed3467defd391c5ec6545b8ab3930c7eaadc.png

Dev Standup 7.0: Research Theories UI Coloring + Rewards

Today I have added color coding for some of the UI to indicate the current proving status. Also the requirement and reward chips now update properly, anddd the rewards listed are given. Just need to polish some more and then research overhaul is complete {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/45372407/631a91323fb8ead80df29d238d158db39e1cfe1a.png {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/45372407/66d2e6eff39c94cfc53da1bd07bbf5133c1b811a.png {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/45372407/9d0f6da8dee33fc08fcc79fe07201f68a3529c10.png In action {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/45372407/1b55e3a593ac9010b548bc7f471bf5d98046446b.png

Dev Standup 8.0: Settings

Today I will start implementing some basic settings. This is what the UI will look like! I will post another stand up when I start working on UI QoL {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/45372407/dd1bdbe55a1a669afe1e7846cc351802c708e065.png

Dev Standup 8.1: Settings + Facts

Settings panel is complete, but one other thing....... SCIENTIFIC NOTATION > STANDARD NOTATION FOR LIFE!!! {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/45372407/c2f1baedabe94a11ba32eb310cf1bcb4ac188a3a.png

Dev Standup 9.0: Settings, Information, Manual Saving, Toasts, Grid Zoom and Pan Mode

Today I have implemented quite a bit! With the new pan mode and zoom dropdown, you can easily move the grids around and zoom in and out if you'd like (screenshots 1-3). Screenshot 4 is the main dialog that will be used for the demo. It addresses some IR1 questions there so hopefully a lot of existing people will see that. Screenshot 5 is the happy lil toast at the bottom =) You can access Settings, Information, and close the game (screenshot 6) in the top right corner of the main UI shameless plug for me friend, listen to his first EP! for fans of funk, electronic, synthpop, and soul. help him out <3: https://open.spotify.com/album/6Z9ZDCc5LvW3IpHWFbBSpV?si=nnE-9xUjRwKyNdSYC6umjQ {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/45372407/1b42b2411950a7f01fb380a60771b49904b8ccbd.png {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/45372407/2a0824c48d84a8ec4a6d24a0449dc9a3d1aaa237.png {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/45372407/61d647031aa95b38d3a97d3e99af3766cac7f058.png {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/45372407/f491754f91a562297a51f98fd13087398e92ed82.png {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/45372407/f0e53bb06f0f9d3b9877b6a912cdc86d72c96e62.png {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/45372407/971b9fe80d7aa68b7079b28b5ece2dbf0206e070.png

Dev Standup 10.0: Changing How Water Works

Literally but not literally... Anyways I've spent the past few days reflecting on the game as a demo perspective. I'm not really confident with the current progression, but I have made a good list of things I can do to make Water and other features really fun. Stay tuned for more info! One of the big decisions is to take away the randomization factor with water and polluted water. Instead, have water slowly convert to polluted and it'll act as a debuff With the changes, water will go from 4 base features to 13. That is 13 things you can do with your precious water in the pipeline. Map will be a secret for now

About Me

For those who don't know me, I am Zach. I am the only developer for Idle Research 1, Idle Research 2, and other Considera games. This is more of a free-time hobby, so development can be unstable. Outside of Idle Research, I am a part-time (soon to be full-time) Software Engineer intern, and a full-time senior in uni. I greatly appreciate patience and understanding for the slower development these past few years =)

Are ya winning?

If you are reading this, then YES!! 1. Join the Discord: https://discord.gg/9A9CjrSxeu 2. Wishlist Idle Research 2: https://store.steampowered.com/app/3420280/Idle_Research_2/ 3. Lastly: Thank you! Have a wonderful day/night :)

You wake up from a time-activated cryogenic pod in 2070 on planet Mu Ra Tempel — after the devasting Earth-27 Mutually Assured Destruction incident.

Steam Page At The Bottom

Hey all, I have been able to get a lot more progress with Idle Research /2. I'd really like to provide at least a small demo during the Steam Idler Fest in February 3, 2025. Here are some screenshots to get you in the loop of what's coming: {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/39219728/0f4a500bd4fff03189c8bf6fc6e33f0bec7cb9c3.png {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/39219728/1816ece3b94b3ec3db9c383e27b5d58fed2134f2.png {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/39219728/3cbf5c9c6be5737fe8bd75a9f69b6c76bdc614d6.png {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/39219728/f81fdd20f837e7744a29d58f7d04404b37675074.png {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/39219728/5b7230f1978657bb0deceacaca2f8eaa644a137a.png {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/39219728/d823f54795d51c6d5572463d961cf01dad6858ef.png {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/39219728/07e8ad3ace36679579952d0f8c8805d1a90257d3.png https://store.steampowered.com/app/3420280/Idle_Research_2/

Hey friends! Happy 4th of July to my American players, and happy Thursday to everyone else! I hope everyone is having a great week. As decided on my discord, I have decided to begin development on a new version of Idle Research. There's a lot of things that need to be remade from scratch, specifically project infrastructure and basic game features (Research, Crafting, etc.). I personally feel like the game needs a more thoughtful approach to what I wanted Idle Research to be. I would really love if people filled out this Google Form survey, so I have a good idea on my player base's wants and needs for the best idle/incremental game experience. Here is the link: https://forms.gle/jUQ2jT9vWhH9XBhWA I'll provide more details on what will happen to the current Idle Research, but to keep it short:

• Game will be playable and live, not replaced by Idle Research 2.
• Cylinders will not be a thing, but I may provide a UI playground area to paint a picture on what I had already worked on.
• Bugs will be maintained.
• Features may be slightly tweaked.
• Performance improvements.
• Purchases of any kind will be transferrable to the new game in some way.

...essentially, I will work on fixes when I have extra time. This game is still in early access, so I have no idea what I want to do in terms of moving it to full release. If anyone has any advice/ideas, I'm all ears. Anyways, that's all I have. Again here is the optional survey: https://forms.gle/jUQ2jT9vWhH9XBhWA Questions? Let me know :) Thanks everyone for the positivity this week, it's making me miss game development. Zach / Considera

Hi friends, I have finally removed the steam achievement for the Black Ice Flask. So now people should be able to 100% the game for now. This new update is still taking way longer than it should, and I again apologize for that. For those who don't know, I am a full-time computer science student who also is an intern at a software development company. On top of that, I've had a lot of personal/social obligations to focus on, and other side-projects unrelated to Idle Research. I'm doing my best to make progress, but it's just hard maintaining everything. Hopefully this achievement removal will help people! Thanks, Zach

Hello everyone! As you may have noticed, it is definitely past the February or March goal I was hoping for. Unfortunately, there is no update ready still. Those who go to university and work full time may understand. It is currently summer break, and I am currently a full-stack software developer intern (ASP.NET + Angular for anyone who is interested). I do have more time to work on the game, but I have become such a better programmer over the past few months. This has led me to begin a rewrite project. The rewrite will consist:

• Brand new polished UI
• UI Themes!
• Removing the current tutorial system, replacing it with a task/chapter system. If the storyline is ever made, it'll be combined with this.
• (Hopefully In the future) modding support
• Brand new menu and settings system.
• Ability to have more than one playfab cloud and local account per device
• Major performance boosts
• Etc.

Here are some screenshots of what I have so far: Main Menu {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/39219728/4cb18cf27eea15d59ac1d618f9e3875ee41316e6.png Don't forget your passwords! Jk, I have you covered {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/39219728/257cc8565e91b2ed8571164aea1398b0f94256da.png New Crafting/Research interface {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/39219728/cf9702d7ccfc63a607c924f5c63fc08e82a93fe2.png Expandable/Collapsable stuff {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/39219728/293a778174cb0be90d6f58a0634ddefd649cac73.png {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/39219728/e5fcc16326f1746651ab32856df9465072afbe49.png New Presets Idea {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/39219728/7799d1c02117d142c0ba67b630eda8ee5939c27d.png AGAIN THESE ARE JUST PREVIEWS, NOT AN ACTUAL UPDATE. THERE IS STILL NO ETA. Some other news: I am no longer associated with "CryptoGrounds or CryptoGrounds Games LLC". I have rebranded to a more friendly and accurate name "Considera Core LLC", where my slogan is: "Games and software, consideration at its' core!" Lastly, it is still pretty much me working on the game. A good friend of mine will be joining me in making some cool ass art and a storyline for the game. Exciting stuff to come! See ya in another few months probably haha, Zach / Considera Games LLC

Hello! I just wanted to provide the last major feature previews to provide more updates on where I am at in terms of the next major update THESE ARE JUST PREVIEWS, NOT AN ACTUAL UPDATE. THERE IS STILL NO ETA. I AM STILL FOCUSING ON COLLEGE AT THE MOMENT. My personal goal is end of February or March, and I will announce 1-2 weeks before. But who knows, take this with a grain of salt :) Anywho, here are some screenshot previews: Offline v2.0, from Research Tier 2: {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/39219728/f85f8981f67e6e7508b2f8fbb94a89beff6104eb.png Corruption (Flasks Only): {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/39219728/ee5965becf26948198b0fe913434ca69ad5cd53b.png {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/39219728/d655ec5d99cdbe8a39345681935f2fa74f21b1f9.png That'll be it, stay tuned for more information! Join the discord for more previews and announcements: https://discord.gg/9A9CjrSxeu. Thanks, Zach / CryptoGrounds

Hi friends! Just felt like I should provide some updates on my progress with the next major update. THESE ARE JUST PREVIEWS, NOT AN ACTUAL UPDATE. THERE IS NO ETA. I AM STILL FOCUSING ON COLLEGE AT THE MOMENT :) Also spoiler warning... Anywho, here are some screenshot previews: So this is Research Tier 2, if you didn't see the previous post. It will contain random stuff like unlocking ice, prestige v2, mastery v2, etc. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/39219728/55f5849f8d47665c1ae4cdc6e39be63ea6a10152.png Tubes' Blue Energy will now boost Flasks' Green Energy. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/39219728/9704823e3d02c19e8427a7de17f50b706063c2d0.png Adventure is being reworked by a lot (which is taking up a lot of time). You can no longer manually deploy, your army is just based on your current Tubes. QoL! Skill Shards are also no longer RNG. More information in the future. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/39219728/f04b09b25cccf75e846e953c5d553f1457d4c2af.png Flask Intruders in Tubes... more information in the future. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/39219728/a6aa7e28fd12ea8a490416fce1299fa5bb281b54.png Simulations Rework {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/39219728/c4ad38bf0b5daf7ff841fbefcd032ff426f6e390.png If there are special game breaking errors (most likely caused by crafting presets), you will now get error messages in the corner). {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/39219728/6ce0fdeba6c84190ce7251c50dd9c80604597a68.png Ice Rework: {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/39219728/ebe1d5c4e6f47a9162ef501a86000baa97c400b6.png Ice Crafting (removing Ice Makers): {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/39219728/e49c6f205ba4e4b14ac4d6cb9619032c063a83ed.png Ice Research: {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/39219728/b40f6c03a6781bfd6f802bb0a10fac3466542f56.png Ice Mastery: {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/39219728/e66daf7e0b2042e57b3db37acd8132c1f1b0cd0e.png That's all I have at the moment. The update is taking forever due to me basically having to replay the entire game so I can properly balance the game pace, implement/replace/remove features, and make the game more fun! Cylinders will not be included in this update, would take way to long and I'd rather push out this content before even touching Cylinders. The goal is to have all achievements beatable with F2P and convince Steam to allow me to add more of them :^) I am deeply sorry these aren't posted quite frequently. I am pretty transparent on my progress via Discord: https://discord.gg/9A9CjrSxeu. I will do my best to keep you guys up to date and will announce an ETA whenever I get closer to finishing this colossal update. Thanks everyone, hope y'all understand, Zach / CryptoGrounds

Hi everyone! Classes for college starts tomorrow... 😢 I wanted to give you guys a quick heads up on what I will be working on during this semester (and potentially next semester). There are lots more than what's being shown, but it's just the general list. Can't give any promises on ETAs sadly. But due to my sanity/mental health, I plan on doing my best to balance school life, social life, and game dev life. Hope y'all understand and are excited for what's to come! Thanks everyone <3

Here is the roadmap:

{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/39219728/8f0d1031ee910032cecf8b45d3b3432ff6fbd5b9.png

Preview of Research Tier 2:

{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/39219728/55f5849f8d47665c1ae4cdc6e39be63ea6a10152.png

Thank you very much for your patience to those who were affected by the Offline Progress issue. Should be good to go now! :^)

• (Accelerators) You can now hold on the little buttons on every accelerator.
• (Crafting) EXPERIMENTAL: Added a manual input for crafting presets. If you somehow add some weird string or something and it messes up the game, please get in contact with me!
• (Tutorial) During the tutorial, when you need to head to a certain location in navigation, the button will turn blue!
• (Research) Added the crafting cost in the description of current research.
• (Settings) Ability to toggle patch notes on game load.
• (Settings) When using Mixed Notation, you can now switch through a few numbers when you want it to switch to scientific.
• (Diamond Shop) If you feel generous and appreciate my work, you can now donate in the Diamond Shop. These do not change the game in any way, just donations. If you are in my Discord and want a donator role, reach out to me!
• (Misc.) Quick save and return to the main menu button on the navigation panel.
• (Misc.) When you unlock a feature and it involves the navigation panel, the button will turn red.

• (Achievements) The auto slot achievement has been changed to “Buy 10 Crafters”
• (Adventure) Deploy All bugs
• (Adventure) In stats, the Skill shards per kill was relabeled.
• (Crafting) Orange Flask base crafting time: 40 => 30 seconds.
• (Crafting) Yellow Flask base crafting time: 200 => 150 seconds.
• (Crafting) Yellow Flask base crafting cost: 25 => 20 Orange Flasks.
• (Tutorial) Redid the entire Flasks tutorial, made it more friendly and up to date with the recent changes :)
• (Tutorial) The tutorial is now a floating window that can be moved around and resized :^D
• (Research) Orange Flask base research time: 60 => 30 seconds.
• (Research) Orange Flask base research requirement: 50 => 100 Orange Flasks.
• (Misc.) Adventure and Diamond Shop buttons have been repositioned in the navigation panel.

• (OFFLINE) OFFLINE PROGRESS SHOULD WORK AS NORMALLY NOW. IF IT DOESN'T BE THE FIRST LOAD, IT SHOULD BE AFTERWARDS. REPORT TO THE DEV IF IT DOESN’T STILL.
• (Achievements) The Auto Crafting slot achievement has been replaced by: Buy 10 Crafters.
• (Ice) Fixed a bug where the crafting slots don’t reset on freeze mode/ice age upgrade doesn’t working. I am aware others are having issues, but I’m going to try to figure out
• (Ice) Fixed buy max ice makers
• (Mastery) Fixed some mastery bugs
• (Skilling) Fixed distribute all skill shards
• (Skilling) Fixed an ice upgrade that isn’t supposed to hide skill tabs
• (Solitaire) Fixed an issue where doing practice mode can reset solitaire cooldown
• (Diamond Shop) Certain upgrades not unlocking
• (Misc.) Minor UI/Game bugs
• (Misc.) Letter Notation
• (Misc.) Fixed several buy maxes
• (Misc.) Fixed a bug where certain old saves couldn’t be imported in settings

• (Accelerators) The toggle spend mode, useless
• (Ice) Auto Upgrade and Unlock Auto Deploy, useless

• (Crafting) Presets now have a custom preset input.
• (Solitaire) A setting to toggle Auto Win

NOTE! A lot of the balancing related changes in this update are subject to change!

• (Saving!) Save System has been reworked. Flasks, Tubes, and Shared data has been merged! No more importing/exporting/managing multiple files! This should eliminate a lot of the save-related bugs. With this save system change, current backups have been wiped. You are still allowed to import previous saves with the following tags: “FLASKS>”, “TUBES>”, “SHARED>”.
• (Saving) You now have a maximum of 50 backup files.
• (Menu) Menu has gotten a touch up since the save system was reworked, so it should be less confusing now!
• (Research) Orange Flask Research Time: 120 => 60 Seconds
• (Research) Yellow Flask Research Time: 600 => 300 Seconds
• (Research) Yellow Flask Requirement: 250 => 100 Orange Flasks
• (Research) Blue Flask Time: 7,200 => 20,000 Seconds
• (Research) Purple Flask Time: 1.00e7 => 1.00e8 Seconds
• (Diamond Shop) The upgrades have been moved to their own page
• (Diamond Shop) (subject to change!) The upgrades have been reworked to make it more fair for F2P and pay-to-speed-up players. Most upgrades have been grouped together, so you can buy one upgrade with multiple effects. Each upgrade group starts at 1 Diamond Item, the cost multiplier is 4x. Costs are no longer shared. Upgrades work exactly the same, just a bit easier to choose which upgrades to get. This also means the UI has been cleaned up :). Everyone's upgrades will be reset for the first time, just so you can respend your diamonds accordingly!
• (Crafting) Start of the rebalancing phase, for a smoother early game experience. Here are some base Flask cost changes: Yellow (15 => 25), Green (25 => 250), Blue (75 => 1.00e3).
• (Accelerators): (subject to change!) Energy boost accelerator unlock cost: 1.00e10 => 1.00e15
• (Prestige): (subject to change!) Base formula: log(energy / 1e10 + 1, 1.35) => log(energy / 1e15 + 1, 1.35)
• (Prestige): (subject to change!) Prestige Unlocks at 1.00e18 Energy

• (Accelerators) Item Accelerators generate items when you haven’t unlocked the accelerator.
• (Ice) Fixed a bug where ice makers went negative for some reason
• (Offline) Fixed offline progress

• (Crafting) Manual Crafting! Whenever you buy a crafting slot, it automatically starts crafting for you. You no longer need to buy Auto Crafters. This is to make the early game feel smoother.
• (Settings) Flask/Tube Resetting, due to the reworked save system.

• Offline: For Tubes Adventure, you now gain kills offline! This only gives kills for the stage you are currently on.
• Settings: A setting to toggle the offline progress screen.

• Crafting: Presets have a new look and were heavily simplified. You can now toggle individual presets, rather than presets as a whole. Getting rid of the three buttons on the side allows the preset screen to look less cluttered and confusing.
• Settings: For PC, the fullscreen setting has been changed. It should work properly and work across all scenes. For the first time, it might load into borderless or windowed.
• Saving: If you load into a local save, it will only save locally automatically. You can manually save to the cloud if you want. However, if you load into a cloud save, it will automatically save locally and to the cloud.

• Saving: Attempted to fix the Save System for when you close the game or shut off your device while playing. This does not fix when your device dies (not that I see a fix for it at all).
• Misc: Minor bugs

• Solitaire: Removed the +5 base reward, but you will still get +5 if you skip the game. Playing the game will start you at 0. I removed this because it’s too OP.
• Ice: Removed the ice upgrade for Auto Advance Zone in Adventure, too broken and not useful.

⇐ v0.21.4 ⇒

• Flask’s Assembly: Added shortcut buttons in Juice.
• You can now hold on the Sample Processor buttons.
• Mastery: (QoL) since there is a large phase where you only have 1 mastery slot, assigning another mastery slot will disable the already enabled one (assuming you have no slots left).
• Potions: You can now see tube expenditures at the top.
• Settings: Added a setting where the game can run in 10 fps if it’s out of focus.
• Misc: Added Skill Shards to the Skilling navigation button
• SOLITAIRE: YOU CAN NOW DOUBLE CLICK THE CARDS IF YOU WANT THEM TO GO TO ONE OF THE 4 FOUNDATION PILES (if it can) (WOOOOOO!!!)
• +5 Diamonds for winning! Game will also automatically end if you win.
• Solitaire cooldown has been reduced to 23 hours, so users don’t keep pushing it further and further into the night.
• AUTO WIN CONDITION HAS BEEN ADDED! No more needing to spam drag/click cards!
• You can now switch between the normal Idle Research solitaire cards and super basic easy to read ones!!
• Upon ending the game, there is a confirmation now

• Adventure: Auto Stage is a little more flexible for when you first start out/enter freeze mode.
• Settings: “Mute Music” has been relabeled to “Music”, to make it more straightforward.
• UI Scale Change is now saved based on the device.
• Tube’s Simulations: Auto Purify no-longer saves, just so you don’t miss out on nice gains.
• The concept of Simulation Length is gone! Simulations will run forever. No need to start them either, once they are unlocked, they are free to go! That means the Simulation Length upgrade was removed and that right panel has been cleaned up. Woo!
• Diamond Shop: The Special Upgrade and others are now hidden until you unlock the previously specified feature.
• The Time Bender IAP now ranges from 0.1x-5.0x (previously 0.5x-5.0x), if you enjoy the pain.
• Misc: Some buttons in the navigation panel have been indented.

Minor Bugs

Skilling: Distribute skill shards on color works properly.

When you change pages, it will keep the last skill you selected.

The skill XP goal was being displayed.

Crafting: In Tubes, the tube consumption from potions is now correct.

You can now scroll on the actual crafting screen. This comes with a cost, when holding while crafting, moving your finger will disable it because Unity prioritizes moving the scroll system. I tried at least.

Change All would not update the Item Accelerators’ generator properly.

Fire: Burning time was shared between Flasks and Tubes.

Assembly: 45% of the samples are supposed to go to crafting speed and count accordingly, not 40%.

Ice: Fixed a bug where queuing in Flasks will start Freeze mode in Tubes, even if you haven’t unlocked it.

Misc: Discord RPC was displaying “mspace” when using mixed scientific notation and had the monospace setting on.

When a number is negative while using letter notation, it became NaN

• Smooth progress bars for skills, tutorial, adventure, and research. Not needed and it causes issues with lower FPS. If the game freezes or slows down, these may cause major problems.

⇐ v0.21.3 ⇒

• Settings: Army Veteran Gamer has been added to the social media section in settings, thank you for making a series on the game!
• Intro Animation toggle
• Letter Notation, all notations after log notation have been shifted plus one. Your settings may change if you use any of those notations.
• Diamond Shop: Time Bender IAP now multiplies offline progress as well.
• Ice: Added a button where you can queue freeze mode on the next prestige. This is so you don’t have to disable auto prestige anymore!
• Guide: Added accelerator descriptions in the accelerator guide page.
• Crafting: In tubes layer, auto brewing potions now subtracts your crafting production display.
• Added a “Set Current Crafting Layout as Preset Layout” button”.
• The Map: Added the ability to load a cloud save in the Map. If you want full control on what you want to choose, it’s best to go to the main menu.
• Menu: An export save button (for local saves only)
• Adventure: Zones now display their stage.
• Misc: Added a confirmation for going to Daily Solitaire.

• Extra stuff in the navigation panel has been moved to its own section, to reduce clutter.
• The accelerator icons have different colors
• (Mobile only) Ad button height is smaller: 50px => 35px
• Diamond Shop: Special upgrade now gives 2.0x per level, instead of 1.5x. However, the Energy boost will remain at 1.5x per Diamond Item added.
• Accelerators: Normal and Booster accelerators that have colors of flasks/tubes that haven’t been unlocked will be gray instead.
• Crafting: Base crafting time for red tubes has been reduced from 30 down to 10 seconds. What was I thinking?
• Fire: Auto Prestige upgrade cost 1e15 => 1e8
• Presets upgrade cost 1e5 => 1e3

• Minor UI bugs
• Settings: UI Scale slider updates the text, it also displays the correct number now
• (iOS only): Fixed the black bar setting from toggling off.
• Potions: Autos sometimes not buying
• Ice: Fixed an issue where any form of Fire gains upgrade would not boost Fire gains while in Freeze mode, if you have 0 Ice Items.
• Adventure: Fixed the issue where the enemy would not be killed if HP was exactly 0.
• Deploy All now goes off of the % Tubes to deploy.
• Saving: Fixed an issue where loading tubes while logged in on cloud will wipe the Flasks save sometimes.
• Fixed an issue where loading into tubes for the first time from the menu loads into a new flask save and overwrites your data.
• Crafting: Preset related bugs
• Potions: An exploit where you could get free potions.
• Offline: Sometimes, offline would not save properly. I added a backup offline thingy that should fix this.
• Fixed an offline exploit based on device

• Diamond Shop: Removed timer for New Player Bundle, some people would start with an empty timer.

- Lab now displays Flasks' boost as energy boosts, because that's technically what it was. So now it makes more sense. - Daily Solitaire: I heard ya. Stockpile now deals one card, instead of three. This will make games a bit easier to win! - Alright, solitaire will now bring you back to main menu again. There has been some saving issues when it brings you directly to the game. No idea why. If this happens to you again, please get in touch immediately, and don't close your game so I can obtain player log files. In case it does happen and you are a windows user: Go to C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\LocalLow\CryptoGrounds\Idle Research\ and send me Player.log and Player-prev.log if you have it. Otherwise, you can do it from the main menu if you scroll down to "Report Bugs" Thanks!

- Change All buttons in mastery - Process juice button on all sample processors (Flask Assembly). - Mixed Scientific Notation, Scientific starts at 1e50 rather than 1e100 - Solitiare now sends you back to the game, instead of the menu - Minor UI Fixes - Fixed Ice Maker Steam Achievements (blue and up) - Fixed Crafting Presets being goofy - Fixed Steam iaps not buying - Fixed Playfab once again - Locked Crafting Slots, just to clean the interface and eliminate a bug. Other minor undocumented changes (silly me) Side Note: Very sorry for the amount of bugs related to solitaire and saving lately. Hopefully those are gone for good. For the Daily Solitaire, I plan on adding one or two more easier games, so you get to choose. I also will make Daily Solitaire 1 card draw instead of 3, which should increase the chances of winning. Thank you everyone for playing. If you enjoyed, be sure to leave a review!

- Minor UI Changes - Daily Solitaire reward now starts with a 5 Diamonds. This will allow you to skip playing solitaire and get the free Diamonds. - Daily Solitare and Diamond Shop now unlocks at 1e8. - Fixed the game being messed up for new people - And other undocumented bug fixes

- All accelerators now have a spend energy button on them. QoL - Added a crafting flask flashing setting - Added a fullscreen mode setting (experimental) - Current amount of fire flasks under the fire button - Prestige navigation text now displays the prestige gains when you are able to prestige. - Auto research now defaults to on - Reduced Diamond Shop and daily solitaire unlock to 1e10 energy - The boost in daily solitaire no longer drains - Fixed tutorial related bugs - Fixed Playfab related bugs - Other UI bugs

Fixes more minor ui bugs Disables Steam Cloud to prevent data issues Fixes IAP related issues

- Fixed Playfab bugs - Fixed tutorial related bugs - Fixed other random things

Hi everyone! Release is around the corner. I am just as excited as you are all :) A lot of people are probably wondering if demos saves will transfer to the release version. Unfortunately, they will not (details on why later). However, you can use the save bank and pick a post where you want to start off if you'd like to. SAVE BANK! Additionally, the game will look for a demo save. If one exists, it'll ask you if you want to start fresh or import a save that has roughly ~e80 energy. This save will unlock a brand new feature that was not included in the demo! Up to you on what you want to do. I personally say you should start fresh to get a feel of all the new changes. Now the why: There are currently two layers of content: Flasks and Tubes. At the time of the demo release, these were being managed under the same save file. It was an absolute mess to say the least. Adding a third layer of content was going to be a massive amount of pain, so I knew things needed to be changed. Now, there are several save files! One for general data (such as achievements, settings, etc), flasks, and tubes. The nice thing here is that this will allow me to expand the game with ease and eventually add holiday events. I hope you all understand! Discord: https://discord.gg/9A9CjrSxeu See you all soon :) Zach / CryptoGrounds

The time has finally come! No more delays :) Mark your calendars, the game will be here on the first of August! See you soon, CryptoGrounds

Hello, Please watch the following video for an explanation on the delay. Thank you and I am truly sorry. CryptoGrounds https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Oysa8hqIjM

Hey guys, I messed up the build name for the demo, causing saves to not transfer to the full release :( However, there is a way! It's not too bad, here are the steps: Make sure you have ran the full release version of Idle Research, for those who have access already (and those who will in the future :D)

Make sure Idle Research and the Demo version are closed.

Search %APPDATA% in Windows Search

Go back to the AppData folder if you are not in it for some reason.

Go to "LocalLow" folder

Go to "CryptoGrounds" folder

Go to "Idle Research Demo" folder

Copy that "saves" folder

Go back and then go to "Idle Research" folder

Paste the folder in there and replace existing files. Now you can launch Idle Research and things should be good to go. Sorry if this is a pain, now I will remember to do Demos correctly in the meantime :) Thanks! CryptoGrounds

Hello! I have some great news. One of my other games: CompactO, will be released on Steam and WebGL on August 1st! The game will cost $2.99 and a demo version will most likely be included. The game will also be released on iOS and Android! It will be released one month earlier, July 1st. Can't wait for you guys to play, mark your calendars! Cheers, CryptoGrounds Games LLC

Hello, Currently I am working on three different games: CryptoClickers, Idle Research, and CompactO. My plan is to finish CompactO, then finish the third/meta prestige for CryptoClickers, and then publish Idle Research. Refer to the graphic below: {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/39219728/0bc39179f4680fd19a83051f5e9468e9bb63aaf7.png CompactO will be released sometime around end of February to end of March, that's my goal at least. CryptoClickers should finally receive the major update and be out of early access phase by the end of June or July. Idle Research should be finished by November to December, hopefully! If you would like to stay up to date, join the discord! https://discord.gg/S9mtMTw I will be giving you guys the chance for CompactO to be wishlisted soon, so keep your eyes open for that. CompactO will be $0.99 Idle Research will be free (yum!) Until then, I will be hard at work creating some fun games that hopefully you guys will enjoy! Thank you, CryptoGrounds Games LLC