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Idle Research 2

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Idle Research 2 is an addictive, heavily-layered, incremental game themed around energy and resource management. It brings strategy, QOL, and feature synergism to the next level. The game takes place in 2070 on planet Mu Ra Tempel after the devasting Earth-27 Mutually Assured Destruction incident.

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Idle Research 2 - Developer Standup Blog News - Episode 1 (I-X)

Mar 3

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

Here's the validation

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

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 :)

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:

New:

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

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

In action

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

Dev Standup 8.1: Settings + Facts

Settings panel is complete, but one other thing.......
SCIENTIFIC NOTATION > STANDARD NOTATION FOR LIFE!!!

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

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 :)