Hey everyone! I'm back with the largest set of developer standup blogs so far. Since the last post, I have finally graduated from college with a bachelors in Computer Science, and transitioned to full-time software development. I've done a pretty good job balancing work, life, and this game, and I'm very excited to see where this goes! You will again see a lot of small changes throughout the next 26 posts. Enjoy!
This is probably the longest steam announcement ever, sorry if it lags
Episode 3 - Posts XV-L
5/20/25-12/14/25
Dev Standup 25.0: UI Refactoring from Polling to Reactive (Epic UI Optimization)
5/20/25 - III.XV
I spent the last few weeks celebrating my recent graduation and working on some IR2 refactoring... again! Visually, I only have this screenshot to show you of some Library UI tweaks. I am in a position where customizing UI is getting easier by the day, and I have complete control over when things like text need to be updated.
For instance, if I gain some KWL, it should change the value and the text. I use a pretty complicated system that involves chaining the game data and the text.
Technicals if you're interested:
There is a notification producer and a notification consumer that handles this behavior.
The producer: emits a notification if the value it holds changes.
The consumer: receives a notification from a producer or another consumer. Also emits a notification if a change was made and it passes it onto other consumers.
KWL would be a producer, and the text would be a consumer because it relies on KWL to change via gameplay. KWL gets updated every game tick. At the start, this text updates once every 10 seconds. No need for text to check every frame. It is possible for other consumers to check if the text changed, for whatever reason....
What this means moving forward:
With more control over the UI, the better the UX and more interesting the UI can look. I want to find clever ways of displaying important data without invasive elements.
Major reduction in battery consumption, a big problem with IR1!
On the near agenda:
Self-assigning as tasks
IQ prestige testing + IQ currency
IQ milestones + rewards
IQ lifting + WIZ currency
Dev Standup 26.0: Securing the Bolt+Reactive Frameworks
5/22/2025 - III.XVI
This is part 2 of the previous standup (25.0)... very short backstory for this:
some of my buttons aren't updating it and I thought it was my reactive UI system. So far it doesn't seem like the case...
I have created a new "mock" scene that will be used strictly for testing UI and new features. TLDR; easy sanity check for me If I make a change and it breaks the mock, then it will definitely break in the game. On the other hand, if it breaks in game but not the mock, then the frameworks are good, but not the game.. It's not supper clear what's going on other than a neato graph, but here is the gist:
For the setup shown in the main graph (not the @even button), it's tracking a single toggle value. All the buttons change based on this single value. It's the @toggle button's responsibility to let the other buttons know when to change as well.
So a test is ran at the beginning, testing the basic user actions (such as toggling a button), and makes sure that all the properties for a button have changed successfully. Afterwards, I can have some fun by manually clicking that @toggle button in the screenshot to see the UI change accordingly.
@even button just turns red when the timer's whole number is odd int(timer)
Dev Standup 27.0: Library Prestige Confirmations
6/29/2025
Hello! Going to keep this one short. Here are a few screenshots of prestige confirmations for the library feature. Now you have a better idea on what they do! Some of the UI is incomplete. I also made some fixes for the signal problem I was experiencing yesterday, yay!
Dev Standup 28.0: More Library IQ Content WIP
6/1/25 - III.XVIII
I know it's been quiet here, but I can promise you that I've been cooking a lot lately. I'm going to keep the rest of Library previews lowkey moving forward, for more surprises :)
Attached is my latest WIP for IQ.
Also this is still pre-theories, which is pre-water feature
Dev Standup 29.0: Preview of some icon action
6/15/2025 - III.XIX
Hola! Still working a little every now and then :)
Here's a screenshot of what I see at this very moment
Colors need adjustments
Dev Standup 30.0: Folding UI
6/20/2025 - III.XXX
Hello folks! I'm adding the ability to fold the UI, or simply collapse/expand titles and navigation. This will allow you to make a smaller feature appear larger on your screen. Also I need to remind myself to add a focus button.
Isn't she something
Dev Standup 31.0: More Library content preview (Pre-Theories still)
6/22/2025 - III.XXXI
Hello folks! Moving forward and due to the layered complexity of the content, I will try to name subfeatures in terms of Paths/Like/These. Research/ and Water/ are major features, for instance.
Here is a preview of the last pre-Research/Theories era of the game, Research/Library/IQ/Lifting. Spirits and Generators will be the main driver to get from e10 KWL to e15 KWL. 15 IQ (from e15 KWL) will unlock Research/Theories and the rest of the pre-Flasks era will begin again.
Here's the game plan content wise:
Research/Library/IQ/Lifting will unlock Generators and Destinies (Research/Theories era feature).
Research/Theories will unlock Water.
Water will unlock Research/Library/IQ/Chakras with the first chakra (challenge/mission type beat).
Then the game will grow from there. I am very confident there won't be any more content created from the start. It will start with Research/Library with knowledge as your first currency (lowkey fits the name - Idle Research 2 )
Thanks for tuning in again!
Dev Standup 31.1: More Folding UI
6/22/2025 - III.XXXI.I
Here's a better example of when the folding UI will be necessary... infinite scaffolding UI???
Dev Standup 32.0: For my mobile gamers
6/24/2025 - III.XXXII
I am experimenting a design system that will make it easy for me to build UI for both portrait and landscape views. Obviously, mobile users will still get the lower end of the QoL stick, because of how much information is available on bigger devices. I'll have to get creative in the meantime :)
I'm starting to focus more on accessibility this time around, it'll only get more difficult with newer features (first screenshot in standup 31.1). These are really far-fetching goals, but for my UI framework, I would like to add tab navigation/controller support (definitely), customizable keybinds, and multi-language
Dev Standup 33.0: Some tool building
6/29/2025 - III.XXXIII
Hello! As I am testing on my tablet, I figured I could get a head start on some of the Idle Research 2 Dashboard projects. The first project is this fancy little log manager, it'll help a ton when playtesting on mobile. Made it in a few hour and it's the first web server/client app I've built for a Unity project! I need darkmode badly
Green is the colour
Made a debug dll console tapper (kinda). Basically I want to be able to log ANY of my applications without having to modify its' code. These will connect to the FogLogger portal from above
First screenshot is the original application
Second screenshot is the recreated application
Dev Standup 34.0: Currently blocked, so I'm making an Idle Research 2 save editor (JSON editor)
7/23/2025 - III.XXXIV
Ever since I converted all of my config classes to scriptable objects and implemented dependency injection, the save system has suddenly stopped working. This has been really frustrating for me. So I took a quick break and began working on this jason pirate software json ??? uh json yeah editor. I plan to have my tablet send game data over to my app so I can see what's shitting itself
Definitely work in progress, but it's so pretty and fun to mess with
For context, I haven't been able to load it on mobile, simply coz of these nulls
Dev Standup 35.0: No longer blocked, back to feature work!
7/31/2025 - III.XXXV
Hope everyone is doing well. I have some great news! With my new logging and data editor/inspector, I was able to fix the remainder of the breaking changes from my refactoring shenanigans (as seen in my youtube live streams #social).
Technicals
I don't think I've mentioned it in a standup post, so here's some technical:
I convert all Research configs to scriptable objects, and started migrating away from a singular access point for the game data. A lot of this existed in static classes, fields, and properties. Now I use services and controllers as containers for configs and data. I am able to resolve instances of services, controllers, and even atomic data objects through a dispatcher service. The dispatcher ensures that there exists no more than 1 object per type. I only want one instance of live data, and it must represent the source of truth! Dependency injection 101
Example usage:
private const double UnlockKwlReq = 100_000.0;
private ResearchLibraryData _libraryData;
private ResearchLibraryData LibraryData =>
DataDispatcher.Resolve(ref _libraryData);
private BigDouble KwlRemainingToUnlock =>
LibraryData.Knowledge - UnlockKwlReq;
Behind the scenes, the dispatcher. For data, it must be truthy or it will throw an exception.
public static T Resolve(ref T data) where T : class, IData, new()
{
if (_Data.ContainsKey(typeof(T)) && data is not null)
FogAssert.Assert(
that: data.UniqueId == _Data[typeof(T)].UniqueId,
namingThis: "DataDispatcher.Resolve: Data must match existing.");
return data ??= _Data[typeof(T)] as T;
}
Services on the other hand, can be generated whenever in runtime. The service dispatcher will either return itself, an instance from the bank, or a new instance. It will always be truthy unless something catastrophic occurred, like if Moonfall had a sequel. (<-- annotation: what a dumb joke)
Anyways
Here is the latest and only screenshot I will be providing this time. I'm in my #AvantGarde phase clearly. But seriously I'm really digging the gradients. I won't provide any details on the feature to keep it a mystery.
This UI is incredibly important because it marks the beginning of the IR2's UI framework paradigm shift. Cards now rely on scaffolds that can be nested indefinitely (within reason), so I easily can create some interesting layouts. I have migrated customizing these components with a config driven development mindset. Idk if that's a legit term but I like it.
More technicals
For instance:
DroidsGeneratedChip.BuildObject(new ChipCfg(
sygProducer: null, // todo data here
textSelector: () => $"1 {"Droid".Plural(1)} Generated",
textColorSelector: () => ColorRegistry.JimothyPink,
backgroundColorSelector: () => ColorRegistry.JimothyPink));
UnlockProgress.BuildObject(new ProgressCfg(
fillConfig: new ImageCfg(
producers: LibraryData.KnowledgeSyg,
fillSelector: () => UnlockProgressValue,
colorSelector: () => ColorRegistry.KnowledgeCurrency),
textConfig: new TextCfg(
textSelector: () => $"{KwlRemainingToUnlock:N0} KWL Remaining")));
Defining the behaviour of every UI element comes down to a few lines of data. No need to worry about callbacks or update loops, Bolt and Sparky are reactive frameworks now. I'm feeling very confident with my latest changes, this may be the last time I refactor the entire infrastructure haha... for real!
This concludes my yap sesh. Sorry it's been a while, these bugs have gotten in the way of making meaningful progress. 35 is a great post number because of how amazing this is for future development! Thanks for tuning in 🙂
Dev Standup 36.0: Library upgrades and bringing back the tables
8/9/2025 - III.XXXVI
Tables were broken for along time... But with my latest changes to the reactive UI framework, it's working better than ever! Here's some screenshots of the UI for library upgrades. In the process of balancing, before I continue on with feature work
Dev Standup 37.0: Back to Jimothy, and more
8/10/2025 - III.XXXVII
Here is another sneak peak of the new Spades Workshop/Jimothy feature. The degrees feature is actually kind of inspired by a designed Cylnders feature from IR1, and milestones from CIFI. Each degree will have set of studies (might rename to courses or subjects), that will grant boosts based on the degree.
So for instance, this Intro to Design study would reduce Jimothy's droid generation tick requirement from 100 => 95.
Also I added the new Jimothy emoji
Dev Standup 38.0: Little break, working on my records catalog website
8/14/2025 - III.XXXVIII
Learned a ton of AWS services at work and now starting to apply them to personal projects. Using S3, local mysql, docker, angular, asp.net.
Realistically I need to add authentication and authorization, then finally deploy this very empty app lol. However I am focused on making a simple enough form page for catalogging records on my phone. Using excel on my laptop is tedious and I'd rather get some of this data over asap.
For IR2, I could use this to build a cloud save system, a very simple offline progress cheating prevention (sorry, not sorry!), and better log/error handling
Dev Standup 39.0: Basic album uploading with images
8/14/2025 - III.XXXIX
She's looking pretty already! Getting very close to vinyl collection uploading
Dev Standup 40.0: Back to Idle Research 2
9/6/2025 - III.XL
Hey I'm back to working on Idle Research 2! Today I reworked the dialog and animation system. I can now easily create an animator object for any unity component, this includes: fading, resizing, repositioning. Additionally it works of a customizable animation function, so it is possible to use bezier curves, linear equations, and simple cubic equations. Here's a video... the dialog logic is still acting weird but the animations look smooth
Dev Standup 41.0: Untitled
9/18/2025 - III.XLI
Dev Standup 42.0: Back to Idle Research 2
9/19/2025- III.XLII
(<- annotation: forgot about this)
Trying to achieve WCAG AA compliance by automatically checking the contrast ratio between backgrounds (like those badges) and labels
Dev Standup 43.0: Jimothy/Spades University rework
9/30/2025- III.XLII
another lazy post :/ tough times lately, im sorry. trying to get motivation again
Dev Standup 44.0: Untitled
10/2/2025 - III.XLIV
From start -> lift, then the next planning phase is from lift -> water (back to where i originally started!)
Dev Standup 45.0: Untitled
10/9/2025 - III.XLV
Making moves... I can customize formulas without any code, and display it with a given format
There's a new small feature for Jimothy but I will not share what that is
(<- annotation: funny, I actually hate this pattern now. it's very difficult to read off as an equation without looking at the code. I just use Func<> and assign them in a config class, which isn't compile time :/. I could create an expression evaluator and store the string in JSON... but that's out of scope right now)
Dev Standup 46.0: Untitled
10/12/2025 - III.XLVI
Reworking skill system. Next is reworking IQ and adding MATH degree with a new secret feature
Dev Standup 47.0: Back to IQ feature
10/12/2025 - III.XLVII
Dev Standup 48.0: Untitled
10/27/2025 - III.XLVIII
it has been a pretty long time. this past week, I've been migrating away from the remaining v1 bolt UI. things are starting to work consistently, which is great news! I've migrated the data system completely to my reactive UI system. Cleaning a lot and creating new components like this expandable panel. this is another big refactor moment, a classic.
list of things I got done:
migrated all buttons from bolt 1 to 2 (replaced older button configurations and color states with the new reactors and alpha/brightness sets)
migrated all badge/chips to the new reactive configurations
did the same for progress bars, some of the dialogs, texts
all texts by default no longer overflow, ellipses instead to prevent a crashing bug from unity
improved the save data migrations
Dev Standup 49.0: Untitled
10/28/2025 - III.XLIX
out of the migration depression and starting to go back to adding QoL improvements, such as badge indicators for upgrades, and more on-screen info. The migration has made a lot of these additions super easy and are consistently working.
TLDR especially from last post: the goal is for me to spend more time configuring UI and the game and less time developing the framework. This migration was a huge step in the right direction and it's already starting to pay off.
Dev Standup 50.0: 50th Standup Anniversary - New Features and UI Upgrades
12/14/25 - III.XV
Hello! I am finally ready to share all of the big things I've worked on the past 1.5 months. Thank you if you're a regular reader of these posts, it means a lot!
Starting from the first to the last screenshot:
Reworked the Library Job cards and added unique descriptions. Added the gilded and transcended books are but they haven't been part of the balance yet. Also added job automation
Added automation to book upgrades and created a mini drawer for switching between the books
Book upgrade automation menu
Reworked the Intelligent Droid system, it's now based on highest Droids reached so long-runs are encouraged. Cloners still multiply job power and Philosophers now generate Synapse Nodes per tick
Revived the Synapse upgrade systems and reworked all of the costs. Added 10 upgrades as well. Improved some UI QoL
Created the MATH skill to bridge the gap between e25 and e50 KWL
Jimothy traits are unique passive skills
New Professor Euler, upgrade/unlocked new variables and swap out modules to dedicate the boost towards something (KWL, MATH Score, XP, etc.)
Euler Variables
Only 3 skill passives in total for Research at the moment
(image not shown) Spendable offline progress: you don't have to use up your offline progress ticks, but they do drain at a rate of -1 per tick. By default you get 1 Tick for every 10 offline ticks. You get more ticks per hour by lowering the tick time and reducing the offline tick ratio through upgrades.
Currently I'm at e30 KWL in the game, and I may feel comfortable getting a demo prepared once I have reached e100-200 KWL. Outside of the Library, IQ Hub, and Spades, I have 3-4 more major features to add for Research... and 4 more professors with each having their own core feature. I have no dates to provided unfortunately, just working as I please.
Dev Standup 50.1: 50th Standup Anniversary - Euler Modules
12/14/25 - III.XV.I
Gonna sneak this one in before I post everything on Steam
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 now a full-time software developer (hoping to promote to an engineer soon), and no longer in uni!
Are ya winning? Wishlist IR2!
If you are reading this, then YES!!
Join the Discord: https://discord.gg/9A9CjrSxeu
Wishlist Idle Research 2 please!View game page3. Lastly: Thank you! Have a wonderful day/night :)