NUCLEAR DESIGN BUREAU is a hardcore sandbox engineering game where you design and test nuclear devices.
You are the Chief Engineer of a secret Soviet design bureau. The State gives you a target and a warehouse full of dangerous materials. In some directives, your available materials are limited. Your task is simple: build a device that gets the job done.
THIS IS A PROTOTYPE, NOT A FINISHED GAME. THERE WILL BE BUGS, MISSING OR BROKEN FEATURES, AND BIG CHANGES COMING.
HOW IT WORKS
- Receive Directive: Read technical mission requirements and constraints, including material limits in specific directives.
- Design: Paint materials directly onto the blueprint grid. Build your primary, casing, and supporting systems.
- Simulate: Hit the red button, run full detonation physics in real time, and watch the blast in the detonation viewer.
- Refine: If it fizzles, fails, or wastes material, iterate and improve.
CORE FEATURES
- Physics-Driven Simulation: Shockwaves, heat, radiation, and chain-reaction behavior are modeled in real time.
- Detonation Viewer: Observe detonations as they unfold, with live visual feedback on blast behavior.
- Campaign Directives: Structured mission progression with technical goals and constraints.
- Sandbox Mode: Unlimited experimentation with full design freedom.
- Iterative Engineering Loop: Build, test, diagnose, and optimize.
EARLY ACCESS STATUS (CURRENT BUILD)
The current Early Access build is fully playable and includes the core gameplay loop:
- Design -> Simulate -> Refine
- Sandbox mode
- Campaign directives
- Save/load systems with ongoing stability improvements
This is an active development build. Expect balance changes, physics upgrades, and campaign iteration during Early Access.
EARLY ACCESS ROADMAP (SUBJECT TO CHANGE)
Physics and Simulation
- More realistic detonation viewer (better shockwaves, 3D-style presentation, damage radius + thermal radiation modeling, destructible buildings/targets)
- Smaller grid mode for higher realism
- Improved compression physics
- Levitated pit physics
- Fission boosting with D-T gas
Campaign and Content
- Rebuild and expand campaign around updated grid, physics, and destruction systems
- Many more directives/missions
- Voiced campaign
- Additional bomb concepts (high-radiation designs, clean bombs, neutron bombs)
- More advanced materials
Presentation and Audio
- More music tracks
Community and Meta
- Public leaderboard
DEVELOPMENT APPROACH
Early Access is where this game gets shaped in public. Player feedback will guide balancing, campaign pacing, clarity, and polish as we move toward full release.
"The atom is not a soldier, Comrade. It is a force of nature. We merely tell it where to go."
