Early Access Game
Get instant access and start playing; get involved with this game as it develops.
Note: Games in Early Access are not complete and may or may not change further. If you are not excited to play this game in its current state, then you should wait to see if the game progresses further in development. Learn more
What the developers have to say:
Why Early Access?
“The people who play this should help decide where it goes. There are a lot of ideas on the list and no certainty about which ones are right, and the fastest way to find out is to put the game in front of players and listen. Feedback on what you build, what you want, and where it falls over is what sets the order of work.
This is an active development build, so there will be bugs, rough edges and features that change shape as they get used.”
Approximately how long will this game be in Early Access?
“Early Access is planned to run about 6 to 12 months, with updates throughout that period and the plan adjusted as development and feedback progress.”
How is the full version planned to differ from the Early Access version?
“The goal is to make the one stop shop for nuclear weapons games.
Finer grid resolution for stronger PCs and GPUs
A deeper detonation viewer with proper hydrodynamic simulation
More accurate physics and more design possibilities
More to do in the criticality lab
A much more fleshed out campaign built on the better physics
Voiced campaign
Leaderboards and per directive statistics
Better visuals
And whatever good ideas the community turns up”
What is the current state of the Early Access version?
“The Early Access version is playable end to end and already has the core loop of designing, simulating, detonating and iterating. It includes the first person criticality lab, sandbox play, campaign directives, the full set of tools and materials, telemetry, and saved setups. Stability, balance and content depth all keep improving from here.”
Will the game be priced differently during and after Early Access?
“Yes. Early Access starts at an introductory price, which will rise gradually as major updates and content milestones land. The full release is planned to be priced higher than Early Access.”
How are you planning on involving the Community in your development process?
“Discord is the main development feedback channel, because it makes daily conversation with players possible. What people build and where they get stuck is what sets the priority for fixes and updates. Steam Discussions is used as well, but Discord is where most day to day iteration happens.”
About This Game
WARNING! THIS GAME IS IN EARLY ACCESS. IT IS BUGGY AND COMPUTE HEAVY. PLAYERS MAY FACE POTENTIAL BUGS, FREEZES, AND CRASHES.
WHILE THIS GAME UTILIZES WEBGPU and ELECTRON, LINUX/PROTON/MACOS ARE NOT OFFICIALLY SUPPORTED YET.
I UNDERSTAND THAT THE AI GENERATED CONTENT IS UNAPPEALING AND AM HEAVILY FOCUSED ON ADDRESSING THIS ISSUE.
THERE IS AN ACTIVE DISCORD COMMUNITY, PLEASE JOIN IF YOU'D LIKE TO PARTICIPATE IN ITS DEVELOPMENT.
NUCLEAR DESIGN BUREAU is a hardcore sandbox engineering game where you design and test nuclear devices.
You are a junior engineer at the Kurchatov Institute. The State gives you a target and a warehouse full of dangerous materials. Some directives limit what you are allowed to use. Your job is to build a device that does what the directive asks.
This game is built in the open. The campaign, the physics and the tools change based on what players build, where they get stuck, and what they ask for. That is the whole reason it is in Early Access.
HOW IT WORKS
- Receive a directive: Technical requirements and constraints, with material limits on some jobs.
- Measure it by hand: The criticality lab is first person. Set the core in its cradle, lower the beryllium reflector onto it, and watch the counter on the wall while the live k estimate climbs toward one. Push it too far and the dose lands on your hands, not on a number.
- Design: Paint materials straight onto the blueprint grid. Build the primary, the casing, and the supporting systems.
- Simulate: Hit the red button and run full detonation physics in real time.
- Refine: If it fizzles, fails, or wastes material, work out why and change it.
CORE FEATURES
- Physics-Driven Simulation: Shockwaves, heat, radiation, and chain-reaction behavior are modeled in real time.
- Criticality Lab: A first person room where you handle the real parts. Live Monte Carlo k-effective, a wall counter that lags the way the instrument actually would, and radiation exposure that shows on the operator instead of in a readout.
- 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 playable end to end and includes the core gameplay loop:
- Design -> Simulate -> Detonate -> Refine
- The criticality lab
- Sandbox mode
- Campaign directives
- Save/load systems with ongoing stability improvements
This is an active development build. Expect balance changes, physics work, and campaign iteration during Early Access.
EARLY ACCESS ROADMAP (SUBJECT TO CHANGE)
Physics and Simulation
- Refining the detonation viewer (better shockwaves, damage radius and thermal radiation modeling, destructible buildings and targets)
- Finer grid resolution for stronger PCs and GPUs
- More to do in the criticality lab
Campaign and Content
- Expanding the campaign with unique challenges
- 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
- Statistics on every campaign directive, so you can compare how efficient your design was against everyone else's
DEVELOPMENT APPROACH
Design. Simulate. Detonate.
Early Access is where this game gets shaped in public. What players build, where they get stuck, and what they ask for decides what gets worked on next. Most of the day to day happens on Discord.
"The atom is not a soldier, Comrade. It is a force of nature. We merely tell it where to go."
AI Generated Content Disclosure
The developers describe how their game uses AI Generated Content like this:
This game uses AI-assisted images, text, and code created during development; all content was reviewed and edited by the developer, and no AI content is generated during gameplay.
Mature Content Description
The developers describe the content like this:
This game depicts the design and testing of nuclear weapons. While there is no graphic violence against humans, the themes of nuclear proliferation and mass destruction are treated with a serious tone appropriate for a mature audience.
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