Monthly Archives: June 2021

In this post we’ll talk about RESEARCH and DESTROY’s campaign Strategy map. From the outset we wanted to create a non-linear campaign mode for RAD to keep repeat playthroughs fresh–and of course, like the Turn-Based Action missions, also be fully playable in co-op.

Making the campaign playable in simultaneous co-op was a huge design challenge. We also wanted to keep the gameplay theme of “direct control” consistent between the Strategy map and Turn-Based Action battles. You’re not moving pieces across the board–you ARE the pieces!

Or in this case, you’re a van. The RADvan acts like a cursor that you’ll use to carpool your team of Super Scientists around the Strategy Map. The events and decisions you make on the Strategy map affects the Turn-Based Action missions, and the outcome of those missions affects what happens on the Strategy map!

Time works much the same way between the Strategy map and Turn-Based Action missions–the Super Scientists and the Supernatural each take turns to do their stuff, and time only passes when you move the van! Each Super Scientist turn lasts 40 days (in-game time) before the Supernaturals make their move.

After you liberate a territory by completing […]

In this blog post, we’ll talk about RESEARCH and DESTROY’s unique time management system and how we mixed Turn-Based Strategy and Third Person Shooter into something we like to call Turn-Based Action.

X-COM was a primary influence and starting point for our first prototype. However, RAD quickly evolved into something very different, something much closer to a Third Person Shooter.

Turn-Based Strategy games like X-COM usually have “Movement points” or “Action Points” which must be used in sequence. Typically you move each of your avatars a certain distance, then instruct them to attack or perform an action. Then you sit back and watch the show.

While prototyping RAD we discovered that this wouldn’t work with the main feature we were trying to add to the genre: cooperative multiplayer.

We ruled out having players take turns because it was boooooooring waiting for others to finish. Other players’ avatars would end up getting in your way causing you to end up a meter short of cover, walk into your line of fire, or just outright lose your intended cover to some fleet-footed jerk, thus leaving you sitting out in the open like a duck in the middle of a lake with a lightning rod taped to […]

RESEARCH and DESTROY is the first original game by Implausible Industries, a Japan-based Indie studio formed in 2013 by a handful of experienced developers from across the globe. So let’s meet the dev team!

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Chris Willacy (Design/Level Design, Effects and Audio) – I’ve worked on a bunch of titles, older gamers might remember the Driver series on the original PlayStation. After a number of years in the UK I returned to my native Australia and got my first taste of Indie games dev which was a refreshing change after doing AAA (such as it was at that time). An opportunity to work in Japan came along in the late 2000s and I grabbed it with both hands and ended up on Shadows of the Damned along with a bunch of other titles.

After a few years in Japan, my colleagues had the idea to start a studio . That idea turned into Implausible Industries! Since then we’ve had the opportunity to work on a lot of titles which has been super fun. But it’s always been our goal to make our own games and be larger cogs in our own machines.

Being Indie with a […]