DWG. 001 — PRIMARY ASSEMBLY

OREBOUND

A steampunk factory game you play in a browser tab. Mine it, move it, make it — with friends — then dress it up with walls, windows, roofs and lamps.

Join the waitlist See how it works

PROJECT: OREBOUND
STUDIO: HEIGHTMAP GAMES, NORWAY
GENRE: AUTOMATION / MULTIPLAYER
PLATFORM: DESKTOP BROWSER — NO INSTALL
PRICE: FREE TO PLAY
STATUS: IN DEVELOPMENT
RELEASE: TBA

An Orebound factory floor: Fabricators and smoking Kilns joined by belts on legs, a Steam Stack beside them

§01

THE LOOP

Pull ore out of the ground. Turn it into something better. Turn that into something better still. Every chain ends in a longer chain — that is the game.

IN
IRON ORE
MACHINE
KILN
ITEM
IRON INGOT
MACHINE
FABRICATOR
OUT
YOUR NEXT PROBLEM

FIG. 1 — Simplified. Real factories contain considerably more spaghetti.

§02

THE WORLD

Grown by procedural generation. Tuned by hand.

STARTING MAP: One hand-tuned world. Every player builds on a Site of their own: a private copy of it
SEASONS: New maps on a seasonal basis — coming later
EVERY MAP: Generated from a seed, then tuned by hand: shape, water, cliffs, roads and climate
REWARDS: A new title with every Clearance today; cosmetic building looks, earned by playing — coming later
COST: Free. The whole game.
MISSED ONE?: Buy the looks outright in an in-game cosmetic store — coming later

FIG. 2 — The starting map. Same hill, same river, same very tempting iron node — for everyone. Nobody has to share it.

2.1

MAKE IT YOURS

Today you dress a factory with what is in the build menu: walls with portholes or arched windows, gable roofs, railings and nine kinds of lamp. Cosmetics come later: alternative looks for the machines and pieces you already build. A restyled machine runs exactly like the standard one. Everyone gets the same map; nobody’s factory has to look the same.

PATH A — EARN

Earn it by playing

Today you earn a new title with every Clearance, from Provisional Associate to Partner (Non-Equity). Cosmetic building looks, seasonal maps included, come later. No pass, no paywall — free.

PATH B — BUY

Missed one? No fear of missing out

Every look will also be sold outright in an in-game cosmetic store, so skipping a season never means losing out for good. A bought look changes how a building looks, never what it does. Coming later.

PATH C — SUBSCRIBE

A name color and a badge

Plus subscribers pick the color their name shows in, with a Salaried badge beside it — in the fiction, everyone else is a Contractor. Cosmetic-only building skins come later. Nothing here touches a machine.

A Steam Stack: a brick boiler house with its firebox glowing and smoke rising from the chimney — STEAM STACK

A brick wall with two copper-rimmed portholes — WALL WITH PORTHOLE

A Splitter (here in its open gantry look), one belt in and three out — SPLITTER

A small brick shed under a corrugated roof panel — ROOF PANEL

FIG. 4 — Pieces you can build today. Cosmetics will restyle pieces like these. Looks only.

§03

CO-OP, ENGINEERED

3.1

Your factory, your rules

Invite up to seven friends onto your Site at once. Each gets a role, from Visitor (look, don’t touch) to Co-owner. Nobody moves in uninvited.

3.2

Zones and permissions

Draw Zones and hand out build, demolish, recipe and withdraw rights by area. If a falling-out happens anyway, Guest Rollback removes everything one guest built in the last 72 hours (30 days with Plus).

§04

LEADERBOARDS

Want the most points per minute? Or to be first up the tiers? You decide.

Everything you deliver to the Depot scores points: an Iron Ingot 2, a Girder 30. Pick the board that matches how you play, then go chase it.

POINTS PER MINUTEBOARD 4.1TOTAL POINTSBOARD 4.2WEEKLY EVENTBOARD 4.3TIER RACEBOARD 4.4

FIG. 3 — SAMPLE BOARD: POINTS PER MINUTE. Illustrative numbers, not live standings.
RANK	PLAYER	PTS/MIN
01	MaxThroughput	84 pts/min
02	BeltBaron	71 pts/min
03	GigaSmelt	63 pts/min
04	FactoryFox	55 pts/min
⋮
07	YOU	39 pts/min

FIG. 3 — SAMPLE BOARD: TOTAL POINTS. Illustrative numbers, not live standings.
RANK	PLAYER	POINTS
01	MaxThroughput	11M pts
02	BeltBaron	9.4M pts
03	GigaSmelt	8.3M pts
04	FactoryFox	7.2M pts
⋮
11	YOU	86k pts

FIG. 3 — SAMPLE BOARD: WEEKLY EVENT. Illustrative numbers, not live standings.BOLT SURGE — Deliver 500 × Bolt to the Depot · 2d 4h left
RANK	PLAYER	DELIVERED
01	MaxThroughput	500 / 500
02	BeltBaron	461 / 500
03	GigaSmelt	388 / 500
04	FactoryFox	352 / 500
⋮
06	YOU	214 / 500

FIG. 3 — SAMPLE BOARD: TIER RACE. Illustrative numbers, not live standings.
RANK	PLAYER	TIER · TIME
01	MaxThroughput	Tier 3 · 1d 14h
02	BeltBaron	Tier 3 · 1d 20h
03	GigaSmelt	Tier 3 · 2d 2h
04	FactoryFox	Tier 3 · 2d 9h
⋮
07	YOU	Tier 3 · 2d 23h

§05

BILL OF MATERIALS

ITEM	FREE$0, forever	PLUSmonthly or yearly
The full game: every Clearance, machine and recipe	YES	YES
Multiplayer with friends	YES	YES
Seasonal maps (coming later)	YES	YES
Titles earned by playing; building looks (coming later)	YES	YES
Away Cap: how long your Site keeps producing while you’re away	6 HOURS	24 HOURS
Overtime tokens (each claims up to 2 h of paused production)	EARNED IN PLAY	EARNED + 4 A MONTH
Build undo	5 STEPS	100 STEPS
Mass select: copy, paste, delete	1 PIECE	UNLIMITED
Layout slots	5	50
Guest Rollback	72 HOURS	30 DAYS
Return summary, statistics, Site Overview	BASIC	DETAILED
Belt auto-router, production planner, Market watchlist	—	YES
Name color and Salaried badge	—	YES
Faster machines, more items, more Scrip	NO	NO

Plus buys time and comfort. Never throughput: every Plus feature has a free version that is slower or smaller.

§06

FIELD NOTES

§07

THE STUDIO

Heightmap Games is a small studio in Norway that builds worlds out of noise functions.

We start at ground level — terrain, water, the shape of the land — and build the game on top. Orebound is our first project, and the devlog is where we show our working.

REQUEST EARLY ACCESS

Alpha invites and devlog updates. Low volume, high throughput.

The waitlist opens soon. Until then, the devlog is where we show our working.