Neon Core v1.0.0 — Stable Release

Neon Core v1.0.0

Neon Core is officially stable.

This release turns Neon Core into a complete browser-based sci-fi reactor clicker with polished progression, prestige systems, objectives, challenge runs, local saves, mobile support, accessibility improvements, and a fully redesigned cockpit interface.

Play now:
https://dawsoncodes.github.io/NeonCore/

Highlights

Complete reactor clicker experience

• Charge the Neon Core by clicking or pressing Space
• Build energy through active clicking and passive generation
• Buy upgrades across multiple categories
• Trigger Neon Surge for temporary power boosts
• Collapse into Singularities for permanent bonuses
• Cross the Event Horizon for late-game progression
• Earn achievements, complete objectives, and track long-term stats

v1 progression systems

• 14 tiered upgrades across multiple categories
• Neon Surge upgrades and interactions
• Singularity prestige layer
• Event Horizon prestige layer
• Horizon Shards and Horizon Focus choices
• Upgrade synergies
• Short-term objectives
• Optional challenge runs
• Permanent challenge-completion rewards
• Balanced active, passive, and hybrid playstyles

Objectives and challenge runs

• Added rotating short-term objectives to reduce repetition
• Added optional challenge runs after Singularity
• Challenges modify each run with different playstyle rules
• Completed challenges grant permanent global bonuses
• Challenge systems are fully local, save-compatible, and mobile-friendly

Polished interface

• Cockpit-style reactor dashboard
• Reactor-centered layout
• Category-based upgrade shop
• Collapsible achievements and stats
• Activity log with filters
• Settings drawer
• Help and onboarding guide
• Dark cyberpunk command-center theme
• Light solar-laboratory theme
• Custom Neon Core favicon

Saves and offline progress

• Local browser autosave
• Manual save support
• Three cloud-free save slots
• Save import and export
• Legacy save migration
• Offline progress support
• Safe reset and restore flows
• No accounts, no server, no cloud sync

Accessibility and controls

• Keyboard controls
• Screen-reader-friendly labels and status updates
• Reduced-motion support
• Mobile touch support
• Focus handling for dialogs and settings
• Accessible challenge, guide, save, and progression dialogs

Controls:

• Space — activate the reactor
• B — toggle Buy 1 / Buy Max
• S — save
• Esc — close panels and dialogs

Validation

This release includes:

• 120 passing automated tests
• 143 passing browser validation checks
• Deterministic balance simulation
• Save migration checks
• Import/export validation
• Mobile and desktop layout checks
• Regression coverage for reactor input, notifications, effects, saves, upgrades, objectives, challenges, and prestige systems

Technical notes

• Built with plain HTML, CSS, and browser-native JavaScript modules
• No framework
• No bundler
• No server runtime
• No cloud dependency
• No analytics or tracking
• Deploys directly through GitHub Pages

License

Released under the MIT License.

© 2026 DawsonCodes

Neon Core v0.4.0-alpha.1 — Interface Reboot

Neon Core v0.4.0-alpha.1

Neon Core has received a full interface reboot.

This alpha release rebuilds the game around a wider cockpit-style reactor dashboard, introduces a cleaner category-based upgrade shop, improves the presentation of achievements and stats, redesigns the settings drawer, fixes the volume-slider visual defect, adds a custom favicon, and significantly improves the game’s visual hierarchy.

Play the latest build:
https://dawsoncodes.github.io/NeonCore/

Highlights

Cockpit-style desktop dashboard

• Replaced the narrow vertical layout with a wider three-zone reactor-control interface.
• Positioned progression systems such as Neon Surge, Singularity, and Event Horizon on the left.
• Moved the living reactor core and HUD into the center of the experience.
• Rebuilt the upgrade shop as a dedicated right-side panel.
• Reduced unnecessary page length and excessive scrolling.
• Added a compact lower strip for activity history, achievements, and stats.

Reactor HUD redesign

• Made the current energy total the visual centerpiece.
• Improved readability for per-click energy, passive generation, multiplier, critical chance, and Surge state.
• Added clearer Singularity progress presentation.
• Improved the reactor stage spacing and hierarchy.
• Preserved keyboard and touch interaction.

Living reactor visuals

• Added progression-aware reactor intensity.
• Improved glow behavior and ring motion.
• Added stronger Surge-ready presentation.
• Added distinct Singularity-ready and Event Horizon-ready visual states.
• Improved click feedback and visual response.
• Preserved reduced-animation support.

Category-based upgrade shop

• Replaced the long upgrade list with category tabs.

• Added dedicated categories for:

  • Core Output
  • Passive Systems
  • Neon Surge
  • Economy
  • Singularity Tech

• Added compact upgrade cards.

• Preserved locked-state hints, affordability states, Buy 1 / Buy Max behavior, unlock notifications, and NEW badges.

• Added keyboard navigation support for shop tabs.

Achievements and stats improvements

• Collapsed achievements by default on desktop.
• Added a compact achievement summary with recent unlocks.
• Preserved the full categorized achievement collection when expanded.
• Collapsed detailed stats by default.
• Added a compact stats preview.
• Preserved grouped lifetime records and progression tracking.

Activity-log improvements

• Kept the event history visible without allowing it to dominate the interface.
• Improved the compact activity presentation.
• Preserved timestamps and event-type styling.
• Reduced visual clutter.

Settings-drawer redesign

• Rebuilt the settings drawer with clearer visual grouping.

• Improved sections for:

  • Appearance
  • Audio
  • Data Management
  • Save Slots
  • Controls
  • Version

• Improved spacing, readability, and button hierarchy.

• Preserved local save slots, imports, exports, reset behavior, theme persistence, volume persistence, and reduced-animation settings.

Volume-slider fix

• Fixed the unintended extra grey thumb-like element on the volume slider.
• Reworked the range-input styling.
• Added a cleaner cyan-filled track.
• Preserved keyboard adjustment and accessibility.
• Verified the corrected slider appearance in dark mode and light mode.

Theme improvements

Dark theme

• Improved the cyberpunk reactor-command-center presentation.
• Refined panel hierarchy.
• Improved small-label readability.
• Reduced generic card repetition.
• Added stronger progression-state accents.

Light theme

• Improved the solar-laboratory presentation.
• Refined contrast and readability.
• Preserved the bright laboratory identity.
• Improved panel distinction and control legibility.
• Kept the reactor visually prominent.

Mobile improvements

• Preserved the app-like mobile navigation experience.
• Improved reactor-first presentation.
• Improved shop category browsing.
• Improved settings access.
• Improved safe-area handling.
• Preserved touch-friendly controls.
• Preserved portrait and landscape support.

Custom favicon

• Added a new lightweight favicon.svg.
• Added a Neon Core reactor-style browser-tab icon.
• Added GitHub Pages-safe favicon wiring.
• Added browser theme-color metadata.

Validation

This release includes:

• 91 passing automated tests

• 106 passing browser checks

• Regression coverage for:

  • reactor input handling
  • floating-number placement
  • particle limits
  • notification behavior
  • save compatibility
  • category-tab selection
  • achievement expansion
  • stats expansion
  • theme persistence
  • volume persistence
  • reduced-animation persistence
  • favicon loading
  • mobile layout behavior

Gameplay compatibility

This release intentionally preserves the working gameplay systems from v0.3.0-alpha.1.

No major balancing changes were introduced.

The following systems remain intact:

• 14 tiered upgrades
• Neon Surge
• Singularity prestige
• Event Horizon prestige
• 48 achievements
• grouped stats
• local save slots
• schema-v4 save migration
• import and export compatibility
• offline progress
• procedural audio
• keyboard controls
• mobile support
• accessibility features

Controls

• Click or tap the reactor to generate energy.
• Press Space to activate the reactor.
• Press B to toggle Buy 1 / Buy Max.
• Press S to save.
• Press Esc to close open panels and dialogs.

Alpha status

This remains an early alpha release.

The interface is now much stronger, but Neon Core still needs deeper replayability and additional long-term variety.

Roadmap

Planned future improvements include:

• Optional challenge modifiers
• More Neon Surge interactions
• More visual set-pieces
• Richer activity-log filtering
• Additional replayability systems
• Further mobile polish
• Continued balancing
• A future late-game prestige concept after Event Horizon receives more playtesting

This release is marked as a pre-release while Neon Core continues to evolve.

Neon Core v0.3.0-alpha.1 — Progression, Polish & Expansion

Neon Core v0.3.0-alpha.1

Neon Core has received its biggest gameplay expansion yet.

This alpha release builds on the modular foundation introduced in v0.2.0-alpha.1 with major bug fixes, deeper progression, a second prestige layer, more achievements, expanded stats, cloud-free local save slots, and a procedural sound-design overhaul.

Play the latest build:
https://dawsoncodes.github.io/NeonCore/

Highlights

Major gameplay bug fixes

• Fixed the reactor-input multiplication bug that could grant far too much energy when clicking the core and pressing Space at nearly the same time.
• Added a canonical reactor-input pathway so pointer clicks, keyboard input, and touch interactions register consistently.
• Fixed floating energy numbers and particles occasionally appearing in incorrect areas of the screen during rapid clicking.
• Added coordinate validation, clamping, sensible fallback positioning, and effect limits.
• Fixed stale Buy 1 / Buy Max notifications during rapid toggling.
• Improved notification replacement, deduplication, priority handling, timer cleanup, and reset behavior.

Expanded upgrade system

• Expanded the shop to 14 upgrades across five categories.
• Preserved the original legacy upgrade IDs for save compatibility.
• Added progression-based upgrade unlocks.
• Added locked upgrade hints, category teasers, unlock notifications, and NEW badges.
• Added new upgrade paths for core output, passive generation, Neon Surge, economy, and Singularity-era progression.

Neon Surge rework

• Added upgradeable Surge charge speed.
• Added upgradeable Surge strength and duration.
• Added click-to-extend Surge momentum.
• Improved Surge-ready feedback and active-state presentation.
• Added Surge-related achievements and expanded tracking.

Event Horizon prestige layer

• Added Event Horizon, a new second prestige layer above Singularity.
• Event Horizon unlocks after sustained progression and multiple Singularities.
• Added persistent Horizon Shards.
• Added new permanent Horizon upgrades.
• Added a new collapse sequence and progression path for long-term runs.

Achievement and stat expansion

• Expanded the achievement catalog to 48 achievements across multiple categories.
• Preserved existing achievement unlock compatibility.
• Added collapsible achievement presentation on desktop.
• Kept the dedicated expanded mobile achievement view.
• Expanded stats to 22 tracked values, including critical hits, biggest click, best passive output, Surge usage, offline gains, lifetime collapse counts, and save-management activity.

Cloud-free local save slots

• Added three optional manual save slots stored entirely in the browser.
• Added save-slot naming, progress summaries, timestamps, overwrite confirmation, restore confirmation, and deletion confirmation.
• Added per-slot importing and exporting.
• Added automatic backups before restores and imports.
• Save slots survive normal progress resets.

Save-system upgrade

• Introduced save schema v4.
• Preserved automatic migration from prior save formats.
• Preserved compatibility with older exported saves.
• Added safer defaults for new fields.
• Added validation and safer import handling.

Procedural sound remaster

• Reworked the browser-based procedural audio system.
• Added improved sounds for clicking, critical hits, upgrades, achievements, milestones, Surge activation, Singularity, Event Horizon, saves, errors, and unlocks.
• Added a master volume slider.
• Added sound throttling to reduce harsh audio buildup during rapid clicking.
• Preserved mute behavior and audio-setting persistence.

UI, accessibility, and mobile improvements

• Improved the desktop dashboard layout.
• Added grouped upgrade categories.
• Added grouped stats.
• Improved the light-theme contrast pass.
• Improved settings organization.
• Added accessible dialogs and keyboard-friendly controls.
• Preserved reduced-motion support with a persistent in-game preference.
• Validated desktop, tablet, portrait-phone, and landscape-phone layouts.

Intentional balance changes

• Increased the base Singularity requirement from 100K to 500K.
• Added scaling Singularity requirements for repeated collapses.
• Increased the permanent Singularity reward from +10% to +25%.
• Rebalanced Neon Surge charge speed, duration, and multiplier behavior.
• Added minor upgrade growth-rate adjustments.
• Added new progression milestones.
• Preserved the base two-hour offline-progress cap, with later extensions available through progression.

Full balancing notes are included in docs/BALANCE.md.

Controls

• Click or tap the reactor to generate energy.
• Press Space to activate the reactor.
• Press B to toggle Buy 1 / Buy Max.
• Press S to save.
• Press Esc to close open panels and dialogs.

Validation

The update includes:

• 81 passing automated tests
• 102 passing browser validation checks
• Regression coverage for reactor input, particle positioning, notification replacement, save migration, save slots, progression systems, accessibility behaviors, and responsive layouts

Alpha status

This remains an early alpha release.

The underlying systems are much stronger, but the interface, visual hierarchy, animations, pacing, and long-term replayability still need additional refinement.

Known visual issue

• The settings volume slider can display an extra grey thumb-like element in some browser layouts. This is cosmetic and will be corrected during the next interface pass.

Coming next: v0.4 Interface Reboot

The next update will focus on a complete interface redesign and animation overhaul:

• Wider cockpit-style desktop dashboard
• Stronger reactor-centered visual hierarchy
• Rebuilt upgrade-shop presentation
• Cleaner achievements and stats access
• Refined settings drawer
• Fixed volume-slider styling
• Stronger reactor animations
• Improved click, critical-hit, Surge, Singularity, and Event Horizon effects
• More polished panel transitions
• Improved mobile presentation
• Reduced repetition through a cleaner gameplay flow

This release is marked as a pre-release while Neon Core continues to evolve.

Neon Core v0.2.0-alpha.1 — Reactor Overhaul Preview

Neon Core v0.2.0-alpha.1

The first major overhaul of Neon Core is here.

This alpha preview transforms the original three-file prototype into a modular, mobile-friendly sci-fi reactor game with a redesigned interface, improved accessibility, versioned saves, and a much stronger foundation for future gameplay updates.

Highlights

• Completely redesigned reactor-dashboard interface
• Refined cyberpunk dark theme
• Fully reworked solar-laboratory light theme
• Modular browser-native ES module architecture
• Improved mobile layout with touch-friendly navigation
• New settings panel
• Versioned save system with legacy-save migration
• Save importing, exporting, and autosave status
• Cloud-free browser persistence
• Improved offline-progress handling
• Reworked notification manager with queued messages
• Improved achievement, milestone, Surge, and Singularity feedback
• Reduced-animation preference
• Improved keyboard accessibility
• Expanded public README
• Lightweight automated test suite with 37 passing tests
• No framework, bundler, or third-party runtime dependencies

Existing gameplay preserved

The core Neon Core loop remains intact:

• Click the reactor to generate energy
• Purchase upgrades
• Build passive generation
• Trigger Neon Surge
• Unlock achievements
• Collapse the reactor into a Singularity for permanent power
• Save locally and continue earning limited offline progress

Controls

• Click the reactor or press Space to generate energy
• Press B to toggle Buy 1 and Buy Max
• Press S to save
• Press Esc to close open panels

Alpha status

This is an early public preview of the redesigned experience. The foundation is significantly improved, but balancing, animation quality, sound design, progression depth, and some interface details still need additional work.

Known issues

• Combining rapid reactor clicks with the Space key can sometimes generate more energy than intended.
• Rapid click feedback can occasionally place floating energy numbers incorrectly.
• Rapidly toggling Buy 1 and Buy Max may leave an outdated notification visible.
• Progression balance, Neon Surge timing, animations, and sound effects still need further tuning.
• The expanded achievement area currently takes up more space than intended.

Next planned improvements

• Gameplay balancing pass
• Reactor-input bug fixes
• Improved notification replacement behavior
• Refined click-feedback positioning
• Stronger animation system
• Remastered sound effects
• More upgrade tiers
• More achievements and stats
• Collapsible achievement interface
• Optional cloud-free save slots
• Second prestige layer

This release is marked as a pre-release while the redesigned game continues to evolve.

Neon Core v0.1.0-alpha.1 — Initial Playtest Build

Neon Core v0.1.0-alpha.1

The first playable public preview of Neon Core.

This release preserves the original lightweight three-file version of the game before the codebase is reorganized into a modular project structure.

Included features

• Neon sci-fi clicker gameplay
• Manual clicking and passive energy generation
• Seven upgrade types
• Critical clicks
• Neon Surge temporary boost
• Singularity prestige system
• Achievements and milestone popups
• Offline progress
• Autosaving
• Save import and export
• Dark and light themes
• Generated sound effects
• Keyboard shortcuts
• Responsive mobile layout
• Reduced-motion accessibility support

Playtesting focus

This is an early alpha build. The goal is to verify that the core gameplay loop, progression systems, saving, and responsive interface feel solid before the internal refactor and future visual-polish passes.

Controls

• Click the core or press Space to generate energy
• Press B to switch between Buy 1 and Buy Max
• Press S to save manually