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Research Story

Research Story

Set out to discover and record plants and creatures for the Violet Archive. Grow crops, tame animals, and build the perfect farm! Forge friendships along the way as you begin your life as a researcher!

Released Jul 21, 2025 Developer Petal Cat Games Publisher Petal Cat Games, Electronic Sheep Games Platforms Windows Early AccessFarming SimLife SimSimulationAgriculture
View on Steam ↗ $14.99 (US · as of 2026-09-26)

What players say

Steam review score and the most-helpful voices, which may include critical ones. Score via Steam as of 2026-09-02 · quoted reviews as of 2026-05-18.

94.7%positive341 reviews
Recommended · 6 found this helpful

“This is such a charming take on a life sim, I wish more cozy gamers knew about it! I love the pixel art style, very reminiscent of Littlewood. The creatures are unique and adorable, the mechanics are straightforward, and the characters are well-developed, charming additions to…”

— a player, Steam review · 65 hrs played
Recommended · 3 found this helpful

“The creatures are really cute and you can catch shinies shimmers! I also like how many romanceable and diverse characters they are, the dialogue is well written and fun to read. Research Story adds new, original mechanics to the familiar farming sim genre, would recommend :)”

— a player, Steam review · 84 hrs played
Not recommended · 19 found this helpful

“This game lacks a lot of information / QOL to make it workable compared to other farming games, and some parts are so blatantly a Stardew Valley dupe that it's a little painful (for example, the wagon with extra things that you can only access on Wednesdays and Sundays, sound…”

— a player, Steam review · 4 hrs played
Read more reviews ↗

Player activity

Monthly average concurrent players. Live data self-collected from the Steam API · history through 2026-07 via SteamCharts.

139all-time peak
0 25 50 2024 2025 2026 43 avg · Jul 2025

Achievement stats

Global completion rates across all Steam players — a data view of how far people actually get. Source: Steam official stats · as of 2026-09-26.

40achievements
7.2%median completion
1.0%rarest: Sous Chef
59.4% of players 54.2% of players 50.4% of players 46.3% of players 32.7% of players 32.6% of players 28.5% of players 21.0% of players 19.6% of players 17.2% of players 14.9% of players 14.6% of players 13.0% of players 11.2% of players 10.8% of players 9.0% of players 8.6% of players 8.4% of players 7.9% of players 7.2% of players 7.2% of players 6.3% of players 6.2% of players 5.3% of players 4.6% of players 4.5% of players 4.0% of players 3.7% of players 3.3% of players 2.7% of players 2.7% of players 2.5% of players 2.2% of players 2.1% of players 1.5% of players 1.4% of players 1.3% of players 1.2% of players 1.1% of players 1.0% of players 59.4% 0% most earned rarest
Almost everyone has
59.4%New in Town — Meet 15 NPCs.
54.2%First Publication — Submit 1 Scroll.
50.4%For science! — Clear a withered crop.
Rarest badges of honor
1.0%Sous Chef — Cook 40 different dishes.
1.1%Baller — Get 55 points while competing to win in Snowball Frenzy.
1.2%Living in Luxury — Hidden achievement

Price tracking

US-region pricing (USD), sampled twice daily by our own tracker since 2026-08-12. Steam prices vary by region — always confirm your local price on Steam.

$14.99current · sampled 2026-09-26 21:12 UTC
$14.99lowest since tracking began2026-08-12
US14.99 USD
EU14.50 EUR
UK12.99 GBP
Australia21.50 AUD
Canada19.50 CAD
Japan1,700 JPY
Brazil46.99 BRL
China58.00 CNY

Regional prices at last sample, in local currency — Steam sets each region's price independently.

China≈$8.6 Brazil Japan Canada US Australia EU UK≈$17

Cheapest → most expensive, converted to USD at ECB reference rates (2026-09-25). Relative comparison only.

$0 $10 $20 08-12 08-21 08-30 09-08 09-17 09-26

Latest official news

Developer announcements via the Steam news API — links go to the original posts. More across all games on the news hub.

Aug 28, 2026
Research Story is out now on Switch!

Research Story is officially out now on the Nintendo Switch! 🎉🎉 The game is available on the eShop in the US, European, and SEA regions. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VWJr9mBtkUg After spending clos

Aug 23, 2026
Hotfix v1.2.4

Fixes - Fixed the player being unable to place items sometimes (since the v1.2.3 patch). - Fixed some typos. --- Player report for game freezing I received one player report regarding random freezing

Aug 18, 2026
Patch v1.2.3

Fixes - Fixed rare crash when deactivating tool immediately after chopping a tree. - Fixed an area in the Cliffside where you can go out-of-bounds. - Fixed a visual bug when opening the Fish Map UI. C

Jul 30, 2026
Hotfix v1.2.2

Fixes Fixed an uncommon bug that allows placing items in out-of-bound areas when using touchscreen. You can now also pick up the items stuck in out-of-bound areas if you previously ran into this bug.

Jul 28, 2026
Hotfix v1.2.1

Fixes - Fixed V-sync "On" setting not applied when first launching game. - Fixed 滩 character not rendering correctly. Changes - Crouching is disabled while you're mounted. Thank you for playing Resear

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From our knowledge graph — ranked by shared traits, not a black box. Each card says why it's here.

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Screenshots

Official Steam store screenshots — click any shot to enlarge.

Facts & details

From the Steam store record, snapshot 2026-05-18.

GenresCasual, Indie, RPG, Simulation
Player tagsEarly Access · Farming Sim · Life Sim · Simulation · Agriculture · RPG · Creature Collector · Building · Pixel Graphics · Relaxing · Sandbox · Exploration (SteamSpy community voting)
FeaturesSingle-player · Steam Achievements · Full controller support · Steam Cloud · Family Sharing
LanguagesEnglish, Simplified Chinese
ControllerFull support
Achievements40
Minimum system requirements (PC)

Minimum: OS *: Windows 7, 8, 8.1 and 10 Processor: 2 Ghz Memory: 2 GB RAM Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660Ti Storage: 1 GB available space