42.0° N · 123.3° W — Southern Oregon timber country
Gist Industrial
Simulation
Technologies
The timber industry, simulated from woods to market — Oregon Logging Simulator.
The Project
A complete logging & timber-industry simulation
Players begin inside the industry as log-truck drivers, equipment operators, mill workers, mechanics, or forestry employees. Skill and experience can lead to equipment ownership, employees, contracts, logging companies, trucking fleets, mills, and regional business expansion.
Perform authentic work
Drive articulated log trucks, back beneath a shovel, operate skidders, processors, loaders, and dozers, inspect machinery, secure loads, and respond to difficult roads, weather, terrain, and production demands.
Run the operation
Schedule jobs, assign employees, purchase equipment, manage fuel, repairs, payroll, contracts, insurance, inspections, production targets, customer relationships, and company reputation.
Build the timber network
Connect logging crews, transportation companies, equipment dealers, repair shops, mills, manufacturing facilities, distribution centers, landowners, and customers through a persistent regional economy.
Three Ways to Play
Three depths of attachment to one persistent world
Simulation/Career, Role-Playing, and Ironman/Legacy aren't three separate games — they're the same industrial world with the human layer turned up further at each step, from clocking in for a shift to building a legacy that outlives you.
Simulation / Career
“Work the industry.”
Role-Playing
“Live a life in the industry.”
Ironman / Legacy
“Build a life and legacy where consequences are permanent.”
Ironman uses the same physical rules as the other modes — what changes is the permanence and cost of failure, not the difficulty of driving the truck.
What Makes It Different
Knowledge lives in people, not in menus
The project is built around the actual systems that keep timber operations moving — trucks, machines, roads, employees, maintenance, schedules, markets, and production facilities, connected rather than treated as isolated minigames. Skill is taught by mentors who have to trust you first, not unlocked from a tree — and if a real person would reach for a document, a dashboard, or a conversation to get something done, so does the player, instead of pausing into a menu.
- Mentor-taught expertise — earn trust before a specialist teaches a technique or lets you touch their equipment
- Diegetic interfaces — job directions on paper, gauges on the dashboard, no floating quest markers or XP popups
- Articulated tractor & reach-trailer handling
- Logging-road navigation & CB communication
- Shovel, skidder, processor, loader & dozer operation
- Log sorting, decking, loading & securement
- DOT inspections, axle weights, defects & hours-of-service
- Used-equipment markets, repairs, wear & downtime
- Employees with skills, experience & institutional knowledge
- Contracts, payroll & reputation systems
Logging Operations
From the timber sale to the landing
The logging side of the simulation follows the movement of timber through a working job site. Trees are felled and processed, logs move through skid trails, and the landing becomes the center of sorting, loading, and daily production.
Plan the job
Evaluate timber, terrain, access roads, equipment needs, weather, markets, haul distance, landing location, and production targets.
Cut & process
Fell trees, remove limbs, measure and cut logs, sort products, and manage production around changing timber and terrain conditions.
Move the wood
Use grapple skidders, tracked machines, winches, and dozers to move logs from the cut area to the landing safely and efficiently.
Sort & load
Build decks, separate products, manage limited landing space, load trucks accurately, and keep production moving without damage.
Responsible Operations
Good logging protects the ground that supports the industry
Oregon Logging Simulator is a logging game first. It also recognizes that professional logging companies must manage roads, water, soil, fire risk, replanting, and regulatory requirements — systems that affect costs, contracts, reputation, and the long-term supply of timber.
- Drainage ditches, culverts & water bars maintenance
- Erosion reduction & soil disturbance control
- Stream & riparian protection, water quality
- Road & landing repair, temporary access routes
- Slash, debris & fire risk management
- Replanting harvested ground where required
- Permit & contract balance against production goals
- Reputation for safe, dependable work
First Playable Target
One complete woods-to-mill workday
The first vertical slice concentrates on a detailed log-truck assignment that proves the dispatch, driving, navigation, loading, compliance, delivery, business, and persistence systems.
Dispatch
Enter the driver room, check the job board, receive written directions, inspect the assigned truck, review the CB channel, and prepare before the scheduled out time.
Reach the landing
Navigate one-lane logging roads, make CB callouts, respond to weather and road conditions, locate the active landing, and position beneath the shovel.
Haul the load
Manage axle weights, securement, braking, trailer tracking, road conditions, traffic, fuel use, equipment defects, and a possible roadside inspection.
Deliver & settle
Weigh in, unload at the mill, receive payment, and update fuel, maintenance, safety, reputation, experience, finances, and persistent world data.
The Timber Economy
Logs are only the beginning of the product chain
The game follows timber beyond the woods and into mills, manufacturing, distribution, and construction markets — and the world keeps going past the tailgate. Towns, banks, dealerships, repair shops, and a home to come back to give the character a life outside the landing, not just a job. Wood remains a renewable resource when forests are managed, harvested, and replanted as part of a continuing production cycle.
Legacy & Consequence
The world survives the character
In Role-Playing and Ironman/Legacy, the character accumulates a real life inside the industry — background, relationships, aging, injury, and choices that don't undo. A company can keep running while its founder works elsewhere. An heir can inherit a respected fleet, a damaged reputation, or a debt burden — sometimes all three.
“You must live with distance as well as consequence.”Ironman travel principle — no fast travel, no teleport recovery, no shortcuts around a breakdown
Nothing quietly resets
A destroyed truck stays destroyed. A lost license stays lost. A character can die — Ironman uses the same physical rules as every other mode, only the permanence changes.
Heirs, not restarts
Property, equipment, debt, reputation, and relationships can pass to an heir, partner, employee, or designated successor — inherited as probabilities and circumstance, not copied stats.
“How did you get that?”
Rare cosmetics mark real accomplishment — hundreds of safe operating hours, decades survived in Legacy play, a company milestone — status that has to be lived, not bought.
The Studio
Built with industry knowledge & controlled scope
Gist Industrial Simulation Technologies is an Oregon-based independent game-development company in formation, combining direct logging and transportation experience with experienced Unreal development, specialized art support, contractors, and AI-assisted production tools.
- Remote-first micro-indie development team
- Unreal Engine 5 using C++ and Blueprints
- Data-driven simulation & persistent systems
- Single-player first, multiplayer-ready architecture
- Industry research with drivers, operators, mechanics, mills & foresters
- Controlled scope for the first-year vertical slice
- Original equipment & environments based on authentic operations
Preliminary Roadmap
Year one is about proving the foundation
Foundation & hiring
Form the business, pursue financing, hire the technical lead, establish repository standards, build the Unreal project foundation, and organize logging, equipment, vehicle, mill, and market-reference datasets.
Core vehicle & dispatch prototype
Implement first-person interaction, truck controls, reach-trailer behavior, dispatch, route finding, CB communication, inspection systems, and the first logging-road test environment.
Landing, loading & mill delivery
Add shovel loading, weight calculations, securement, roadside inspection logic, mill delivery, payment, reputation, fuel, wear, maintenance, and persistent save data.
Equipment & operating systems
Establish skidder, shovel, processor, and dozer controls while expanding roads, landings, maintenance, equipment ownership, employees, contracts, and basic company management.
Vertical slice, testing & outreach
Polish the complete workday, conduct external playtests, prepare the Steam presence and trailer, collect measurable feedback, and use those results to plan phase-two production.
“Authentic logging means accurately representing the machinery, the people, the business, and the responsibility required to keep the industry operating.” — Project design principle
Contact & Partnerships
Industry, development, financing & publishing inquiries
Contact Gist Industrial Simulation Technologies regarding logging and equipment research, industry partnerships, game development, financing, publishing, technical services, or other professional matters.
Email the Studio