ColonyWork — Colony Job, Pawn Priority & Task Management Framework

ColonyWork is a configurable Unity framework for colony simulations, settlement builders, management games and strategy projects. It provides the systems needed to discover work, select suitable workers, rank available tasks, reserve targets safely and execute jobs without conflicting assignments.

Build a colony where every pawn can have individual work priorities, skills, availability and current assignments. Create mining, construction, hauling, farming, crafting, medical work or your own custom jobs, then let ColonyWork select the best available agent for each task.

The package includes runtime systems, authoring tools, diagnostics, a playable sample and an optional in-game priority interface.

Key Features

• Global task pool for all currently available work.
• Per-pawn work priorities, skills, availability and assignment state.
• Configurable work types, work givers and skill requirements.
• Candidate ranking based on priority, distance, urgency and skill.
• Atomic reservations for objects, item stacks and world cells.
• Protection against multiple pawns taking the same task or resource.
• Data-authored job recipes with conditions, ordered steps and effects.
• Support for mining, hauling, construction, farming, crafting, medical work and custom job types.
• Flexible C# API for creating and controlling tasks from your own gameplay systems.
• Save-state support for colonists, priorities, skills, resources and counters.
• Optional runtime work-priority window.
• Playable colony-management sample scene.
• Editor tools for authoring, balancing, diagnostics and live task inspection.

Smart Task Assignment

ColonyWork evaluates available agents and tasks to find appropriate assignments. It checks enabled work priorities, required skills, reachability, reservations and task validity before assigning work.

Candidates can be ranked using configurable factors such as:

• Work priority
• Distance to the target
• Task urgency
• Required skill level
• Custom scoring logic

When a task requires multiple resources or locations, ColonyWork claims them together. If any reservation cannot be acquired, the system continues searching for another valid task. This prevents duplicate work, resource conflicts and invalid job assignments.

Data-Authored Jobs

Create jobs through data instead of writing a new executor for every interaction. A task recipe can define:

• Eligibility conditions
• Ordered work steps
• Required skills
• Priority and ranking weights
• Effects on start, completion and failure
• Target interaction rules
• Resource output and stockpile support

Built-in effects include particles, sound, floating text, prefab spawning, counters, animation triggers, scale punches, flashes, shakes and UnityEvents. Extend the system by creating your own conditions, steps and effects.

ColonyWork Studio

ColonyWork Studio is a dedicated editor workspace for configuring and maintaining your work system.

Use it to:

• Create new jobs through a guided workflow.
• Manage work types, skills, work givers and databases.
• Build and edit task recipes.
• Browse and test available effects.
• Tune ranking and balancing values.
• Preview task candidates, reservations, agents and scheduler decisions during Play Mode.
• Find missing references, invalid recipes and setup issues with the Health audit.

The Studio helps you build complex work systems without losing control of the underlying data.

Designed for Customisation

ColonyWork is a framework, not a locked gameplay template. Adapt the work types, scoring rules, tasks, UI and presentation to match your project.

Use it with your own:

• Navigation and movement system
• Character animations
• Inventory and resource system
• Building and designation tools
• Needs, mood and health systems
• World map and settlement logic
• Custom UI

Create tasks directly through the API, publish work from scene objects, scan interactables automatically or connect your own world systems through custom work sources and work givers.

Included Sample

The playable Colony Demo demonstrates a functioning work simulation with mining, harvesting, construction, hauling, crafting, medicine, pawn needs, power, settlements, trading and world events. It is designed as a practical reference for integrating ColonyWork into your own project.

Suitable For

ColonyWork is especially suitable for:

• Colony simulations
• Settlement and village builders
• City builders
• Survival and crafting games
• Management simulations
• Automation games
• Strategy games
• RimWorld-inspired projects
• NPC worker and task-assignment systems

ColonyWork gives your project a reliable foundation for worker AI, task scheduling and pawn management while keeping the gameplay rules, visuals and world design fully under your control.