In a pretty distant way this reminds me of Game of Life. People spend real research effort (and brute force computing power) to discover structures with certain

In a pretty distant way this reminds me of Game of Life. People spend real research effort (and brute force computing power) to discover structures with certain capabilities (e.g. glider guns). I think the key is that the new tech to research is not even known by the game creators in advance. Something similar can be seen in machine building games like Besieged.