From a shed lab to the Great Work.
Salmethic is built by one developer at a sustainable pace, and shipped the proven indie way: a polished slice now, expanded in the open through Early Access toward 1.0. No vapourware promises: here's exactly where things stand and where they're going.
The vertical-slice demo
- The full spagyric loop, end to end: grow or buy, dry, macerate, strain, calcine, dissolve, coagulate, ferment, distil, recombine, sell.
- Four spaces: the shed lab, the garden, the cellar, and the office with its computer.
- A real thermodynamic engine driving the operations, with quality grading and lab hazards.
- The in-game phone: eleven apps — Todo guide, notebook, banking, shop, reminders and more.
- A walkable first-person 3D presentation on desktop, plus a streamlined 2D touch presentation on mobile.
- Free in your browser at app.salmethic.com, where the demo lives until Steam Early Access opens.
Polish & wishlist
- Player feedback from the demo folded back in; calibration and balance passes.
- Better mobile support: a touch-native UI pass (free camera, bottom-sheet panels, finger-friendly controls).
- The first proper sound-design pass: original music and the lab's foley (the boil, the drip, the crackle of the fire).
- Commissioned iconography for the in-game items, ingredients and apparatus.
- The Steam page goes live (wishlist opens) with a trailer and store art.
Steam Early Access & the app stores
- The vertical slice in players' hands on Steam, at a fair price, with the demo staying free.
- Official app-store releases for iOS and Android follow the desktop launch: the same simulation in its 2D touch presentation, built to run natively on phones.
- Real feedback and revenue informing the rest of development, the way Stardew, RimWorld and Vintage Story all grew.
- A Kickstarter to fund the full Arc 1 build-out.
The full Arc 1: more of everything
- More locations (a garage, then a basement) and the full operation set.
- More glassware & apparatus, more ingredients and items, and more plants for a bigger garden.
- Recipe discovery & unlocks through the in-game computer: research your way to new preparations.
- The acetate path toward the climax, plus deeper narrative, relationships, and the hidden discovery layer.
- Richer effects and atmosphere everywhere, full sound design, and a guild / community layer to connect with other practitioners.
- Add-ons & extensibility: an extensible foundation for community content, custom recipes and tools.
Philosophic Mercury: the full story
- The full story, start to finish: Arc 1 culminates in reaching philosophic mercury via the acetate path, a real, historically-loaded milestone, graded by how you got there.
- A complete, replayable ~50-hour Arc 1 across semi-annual content releases.
Arc 2: the Stone
- The Great Work continues from philosophic mercury toward the Philosopher's Stone itself, as a sequel or expansion.
- Transmutation arrives; the mundane economy changes.
One game, four arcs.
The full creative vision spans the whole Great Work. Only Arc 1 is in scope for v1, but the foundation is laid so later arcs extend it naturally, never painting the future into a corner.
The Novice
v1 scope. Discover alchemy, build the shed, work the spagyric preparations, reach philosophic mercury.
The Apprentice
Continue to the Philosopher's Stone. Transmutation, and a changed world. Sequel or DLC.
The Adept
The Elixir of Life. Inner work begins blending with outer. Far future.
The Master
Deeper work: inner alchemy, archetypal encounters, different worlds.
Everything that's coming, in one place.
The headline features and content planned from Early Access through 1.0, priced into the demo's promise, shaped by your feedback.
App-store releases
Official iOS & Android builds alongside the Steam launch.
Sound design
Original music and the lab's living foley: the boil, the drip, the fire.
Item iconography
Commissioned icons for every ingredient, item and piece of apparatus.
More glassware & items
A deeper apparatus set and far more to craft with.
Recipe unlocks
Discover and unlock new preparations through the in-game computer.
More plants
A bigger garden and a wider materia to grow and work.
More locations
The garage, the basement, and the spaces beyond.
Guilds & community
A social layer to connect with other practitioners.
Richer effects
More atmosphere and visual polish across every scene.
Better mobile
A touch-native UI built from the ground up for phones.
Add-ons & extensibility
An extensible base (community add-ons, custom recipes and content), so the world keeps growing beyond what ships.
The full story
Arc 1, start to finish, to its quiet climax.
And more
The list grows with the game, guided by Early-Access players.
Why this plan, and why you can trust it.
A 50-hour sandbox does not ship as a first launch; that's the death zone for solo developers. A polished slice followed by Early-Access expansion is how the games this one admires actually got made.
The developer brings a decade-plus of senior engineering and genuine lived experience of the practice depicted, a combination that's rare, and that shows in the writing and the simulation. The commercial target is deliberately modest and quality-first: build the right game, and accept what comes. Your support funds exactly that, and the roadmap above is the receipt.
Come along for the build.
Play the demo, follow the changelog, and watch the Work take shape.