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.
- Three spaces: the shed lab, the garden, the cellar — plus the study and its computer.
- A real thermodynamic engine driving every operation, with quality grading and lab hazards.
- The in-game phone: Todo guide, notebook, banking, shop, reminders.
- Native desktop builds for Windows, macOS and Linux — and a touch-and-landscape mobile build in progress.
Polish & wishlist
- Player feedback from the demo folded back in; calibration and balance passes.
- The Steam page goes live — wishlist opens.
- Trailer, store art, and the first proper soundtrack pass.
Steam Early Access launch
- The vertical slice in players' hands, at a fair price, with the demo staying free.
- Real feedback and revenue informing the rest of development — the way Stardew, RimWorld and Vintage Story all grew.
- A possible Kickstarter to fund the full Arc 1 build-out.
The full Arc 1
- More spaces (a garage; eventually a basement) and the full operation set.
- The acetate path — the historical route the game follows toward its climax.
- Deeper narrative, relationships, and the discovery layer for players who go looking.
- The mobile companion: the in-game phone, in sync, on your real phone — with reminders that fire on the device you carry.
Philosophic Mercury
- 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 Apprentice
v1 scope. Discover alchemy, build the shed, work the spagyric preparations, reach philosophic mercury.
The Practitioner
Continue to the Philosopher's Stone. Transmutation, and a changed world. Sequel or DLC.
The Master
The Elixir of Life. Inner work begins blending with outer. Far future.
The Adept
Deeper work — inner alchemy, archetypal encounters, different worlds.
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.