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Salvage of the Demetria playtest
by Matt Zellman
A thousand-year-old library is coming out of the desert one find at a time. How you pull a piece free decides how much survives—tear a corner off and the writing on it is gone for good. Dig by hand, forge your own tools, and decide what to sell, preserve, or conceal.
Anyone with a Steam account can join, and it's free.
- Access
- Instant
- On playtest since
- Sep 3, 2026
- Planned release
- Coming soon
- Developer
- Matt Zellman
- Platforms
- Windows
- Players
- Single-player
- Languages
- English
How to join the Salvage of the Demetria playtest
- Open the game's Steam page with the Join playtest button. Sign in to Steam if it asks.
- Use the Salvage of the Demetria playtest signup there. You're in straight away, with nothing to pay.
- The playtest shows up in your Steam library, ready to install and play.
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How AI is used
The game includes pre-generated generative-AI content in player-facing placeholder assets: the current musical score was created with musicgen.app, and six posture icons plus the application icon derived from them were created with ChatGPT. AI tools also assisted development, but the game does not generate content during play or send player input to an external generative-AI service.
The developer's own words, from Steam.
About Salvage of the Demetria
A buried library, one find at a time
A thousand years ago, the generation ship Demetria came down from the stars. Its Library lies beneath Juglantis now, pressed into wreckage and sand. A town has grown around the breach: a forge, traders, Customs, and patrons who know a recovered page can be worth more than the metal wrapped around it.
The church, empire, guilds, and collectors all want what survives the shelves. They do not agree on who should keep it.
Damage lands exactly where you caused it
Clear bulk rubble, then work each find free by hand. Every cut, strike, and pull acts on the part you touch. Tear off a corner and the writing there is gone. Crack a seal and the evidence it carried may disappear with it. Fast work saves time; careful work saves the record.
How you stand changes what your hands mean
Posture is part of the verb. The same movement can inspect, force, negotiate, or work with care depending on how you approach it. People answer posture too, sometimes with a tell they did not mean to show.
The forge has no recipe list
Shape tools from metal, stone, wood, and whatever the dig gives back. Their geometry determines what they become and how they meet the ground. Build for the layer in front of you, not a menu slot.
Decide who gets the record
Examine what you recover. Learn where it came from, what survived, and who would pay to control it. Sell it, preserve it, or conceal it. Each handoff updates the custody record and can change patron standing or Customs heat.
From the game's Steam page.
