Salt and Soil: three centuries of an American family, one year per turn

The head of the family dies, and the farm passes to the next generation. The game goes on. No game over, no end screen, just a new person at the head of the household, with their own traits, and a family tree that grows one more branch.

That is the moment Salt and Soil got me. You realise you are not playing a character, you are playing a lineage.

One year per turn

It is turn-based on the scale of a lifetime. Each turn is one year, from 1607 to 1900. You split the family's work between fields, livestock, workshops and trade, weighing what you need to get through winter against what you need to prepare for the future. Every building costs resources, every task needs someone to do it, and there are never enough hands.

Around the farm, the continent moves. Towns grow, borders shift, trade routes change. Wars, migrations, gold rushes and the railroad redraw North America on the map, and your family has to find its place in it. Relations with neighbours and with Indigenous peoples matter, as do tensions and bandits.

The family council

Every year ends with a family council, and it is the emotional core of the game. Farm life and world events lead to very human decisions: who to help, what to give up, what risk to take.

One thing worth knowing, because the studio states it on Steam: part of the text of these councils and their consequences is written during play by generative AI, based on the state of your campaign, within limits set by the game. That is what lets these scenes fit your story rather than loop. It is also what sometimes gives them a slightly generic tone, and I much prefer the hand-written events.

Slow, on purpose

Salt and Soil is a calm game of menus, tables and decisions. Anyone expecting real-time building or battles should look elsewhere. Everyone else will find a rare simulation that makes you feel time passing the way few games manage.

The Early Access launch was due today, but Steam has not finished reviewing the launch build, and it is pushed back a few days. The demo, covering a family's first thirty years near Jamestown, is still available.

How far did you take your family? Tell us about your dynasty on the InsertCoins Discord, the most tangled family trees are the best ones.