Exile Alchemy
A cozy falling-sand factory game: an exiled alchemist digs, sorts and transmutes soil into gold, then builds machines to do it.
Official site jpetree331.itch.io, verified Nov 3, 2026. The developer's own itch.io page (jpetree331), linked from its official AI Browser Game Jam 5 submission page.
Where to play
Every platform this game is on. Links are checked against official sources; we never host or mirror games.
- Play free — itch.ioitch.ioReleasedFree
Plays in the browser on itch.io. No download.
Browser (no download) · Official link verified Nov 3, 2026.
About Exile Alchemy
A cozy falling-sand factory game with no deadlines and no danger. You are an alchemist exiled to a world the Crown calls worthless, with orders to recover gold. Every grain of the world is simulated: you hammer through rustsoil and moonsand, sweep up what falls, and carry it home, while deeper down lie basalt, an ember band, underground springs and the Deep. Rustsoil gives metallic grains (gold, once transmuted) and clay, and moonsand gives luminous crystal; clay becomes ceramic cups, crystal becomes beads, and a cup and a bead make a glow lamp the Crown will buy. Your money is a real pile of gold in your reserve circle. Machines take material in at the top and drop what they make below, so you stack them and let gravity route the factory, with belts, filter conveyors, hoppers, launchers, augers, bucket elevators and pipes for water and quicksilver. Five tiers of royal orders (the Glassworks, the Ironworks, the Embers, the Springs and the Starglass) climb a ladder of light, from wall torches to the Frontier Beacon that ends the game; there is a normal mode and a sandbox mode. The page says the design, code and writing are by Claude Opus 5.5 working in Claude Code, directed by Culurien. Free in the browser on itch.io with keyboard and mouse; progress saves in the browser. It was entered in AI Browser Game Jam 5.
How it was built
Partially verifiedThe itch.io page, under “How it was made (AI usage)”: “Design, code and writing: Claude (Anthropic's Claude Opus 5.5), working in Claude Code: plain JavaScript, HTML and CSS, with no engine and no libraries.” It credits Claude with the falling-sand world, the factory, liquids, the procedural world, saves, and the letters and journal pages. Culurien set the vision, decided every open question and steered each sprint. Work ran in sprints from written plans, each with a build, a verification and a written report, backed by 265 automated tests, a headless test that drives the real interface and a scripted player that plays from a new world to the lit Frontier Beacon.
- DeveloperAI Browser Game Jam 5 submission, AI Tools Used: “Claude OPUS 5.5, Astra from OpenAI and Suno AI”. — itch.io (AI Browser Game Jam 5, hosted by Focaccai)
The machines, the alchemist and the title illustration were painted for the game by Astra, “a second AI agent working in Codex with its image tool”, and animated in code, per the itch.io page. These are images made before release; the page does not credit Codex with code.
Plain JavaScript, HTML and CSS with no engine and no libraries, written by Claude Opus 5.5 in Claude Code in planned sprints, each verified with automated tests (265 of them), a headless interface test and a scripted full playthrough. The game existed as a single-screen opening (digging, separating and the first lamp factory) when the jam opened; the page says that, by the code's own history, about 79% of the game (11,527 of 14,664 lines) was written during the jam. Terrain, materials, lighting and effects are drawn by code at runtime; the machine, character and title art was painted by a second AI agent in Codex. The music is Culurien's own, made with Suno, and every sound effect is synthesized live with Web Audio. The only third-party assets are two fonts (Cormorant Garamond and Source Sans 3) under the SIL Open Font License.
- Engine / framework
- None (vanilla JavaScript)
- Languages
- JavaScript, HTML, CSS
- Team size
- Not disclosed
- Initial build time
- Not disclosed
- Development time
- Not disclosed
- Development cost
- Not disclosed
- AI-written code
- Not disclosed
“Design, code and writing: Claude (Anthropic's Claude Opus 5.5), working in Claude Code”Verification notes: AI use from the “How it was made (AI usage)” section of the itch.io page and the AI Tools Used answer on the official AI Browser Game Jam 5 submission page, both re-read on 5 Nov 2026; the model name is quoted as the page gives it. The page credits Claude with the design, the code and the writing but gives no AI share; the 79% figure is the share of lines written during the jam, not an AI share, so no AI code share is recorded. Suno made the music before release; it ships as music files, not AI running during play. The page names Culurien as the director and composer and says Culurien and her son playtested it; the itch.io account is jpetree331, and the build loads a leaderboard script titled “Culurien's Game Shelf” (game-shelf-dashboard.vercel.app) that records time played and scores. Team size is not stated. The page also describes the building controls as “Sandustry-style”; this is the developer's description. Publication (26 Oct 2026, 21:53 UTC) and last update (28 Oct 2026, 01:34 UTC, devlog “Hold Ctrl, keep building: keyboard fixes”) from the itch.io page. The build makes no calls to AI services (checked 5 Nov 2026). Jam voting was still open on 5 Nov 2026, so no placement is recorded; itch.io shows no public rating. The game was not played.
Development history
AI Browser Game Jam 5 opens; the game existed at that point as a single-screen opening (digging, separating and the first lamp factory), per the itch.io page.
Developeritch.ioPublished on itch.io (21:53 UTC) and submitted to AI Browser Game Jam 5 (theme: Torch).
Update with keyboard fixes (devlog “Hold Ctrl, keep building”), the last update at the time of checking.
Observeditch.ioAI Browser Game Jam 5 submissions close; voting was still in progress on 5 Nov 2026.
Officialitch.io (Focaccai)
Game performance
Each figure measures something different — concurrent players, owners, downloads and sales are never interchangeable and are never added together. Labels show where each number comes from.
itch.io
Free in the browser (HTML5) with keyboard and mouse; the expedition saves in the browser, and the page recommends exporting a copy from Options now and then.
Not publicly available: itch.io rating, Gross revenue.
Reviews & rankings
Not yet reviewed by our editors.
Not currently ranked.
Sources
| Source | Type | Published | Accessed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Exile Alchemy by jpetree331 itch.io | Store page | Oct 26, 2026 | Nov 3, 2026 |
| Rate Exile Alchemy for AI Browser Game Jam 5 itch.io (AI Browser Game Jam 5, hosted by Focaccai) | Official site | Not confirmed | Nov 3, 2026 |
| AI Browser Game Jam 5 itch.io (Focaccai) | Official site | Not confirmed | Nov 3, 2026 |
| Official game page (language check) jpetree331 | Official site | Not confirmed | Nov 3, 2026 |
