Jar of Gnomes
An incremental colony game in an allotment garden: hundreds of gnomlings pick and merge fruit, and when the run slows down you make jam.
Links go to the official store or developer page. Last verified Nov 5, 2026.
Where to play
Every platform this game is on. Links are checked against official sources; we never host or mirror games.
- View demo on SteamSteamDemo · Free demo since 4 Nov 2026; Early Access planned for 24 Nov 2026Free
Download through the Steam app. A free Steam account is required.
Desktop · Steam
- View demo on itch.ioitch.ioDemo · Browser test build; itch.io status: In developmentFree
Plays in the browser on itch.io. No download.
Browser (no download) · Official link verified Nov 3, 2026.
About Jar of Gnomes
An incremental colony game set in an allotment garden. A crowd of tiny gnomlings harvests the garden for you: berry bushes sprout on their own, you pick the first berries by hand, and the gnomlings soon carry the fruit to a magic cauldron, where two matching fruits merge into the next better one, from redcurrants through blueberries up to a giant pumpkin, across 15 varieties in four qualities on a 6 × 6 cauldron. You buy gnomlings and upgrades in the six buildings of the Allotment Row, feed compost to the best bushes, and later get giants who carry almost five times as much and gnomlings who fling fruit into the cauldron, some of it merging in midair. A run never ends on its own; when it slows down, you make jam, the harvest becomes jam jars and Mr Krause mows the lawn. Jars are kept and spent in the Gnome Village under the compost heap, a web of 41 nodes in five workshops that can be rearranged between runs, and every jar ever earned adds 10% to the harvest. The game has 17 Steam achievements, full controller support built for Steam Deck, calm-effects options and cloud saves, in English and German. The solo developer says Claude wrote the code and the game and store texts from the developer's specifications and checks and helped design the gnomes; all graphics are drawn by code from vector shapes, the sounds are synthesized by code and the music is by Kevin MacLeod, with no AI at play time. A free demo covering about the first hour has been on Steam for Windows since 4 Nov 2026, with saves that carry over; Early Access is planned for 24 Nov 2026, and a browser test build is on itch.io.
Screenshots and art
Jar of Gnomes key art · Steam store artwork
How it was built
Partially verifiedThe developer's Reddit post: “I'm a solo dev. The idea, the design, the balancing and the playtesting are mine. Claude (an AI) wrote the code and the texts based on what I asked for and checked, and helped me design the gnomes.” The Steam AI disclosure says the same in German: Claude (Anthropic) was used as a tool for the program code and the game and store texts, which the developer specified and checked, and for designing the gnomes. All graphics are drawn by code from vector shapes at start-up and the sound effects are synthesized by code; there are no image generators, AI voices or AI music, and nothing is generated by AI during play. No model is named.
- DeveloperSteam AI disclosure (German): “Claude (Anthropic) habe ich als Werkzeug eingesetzt: für den Programmcode und für die Spiel- und Shoptexte, die ich vorgegeben und geprüft habe, und beim Entwurf der Wichtel.” — Steam
- DeveloperDeveloper's site, About: “The code, art and text are made with the AI tool Claude.” — Bartpirat Games
The solo developer came up with the idea, the design and the balance and did the playtesting, while Claude wrote the code and the game and store texts to the developer's specifications, which the developer checked, and helped design the gnomes. All graphics, including the gnomes, are drawn by code from vector shapes when the game starts, and the sounds are synthesized by code. The music is by Kevin MacLeod (CC BY 4.0) and the crickets are a CC0 recording. No AI runs in the game. The engine is not stated; the browser test build is a JavaScript bundle (observed).
- Engine / framework
- Not disclosed
- Languages
- Not disclosed
- Team size
- 1 (solo)Developer ReportedReddit (r/WebGames, u/Dramatic-Dust-9413)
- Development time
- Not disclosed
- Development cost
- Not disclosed
- AI-written code
- Not disclosed
“Claude (an AI) wrote the code and the texts based on what I asked for and checked, and helped me design the gnomes.”Verification notes: AI use from the developer's r/WebGames post of 30 Oct 2026 (“Dev here”, linking the itch.io page), the Steam AI disclosure (written in German) and the About section of the developer's site, all re-read on 5 Nov 2026; the in-game credits of the browser build also read “Written with Claude (Anthropic), directed and checked by {autor}” (observed). The sources say Claude wrote the code but give no percentage, so no AI code share is recorded. Gameplay and features from the Steam description; the planned date (24 Nov 2026), Windows platform, English and German, the Early Access genre and the categories from the Steam store API, and the demo's release date (4 Nov 2026) and contents from the demo app (5515530). The Steam API lists no price; the developer's site gives $4.99 for Early Access, which is not recorded as the listing price. The itch.io test build was published on 13 Oct 2026, 17:56 UTC, and updated on 30 Oct 2026, 20:03 UTC; its AI disclosure ticks Code, Graphics and Text. The developer introduces themselves only as Franz on the site; no location is given. The browser build was checked for calls to AI services and none were found. The store page showed no user reviews on 5 Nov 2026. We did not play the game.
Development history
A browser test build is published on itch.io (17:56 UTC).
Observeditch.ioThe developer's site announces Early Access on Steam for 24 Nov 2026.
DeveloperBartpirat GamesThe developer posts the game on r/WebGames with an AI disclosure.
A free demo is released on Steam for Windows.
OfficialSteamPlanned start of Early Access on Steam.
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.
Steam
Applies to the demo (Steam app 5515530), which covers about the first hour; saves carry over to the full game. The Steam store API lists no price for the full game (checked with cc=us on 5 Nov 2026); the developer's site gives $4.99 for Early Access. Windows; built for Steam Deck.
Not publicly available: Concurrent players, Positive Steam reviews, Estimated owners, Copies sold, Gross revenue.
itch.io
Free browser test build (HTML5) with mouse, keyboard or controller; progress stays in the browser and does not carry over to the Steam version.
No public metrics recorded for this listing.
Not publicly available: itch.io rating, Downloads, Gross revenue.
Reviews & rankings
Not yet reviewed by our editors.
Not currently ranked.
Sources
| Source | Type | Published | Accessed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jar of Gnomes on Steam (store page incl. AI Generated Content Disclosure) Steam · de | Store page | Not confirmed | Nov 3, 2026 |
| Jar of Gnomes Demo on Steam (store API entry) Steam | Store page | Not confirmed | Nov 3, 2026 |
| Jar of Gnomes by bartpirat games itch.io | Store page | Oct 13, 2026 | Nov 3, 2026 |
| Jar of Gnomes: an incremental where gnomes pick berries and you make jam (free demo) Reddit (r/WebGames, u/Dramatic-Dust-9413) | Social post | Oct 30, 2026 | Nov 3, 2026 |
| Bartpirat Games (official site: Jar of Gnomes page and About) Bartpirat Games | Official site | Not confirmed | Nov 3, 2026 |
