Flixel (2008-11) Saltsman produced an
open-source game development library for
Adobe Flash called Flixel. Saltsman discussed the use of Flixel as a medium for new developers, and used it to develop
Canabalt. The video game development tool
Stencyl makes use of the Flixel framework.
Gravity Hook (2008) Saltsman developed the browser game
Gravity Hook in August 2008, which is a
vertically scrolling video game in which the player attempts to use a futuristic grappling hook to climb out of an underground, secret base in order to reach the surface. The game was remade into
Gravity Hook HD for browser and
iOS in 2010.
Canabalt (2009) Saltsman developed the
endless runner Canabalt in 2009, where an anonymous runner moves in one direction and is able to jump and slide upon landing.
Boing Boing described the game as a "one-button action-opus". It was made in response to Experimental Gameplay's "Bare Minimum" challenge. The game's viral success was a surprise to him, and he later felt like he squandered the opportunity and audience. When asked in an interview where he imagined the running man coming from, Saltsman stated "I used to have fantasies at my old office job of running down our long, long hallway just for fun. And to literally escape. I'd forgotten about that until months after Canabalt came out. There used to be an intro cinematic that I was designing, where the character receives an email, but it was all getting in the way of the main thing". Saltsman presented the game design concept of "Time Until Death" at the 2011
IndieCade.
Hundreds (2013) Saltsman began to collaborate with
Greg Wohlwend on
Hundreds. The game was Wohlwend's first as game designer, and he open sourced the game after online game sites showed no interest in purchasing it. Semi Secret's Eric Johnson found the code and made an
iPad port in a weekend, beginning the collaboration. Semi Secret did not have the funds to begin a new game from scratch, so the project fit their company roadmap. Saltsman did not expect to work on the game himself, but became the primary puzzle designer.
Hundreds was released on January 7, 2013 for
iPhone and iPad, and on June 28 for
Android to what video game review score aggregator
Metacritic called "generally favorable" reviews. It was an honorable mention in Best Mobile Game and Nuovo Award categories of the 2012
Game Developers Conference Independent Games Festival, and an honorable mention in Excellence in Visual Art at the 2013 festival.
Hundreds was also an official selection at
IndieCade 2012. In January 2013, Saltsman was working on an Android release of the game.
Alphabet (2013) Saltsman collaborated with
Keita Takahashi on the title
Alphabet (stylized A͈L͈P͈H͈A͈B͈E͈T͈) which was developed for the launch of
LA Game Space in 2012. The experimental game was first displayed to the public by Juegos Rancheros on April 5, 2013 and was released to backers of the LA/GS
Kickstarter that September. Since 2018 the title has been available for free from
The Internet Archive.
Finji In March 2014, Saltsman re-announced Finji, a game studio based in
Grand Rapids, Michigan that had existed since 2006 but was relaunched. Saltsman directs the studio, and his wife, Rebekah, produces and does game design. The company develops games internally and produces others. They announced four titles with the relaunch. The first,
Portico, is in collaboration with
Alec Holowka of
Aquaria and was renamed from
Grave. It is a 2D turn-based tactical survival game first announced in mid-2011. Players use traps to stop incoming monsters from entering a sacred gate. Finji distributed
Night in the Woods, a
Kickstarter-funded project by Scott Benson and Holowka. They also sell Saltsman's survival game
Capsule (in collaboration with Robin Arnott). They also announced
Overland, a "turn-based tactical survival game" in development with Shay Pierce of Deep Plaid Games, which Saltsman privately displayed during the 2014
Game Developers Conference. Finji has also published
Tunic, developed by Andrew Shouldice and
Chicory: A Colorful Tale. In June 2014,
Polytron announced that it would be co-publishing the "interactive musical landscape anthology" game
Panoramical with Finji. The company does not have plans to
crowdfund future games. According to a 2024
The Blade article Finji generally takes a 20 percent return on each game it produces which is 10% lower than the industry average. In 2023 Finji along with a few other indie game studios were involved in an
amicus brief in support of the
proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard by Microsoft amid an appeal of a lawsuit filed by the FTC attempting to prevent the acquisition. Finji's next title,
Usual Jane, was announced at The Game Awards in December 2023. The game is scheduled for release in 2025, and is being released in collaboration with
SweetBaby Inc.. In 2025 the company began hosting one-on-one mentorship sessions at a coffeeshop in
Grand Rapids, Michigan. In February 2026 the company accused
TikTok of using
Generative AI to produce unathorized "racist and sexist" ads of its games.
Games published The following is a table of games published by Finji.
Cancelled == References ==