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Under the Elm
Inherit your grandmother's cabin and the woods she loved. Forage real mushrooms, brew the recipes she perfected, fill the field guide she left unfinished, and tend to the villagers she took care of for 40 years. A cozy game about coming home.

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Features
Languages:
Interface Full Audio Subtitles
English ✔

Coming Soon To Early Access

The developers of this game intend to release as a work in progress, developing with the feedback of players.

Note: Games in Early Access are not complete and may or may not change further. If you are not excited to play this game in its current state, then you should wait to see if the game progresses further in development. Learn more

What the developers have to say:

Why Early Access?

“Under the Elm is a small, quiet game by a solo developer. The world is here, the gameplay loop works, and the story has an ending. What I want to add over the months ahead is the polish, breadth, and balance that come from hundreds of players walking through it.

I chose Early Access because I'd rather build this game with you than for you. I push updates nearly every day, and I read every feedback message that comes in through the in-game form. The version you load up six months from now will be richer than the one you start with today — new content, smoother systems, fewer rough edges — and the things players write back to me genuinely shape what gets fixed and built next.

If you'd rather wait for the 1.0 version, that's completely fair. Early Access is for the players who want a hand in what this game becomes. Either way, thanks for being here.”

Approximately how long will this game be in Early Access?

“As long as it takes to get the game fully polished. I'm hoping no more than a few months, but the first players and their feedback will help shape how far we are from launch.”

How is the full version planned to differ from the Early Access version?

“The Early Access version ships with the full world, all core systems, and a complete story arc. The 1.0 version will add the polish, breadth, and depth that come from months of player feedback.

Planned additions before 1.0:
- Hand-drawn botanical illustrations for all 70+ species in the field guide (currently shown as "Coming Soon" placeholders inside the press frame).
- Seasonal festivals with their own visuals, NPC behaviors, and limited-time recipes.
- Expanded cabin upgrades — additional rooms and customization options for grandma's home.
- Quality-of-life improvements driven by playtest feedback — UI polish, tutorial refinement, balance tuning.
- Localization — additional languages depending on community demand.

A DLC expansion is planned for after 1.0, adding the Sporelings companion system and a hidden Fae Realm biome — both already partially in development behind a feature flag.”

What is the current state of the Early Access version?

“The world is real and the core gameplay loop is here, but I'm still actively building, balancing, and polishing. The map may feel a bit sparse. Things might wobble. A station might behave oddly, a quest might trip on an edge case, an NPC might say the wrong thing at the wrong moment. ”

Will the game be priced differently during and after Early Access?

“Yes, we plan to launch at a slightly higher price point once the world has the breadth and polish it deserves. ”

How are you planning on involving the Community in your development process?

“Community feedback is the reason this game is in Early Access at all. A few specific ways I plan to stay close to players:

- In-game feedback form (Esc → Feedback) emails me directly with the player's save file attached. I read every one. This is the primary feedback channel — no friction, no account, no forum sign-up.
- Near-daily updates during Early Access. Bug fixes ship within days of being reported when possible. Larger features land on a slower cadence with patch notes.
- Devlog updates on Bluesky and the Steam Community Hub — what I'm working on, what just shipped, what players are asking for.
- Open patch notes — every update has a public changelog so you can see exactly what changed and why.
- Player-suggested features get tracked publicly. When a request from feedback shapes a real change, I'll credit it in patch notes (anonymously by default — testers can opt in to public credit).
- Direct response. Solo dev means I can answer DMs and Discussions threads personally. AAA studios can't promise this. I can.”
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About This Game

Your grandmother left her cabin to you.

She left a basket by the door, a field guide to document what you'd find, and ten villagers who still expect her tinctures on a regular basis. She left a hearth grown cold, a library behind the wall, and an attic full of thoughts she never got to share. Most importantly, she left you the woods.

Forage the forest she walked.

Eight biomes each with its own season-by-season cast of 38 mushroom species drawn from real foraging traditions (and a handful that aren't quite real). Spring chanterelles. Summer chicken of the woods. Autumn porcini. Winter velvet shanks. Even dangerous lookalikes mimicking the safe varieties. Find them all. Identify what you can with the Field Guide and have Fern help you with the ones you can't. Catalog everything in Grandma's Field Guide: the pages that fill in, one species at a time, as you explore the world she left behind.

Brew the recipes she perfected.

96 tinctures built from four preparation techniques: cold infusion, alcohol distillation, fermentation, and hot water decoction. Each method draws out different properties of the same mushroom. Every recipe was hers first, written in margin notes and half-remembered conversations. You'll find them all in time: some by reading, some by listening

to villagers who knew her.

Restore what she loved.

The hearth, the cellar, the library, the attic, the greenhouse: all hers, all closed up the day she stopped being able to manage them alone. Restoring each one opens a piece of who she was. Each brings a new system: storage, illustration, cultivation and less spoilage.

Tend who she took care of.

Ten villagers, each with their own stories, their own requests, and their own memories of your grandmother. Bram at the inn carries a grief he speaks of sideways. Aldric needs help with his fields. Elara studies the stars and asks for things grandma would have known to bring. Build relationships with each of them one heart at a time. Bring what they need. Listen when they're ready to tell you why.

Hear what she heard.

The Wood Wide Web is real. Eight Mother Trees scattered across the woods remember her, and remember things she never wrote down. Bring them tribute and they'll speak. Bring them enough and they'll grant you a Golden Mushroom: six in all, scattered across the biomes she walked. Find all six and who knows where you'll end up.

What this game is:

A game you can play for an evening or for a season. A cabin you'll come home to. Letters that arrive at the right time. A grandmother who shows up everywhere: in the recipes, the mushrooms, even the way the villagers say your name.

Slow days. Quiet evenings. Nothing chasing you.

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*Under the Elm is a solo project from Crooked Stone Studios made by Christina Shackford with care, slowness, and a deep love for the woods.

System Requirements

    Minimum:
    • OS: Windows 10 (64-bit, version 1803 or later)
    • Processor: Dual-core 2.0 GHz (Intel Core i3 / AMD equivalent)
    • Memory: 4 GB RAM
    • Graphics: Integrated GPU with WebGL 2.0 support (Intel HD 4000 or newer, ~2012+)
    • Storage: 200 MB available space
    • Sound Card: Any compatible sound device
    Recommended:
    • OS: Windows 10/11 64-bit
    • Processor: Quad-core 2.5 GHz (Intel Core i5 / AMD Ryzen 3)
    • Memory: 8 GB RAM
    • Graphics: Integrated Intel Iris Xe / AMD Vega 8 / dedicated GPU
    • Storage: 500 MB available space
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