Ember Forge

Ember Forge

A cross-platform incremental crafting & smelting idle game

You inherit a crumbling furnace and a pile of raw stone. From that humble start, you'll mine ore, discover alloys, queue smelting jobs, and slowly build a fully automated forge-town — until your first Ember Crystal ignites and everything resets… stronger than before.

The Loop

Start by clicking stone and coal. Buy your first pickaxe. Smelt iron. Unlock bronze, then steel, then mythril. Automate production with mines, workshops, and furnaces. Research upgrades to speed everything up. Eventually condense Ember Crystals, ascend, and begin again with permanent bonuses.

mine → smelt → craft → automate → ascend → repeat

Features

• Deep resource progression — from Stone and Coal to Steel, Machine Parts, Mythril, and Ember Crystals
• Automated buildings — Pickaxes, Mines, Bellows Workshops, Auto-Furnaces, Mythril Drills, and more
• Smelting queue system — run multiple recipes simultaneously
• Dedicated Crucibles — auto-repeat smelting slots that run forever
• 20+ research upgrades — boost production, unlock content, and expand capacity
• Repeatable shop perks — stackable bonuses for each run
• Prestige & Ascension — earn Essence and buy permanent Eternal Upgrades
• Random events — merchants, cave-ins, ember pulses, and rare rewards
• Achievements — track long-term milestones
• Offline progress — up to 8 hours of idle production
• Multiple save slots — autosave with human-readable files
• Cross-platform — Linux and Windows builds available
• Built from scratch in C + SDL2 (no engine)

Progression at a Glance

Early
Click mining, first pickaxes, coal production

Mid
Iron & copper smelting, bronze alloys, automation

Late
Steel processing, machine parts, large-scale production

Endgame
Mythril extraction, Ember Crystal condensation

Prestige Loop
Ascend, gain Essence, unlock permanent bonuses

Prestige & Eternal Upgrades

Ascend after creating Ember Crystals to gain Essence. Spend it on permanent upgrades that carry across every run:

• Eternal Miner — start each run with a free Pickaxe
• Ember Memory — keep 10% of coins on ascend
• Forge Mastery — permanent smelting speed bonus
• Ancient Veins — permanent ore production boost
• Twin Furnaces — start with a free Auto-Furnace

Unspent Essence also boosts production, mining, gathering, and smelting every run.

Technical

Built from scratch in C using SDL2.
No game engine — just a custom UI, deterministic simulation, and a 60 FPS loop.

Runs natively on Linux and Windows.

GitHub
https://github.com/RootOfCode/Ember-Forge