History

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History icon.png History This page is intended for the telling of stories of players' history in Salem! Feel free to add your story (but keep personal insults out of the retelling).

The History of Salem's Development

In the beginning, there was nothing but a dream and the two Swedish developers who made up the studio Seatribe. Having achieved a fair deal of niche popularity with their title, Haven and Hearth, they partnered with the equally Swedish publisher, Paradox Interactive, to begin a new project known as Salem: the Game. At that time, the primary vision of Salem was functionally very similar to Haven and Hearth: an ever-changing world, MMO, open concept, crafting sim featuring perma-death. But, while Haven centered around Scandinavian folklore, Salem's emphasis was on early colonialism, the titular Salem witch trials, and various gothic and fantasy emphases (elements from Lovecraft, Poe, Hawthorne, and more).

Salem's development began in 2010 and was announced in January of 2011. By August of 2012, the game's community migrated away from the Paradox Forums and received its own website complete with cash-shop for the beta. This was followed by over a year of very active development and marketing on the part of Seatribe and Paradox. On June 5, 2013, Paradox posted on the Salem Forums that it would no longer be participating in the management of the title, citing costs and wanting to give Seatribe the creative space it needs to develop and mature the game's concept. This was followed by a dramatic lull in development. Then, in February of 2014, it was announced by Jorb that there would be a wipe of the existing servers (gameplay and server numbers are rumored to have been at an all-time low since the start of development by this point) and the birth of a new server, Providence. The release of Providence has, by many, been cited as the downfall of Seatribe's development tenure. It featured a lackluster content that seemed to upset a great majority of the player base more than it inspired confidence in future development. Several months passed without much content, where it was eventually announced that Seatribe would be halting development of Salem in order to work on a redevelopment of Haven and Hearth "2" (which would go on to become the current "Have and Hearth" with the original being dubbed "Legacy Haven and Hearth").

On June 5, 2014, it was announced by JohnCarver on the forums that a new development company, Mortal Moments, had procured Paradox's "interest" in Salem, with the new company shouldering all development and creative responsibilities formerly held by Seatribe, and would continue development with Seatribe's "full consent, approval, and guidance." This was followed a day later with a post by Jorb, who confirmed the change. Sometime later others joined the team or were introduced, including Communit Manager TotalyMeow, Creative Director MarpTarpton, and others.

From 2014 to 2018, JohnCarver created a host of changes and new systems at a feverish pace. Providence, it was decided, would be a permanent server, with less PVP elements, in favor of new "expedition" servers (Popham, which launched in June of 2015 and Concord, which launched in December of 2017). Citing work/life balance, JohnCarver was unable to maintain his commitment to development and the game sat largely dormant, receiving minimum care for the next three years. In June of 2021, MarpTarpton assumed the role of Lead Developer and continues to work closely with Loftar to create content for the game.

Current Developer: Unknown Item icon.png MarpTarpton (Mortal Moments) [with emphasized support from Loftar]

Past Developers: Unknown Item icon.png Jorb (Seatribe) Unknown Item icon.png Loftar (Seatribe) Unknown Item icon.png JohnCarver (Mortal Moments)

Secondary staff or named development assistants include:

nafastus (Paradox)

TotalyMoo (Paradox)

SusanaPDX (Paradox)

TotalyMeow (Mortal Moments)

Elbert Lim (Mortal Moments)

Alexandra Menshikova (Mortal Moments)

Benny Affonso (Mortal Moments)

Arthur Reeves (Mortal Moments)

Chris Sharpes (Mortal Moments)

Lusewing (Mortal Moments)


Tales from the Crypt - You and your Salem

Please share your Salem Ingame History!