In it's earliest form, the game was a practice problem: making a text-based adventure game to practice using HTML. I created a game with four choices, taking the viewer to either a clearing, a stone, a bridge, or a campfire. To test the end scenarios of the game, I wrote a couple lines of text that I duplicated across all the losing scenarios of the game. If you chose the wrong path, you would be killed by a mysterious man who seemed to be everywhere at once.

Coming back to the project after a short hiatus, I was struck by the image of a recurring antagonist, one who was everywhere and could only be avoided by care and timing.

SALTUS grew from there.