The dead refinery at dusk across the lake, chained shut for years.

The Long
Refinement

Bring a dead town back to life.

A pixel-art life sim. You lost your job, your apartment and your last dollar on New Year's Eve. One bus ride later, an old mayor sells you a house for $1, in a lakeside town that a dead oil refinery poisoned and the world forgot.

▶ Watch the tech demo Wishlist on Steam Coming soon Follow on YouTube
A town the world forgot

Bring it back, one piece at a time

The refinery that built this town has been chained shut for years. The lake is black with tar, Main Street is boarded up, and the people who stayed are tired of watching everyone else leave.

Pick up the cans and clear the weeds. Scrape the tar off the beach. Grow sunflowers to pull the poison out of your land until it's dark, rich soil again. Fix up the empty houses and watch new families move in. Reopen the shops, the library and the Lantern, the town's bar, and finally bring the refinery itself back online, unit by unit, and clean this time.

The town changes as you do. Boarded windows get glass. The lake turns blue. People stop talking about leaving.

Main Street restored: the flower shop, the Lantern and the library open, people on the sidewalk.
Drag to compare

Before & after

The same places, the day you arrive and once you've brought them back. Every picture is straight from the game.

Before: boarded storefronts and rubble on Main Street. After: Main Street restored. BeforeAfter

Tip: drag the gold handle, or use the arrow keys.

New every week

Watch the tech demo

The game is in active development, and every week there's a new one-minute tech demo showing what got built. Here's week 1.

All tech demos on YouTube Watch the Short
What you'll do

A whole town to fix

Watering rows of sunflowers on the farm.

Heal the land

Farm the poison out of your homestead with sunflowers, then grow crops through all four seasons.

The Mayor at the reopening of Pulaski Park.

The people who stayed

Everyone has their own days, places and troubles, and their stories unfold as you get to know them.

A turn-based fight: a super brace against a tar slug.

Timed fights

Turn-based battles with timed hits, braces and badges. Nail the last frame for a super brace.

Reeling in a fish on the river.

Fish, dig, collect

Fish the river and the clearing lake, dig up artifacts and dinosaur bones, and fill the museum.

The woods in fall, red and gold.

Four seasons

Spring geese, summer fireflies, fall leaves you can kick up, and snow days that close the school.

The whole town gathered on the plaza for Thanksgiving.

A town again

Reopen the church and the holidays come back: Easter, Thanksgiving, Christmas and fireworks at New Year's.

The Finest Jay's avatar: the player in front of the refinery.
Follow the build

Made by The Finest Jay

A new tech demo and a Short every week, straight from the game. Subscribe on YouTube to watch the town come back to life, and wishlist on Steam to hear the moment it's out.

▶ Subscribe on YouTube Wishlist on Steam Coming soon
Press & creators

Fact sheet

GameThe Long Refinement
DeveloperThe Finest Jay
GenrePixel-art life sim
PlatformPC (Windows)
StoreSteam, coming soon
StatusIn development

The Long Refinement is a cozy life sim about bringing a dead refinery town back to life: tar on the lake, boards on the shops, and the people who never left. Clean it, rebuild it, farm the poison out of the land, and watch the town change around you, with timed turn-based fights for the things that crawled out of the mine.