Salt Shaker Studio

SAL Is Here, ABX Has a Prototype, and Yes the Logos Look Different

Three things happened. Not all of them are huge. All of them are worth knowing about.

1. SAL: A New App for Learning About Hyponatremia
I decided to create SAL, working title, don't @ me. It's a teaching tool for hyponatremia, one of the most annoying electrolyte disorders in medicine. Study it 100 times and still get confused. Good thing this app generates infinite questions. The app is in early development, but the core concept is the same as ABG: walk you through the logic step by step until it clicks. More updates soon.

2. ABX Alpha Prototype Is a Thing That Exists Now
We've put together an alpha prototype for ABX — the antibiotic decision-making tool — and this one is built in Godot. It is rough. It is very much a prototype. The entire point right now is to get something in front of people and see if the core concept holds up before we build the real thing around it.

3. Logos Got Updated
The SSS and ABX logos have been updated. They look better now. I forgot to add "SAL" to the SAL logo... oops.

ABG Prototype Is Live: You Can Now Break It From Your Phone

The ABG prototype is officially deployed to saltshakerstudio.net/abg. No app store. No "enable unknown sources" deep in your Android settings. Just a link. Click it. It works on your phone. We're living in the future, bro.

1. What's Actually There Right Now
The prototype has the core ABG interpreter engine, the random case generator, and the foundational and beginner teaching modes. It is not finished. It is not polished. There are almost certainly bugs. That is the point. If you wait until something is perfect to share it, you will be sharing it never.

2. Why Web Instead of a Native App
Short answer: because deploying a Flutter web build to GitHub Pages takes one terminal command and zero App Store review cycles. Long answer: same as the short answer. Native builds are coming, but getting the core learning experience in front of real residents now is more useful than spending two weeks fighting Xcode provisioning profiles.

3. What I Actually Want From You
Use it. Break it. Tell me what feels wrong. Specifically: does the stepwise logic make sense the way a real attending would walk you through it? Are the cases realistic? Is there a disorder pattern you keep seeing on rounds that the generator never seems to produce? Yell at my on twitter or email - links at the bottom of the page.

4. What's Next
Planning to add a pro mode for you giga-chads out there that dont need no tutoring so you can practice solving ABGs without any help. At some point will also add a leaderboard so you can be a gunner secretly. Don't pretend you wouldn't want to flex on the OTHER medical school in your area.

Go break something: saltshakerstudio.net/abg

ABG Tutor Update: Because "Vibes" is Not a Valid Acid-Base Diagnosis

I've just pushed a massive update to the ABG Tutor. My goal was simple: make every case feel less like a guessing game and more like a clinical reasoning script—basically, a digital version of your attending staring at you until you remember Winter's formula.

1. Hand-Holding for Simple Disorders
I've built dedicated, stepwise flows for all seven "simple" patterns. Instead of just hitting "reveal" and seeing a diagnosis you don't understand, the Tutor now walks you through a 5-step scaffold. It'll nudge you through pH, primary processes, and the "acute vs. chronic" bicarbonate hint until you reach the right answer. It's like training wheels, but for people who carry pagers.

2. Mixed Disorders (The "Where Am I?" Phase)
Mixed metabolic and respiratory issues are usually where the panic sets in. I've added structured 6-step paths that force you to actually use the formulas. The Catch: For things like Winter's formula, I'm giving you numeric multiple-choice options without showing the equation. You actually have to know it. (I know, I'm a monster.)

3. Triple Disorders: Now With Actual Logic
The triple-disorder engine used to be a bit... "random-ish." You might have seen an explanation for HAGMA + Met Alk while the numbers were clearly screaming NAGMA. I've rewritten the logic from the ground up. The generator now picks a logical pattern first, then forces the math to obey the laws of physics. Whether it's Delta-Gaps or expected PCO₂, the numbers will actually make sense now.

4. The New 7-Step Triple-Disorder Flow
Triple cases are now a full 7-step journey through: anion gap status, the Delta-Gap interpretation (the "hidden" stuff), Winter's formula (the math stuff), and the final, glorious, multi-hyphenated diagnosis. Everything is computed dynamically, so the explanation will finally match the numbers on your screen. No more gaslighting from the software.

New Website Launch!

Welcome to the new Salt Shaker Studio website! We've gone full retro with a modern functional design. This site will be our home for development updates, game announcements, and behind-the-scenes looks at how we build medical education games.

Stay tuned for regular dev updates as we continue building ABG, ABX, and GAS.

ABG Alpha Build Progress

We've completed the core blood gas parser engine and the random ABG generator engine; as well as foundational and beginner modes. We are now building out the stepwise teaching mode. After that the plan is to move forward with either a more advanced teaching mode and then expert mode.

Should I add a leaderboard so you can mog your classmates? Let me know!

Welcome to Salt Shaker Studio!

Arman here. I'm thrilled to officially launch Salt Shaker Studio. As a medical educator, I've seen firsthand how traditional medical education can fall short. Lets be real, nobody likes to learn by being read a PowerPoint presentation by someone who didn't even make it! My mission is to create engaging, interactive games and apps that make learning medicine genuinely fun and actually effective so you don't waste your precious time. Theres a reason it's easy to remember the names of 151 Pokemon but hard to remember the functions of 151 antibiotics!!