Built by one developer who needed it to exist.
Elysium isn't a startup. It's a tool built by someone who uses it every day—and will keep it alive because they need it.
The Team
Ryan Russell
@tortuga - Founder / Developer
I started developing Elysium in 2025 because I was fed up with all calendar apps not having the functionality I need and set out to make the most extensible productivity app available, community run and own my own data.
Zoro
@bubbledog - Office Beggar
I heard wrapper noise! What are you eating and how much of it are you going to give me?
Why Solo is a Feature
When a solo developer builds something they use every day, they stay accountable to the actual experience. There's no product manager deciding features based on market research. No committee watering down opinions. No investors pushing for growth at the expense of quality.
Elysium is opinionated because I use it. If something frustrates me, I fix it. If a feature would make my workflow better, I build it. That's the entire product process.
For power users who care about their tools, this matters. You're not getting a product designed to appeal to everyone—you're getting a product designed to work exceptionally well for people who take their productivity seriously.
Your Data is Your Insurance
When you use Elysium, your schedule lives in OpenTime files—human-readable YAML that you can open in any text editor. These files sit on your device, in folders you control.
This isn't just a philosophical stance. It's practical insurance. If I get hit by a bus tomorrow, your data doesn't disappear into a defunct cloud service. You can write scripts to process it. You can build your own tools around it. You can move to another app that reads the format.
Being a solo developer means I can't promise I'll be around forever. But I can promise your data will be.
What's Next
Elysium is my daily driver. That means I'm constantly finding things to improve, features to add, and rough edges to smooth. The app will keep evolving because I need it to.
But it's not just about what I need—it's about what you need too. Inside the app, you can vote on the feature roadmap to help prioritize what gets built next. Your voice directly shapes the direction of Elysium.
Elysium is now available on macOS, iOS, and iPadOS—with Windows, Android, and Linux coming soon. The plugin ecosystem is growing. The community is building things I never imagined.
If you want to follow along, join the community or check the changelog. If you want to help shape what comes next, vote on features in the app, build a plugin, or contribute to OpenTime.
More from Black Dog Studios
Elysium isn't our only project. Check out our other tools designed to help you take control.
Ready to try it?
Elysium is free to download and use. All your data stays on your device in OpenTime format.