 SpaceChem was released on January 1 , 2011 via digital download from the Zachtronics website for Microsoft Windows , Mac OS X , and Linux computers . They had initially sought to get approval from Valve Corporation to sell the game through Steam , but Valve refused them , and thus opted for sale from their own website . Shortly after its release , the game received several positive reviews including one from Quintin Smith of the gaming website Rock Paper Shotgun . Zachtronics was contacted two days later by Valve Software with an interest to add it to Steam . The game was subsequently made available on Steam by March 4 , 2011 , and later on GamersGate on March 17 , 2011 . The inclusion of the game on Steam was considered by Barth to be the largest boost to sales of the game , outweighing any other distribution method they had . 
