Dredge, a fishing simulator with an eldritch horror twist, has officially passed the one million sales mark this week—blowing apart Kiwi developer Black Salt Games’ expectations for the title’s release.
It’s a very substantial mark for the New Zealand-based team who said, in an Oct. 7 interview with Game Developer at PAX Australia, that their initial hopes were to sell 100,000 copies in their first year—a goal they would reach in a single day.
The first expansion pack for Dredge will launch in mid-November, titled The Pale Reach. The expansion will add an ice field biome for players to explore, with some surprise scares along the way. All in all, the expansion is set to add a further one to three hours to a playthrough according to the DLC’s Steam page.
The title has also been nominated alongside a myriad of big names for Best Indie Game at the Golden Joysticks, alongside the likes of Dave the Diver, Viewfinder, and Sea of Stars.
Hopefully, the success of the base game and its expansion will open up the studio to make more expansions or a new game entirely. Dredge is a delightfully “chill” game with tons of mysteries and terrors to unlock and lots of space to explore. As you continue to push further and further into Dredge, the fish and other sea creatures you encounter become decidedly Lovecraftian.
Dredge has several inspirations. While those uninitiated may think it’s just scary Sea of Thieves, it’s more adjacent to Papers, Please—an impending sense of dread at a task that cannot be healthy for the main character is unfolding, and you’re tasked with making sure it goes right. The Pale Reach expansion will run you just $5.99 USD.
If you’re looking for something spooky this October, but not too terribly spooky, Dredge might be right for you. Despite some of the more existential settings and themes, the fishing aspect of the game is a genuinely enjoyable and calming experience. Sure, sea monsters can attack you, and if you stay out too late at night your character begins hallucinating, but the game strikes a good balance between a little scary while having an enjoyable gameplay loop.
In other words, the gameplay isn’t jump scares—there’s an actually great game here, it just happens to scare you at times.
