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Dredge may be one of the best indie games of the year, but it’s definitely no obscure cult classic: the Lovecraftian fishing sim has already sold a million copies since its launch on March 30th. This surprising figure emerged during an interview by Game Developer with members of the team at Black Salt Games during the recent PAX Australia, in which producer Nadia Thorne admitted that 100,000 copies was their goal for the first year — a figure they in fact surpassed within 24 hours of going on sale.
Attracting one million players in half a year is already a basically unheard-of feat for a single-player indie game by a debut developer, made even more impressive by the fact that Dredge is not included with any subscription services like Game Pass or PS Plus.
For the uninitiated, Dredge casts you in the role of the captain of a small fishing boat. After signing up for a new job on a remote archipelago, it quickly becomes apparent that something’s wrong here: the locals are dour and reluctant to discuss just what exactly became of your predecessor, and you’re given a lot of very specific warnings not to be out on the water after dark. The blend of a story of eldritch dread with the gameplay of a fishing sim led to one of the most unique — and surprisingly chill — horror games of 2023.
With Halloween just around the corner and game awards season not much further off, it’s a boon when there’s a game to play that’s new, scary, and accolade-worthy all at once. Dredge has already picked up gongs at the Develop:Star Awards and the New Zealand Game Awards, and is a nominee for this year’s Golden Joystick for Best Indie Game; and news of further nominations over the next few weeks seems extremely likely.
It’s nice to see Black Salt Games getting some good news, since it’s not been a trouble-free few weeks for the team. At the end of September they announced with regret that Dredge’s first story DLC ‘The Iron Ring’ has been delayed from Q4 2023 into an unspecified release window next year, while the game’s publishers Team 17 suffered a shock round of redundancies at the start of this month.
Dredge is available on PC, Nintendo Switch, and both current- and last-gen Xbox and PlayStation consoles.