DREADMOOR, the Post-Apocalyptic Fishing Adventure, Hits Steam Early Access November 9

DREADMOOR launches into Steam Early Access on November 9 for $19.99, developer Dream Dock and publisher Digital Vortex Entertainment confirmed in a Wednesday press release. DREADMOOR is an atmospheric first-person fishing adventure game set in a flooded world where skill-based fishing, survival crafting, real-time combat, and exploration through rotting wetlands define your journey across land claimed by sea and decay.

The hook is a slow, atmospheric survival-crafting loop set in a flooded, post-human world. You pilot a rickety trawler through the inky water, skill-check fish with hand-picked lures, and bring each catch back to a bait shop that sits on top of monstrous crab legs. Between runs you repair the hull, upgrade rods, and barter salvage for fancier gear; some fish you catch eat each other if you sort them carelessly. Digital Vortex Entertainment is an independent publisher founded by industry veterans who previously worked on Atomic Heart, Lost Ark, and PUBG: Battlegrounds, and is part of Utmost Games.

DREADMOOR’s Early Access build includes the full storyline and a variety of mutated fish species to discover. Dream Dock is an independent studio based in Kyrgyzstan founded by three former colleagues who left high-paying roles at Playrix, MY.GAMES, Saber Interactive, and Owlcat Games to pursue DREADMOOR as their debut IP. The studio says it plans to stay in Early Access for six to 12 months, with new content rolling out during the period and the lower launch price as the trade-off. A free demo is running as part of Steam Next Fest, and the game has been sitting in Steam’s top 100 most-wishlisted games heading into launch.

Languages out of the gate are wide: English, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, Traditional and Simplified Chinese, Korean, Polish, Russian, and Japanese text. There’s no console version on the release, so this is a PC-only launch window for now. If a flooded, fish-versus-monster survival sim with a tactile fishing system sounds like your kind of weird, the demo is live now and the full version lands in just under four weeks. Horror fans already deep into Phasmophobia’s Crimson Eye Halloween event or the upcoming Amanda the Adventurer movie adaptation will recognize the indie horror crossover crowd DREADMOOR is angling for.

Our read: The 6-12-month Early Access window with a deliberately lower launch price has become the standard survival-sim playbook on Steam, and DREADMOOR has the wishlist ranking to justify it. If the demo sells you, the November 9 launch is the cheapest it’ll ever be. Check the full release calendar for everything else dropping in early November.

Edited by Kerwin Stewart, Editor-in-Chief · How we report