DREADMOOR Early Access: launch time, price, PC requirements and demo saves

DREADMOOR is out. The studio's launch post went up on November 9 at 12:41 UTC, and on November 9 the Steam store listed the game as released rather than coming soon. We checked the store, not the exact second it unlocked.

Before launch, the developer posted a map of unlock times with the October 19 announcement. Eight of the nine cities on it work out to 13:00 UTC on November 9; the London line said 1:00 PM BST, which would be 12:00 UTC, but the UK was back on GMT by November. We've kept the table below for reference.

As of November 9 the studio has posted no patch notes, hotfix or known-issues list for the Early Access build; the launch post covers price, the Supporter Pack and bundles only. We'll add official fixes here as they're posted, labelled by version.

We haven't played the Early Access build yet, so we can't say what changed from the demo.

The launch post confirms US$19.99 with a 10% launch discount; on November 9 the US store showed US$17.99. It doesn't say when the discount ends. Regional prices below are the planned ones from the October 19 announcement, before the discount; your local Steam store shows the final price.

The Supporter Pack is optional, US$4.99 before discounts, and sold as its own Steam item (app 5307520). The launch post says it holds six cosmetic items for your trawler: two dashboard figurines, two flags and two ship wheels. It's cosmetic only.

The studio also set up six Steam bundles that pair DREADMOOR with other fishing or driving games, including Pacific Drive and Voodoo Fishin'.

The studio describes the Early Access build as a complete core loop with one major region. After the story content that's there runs out, the water stays open: you can keep fishing for rare catches and upgrading the trawler.

They expect DREADMOOR to stay in Early Access for roughly 6 to 12 months. The stated priorities are balance (the economy, trawler progression and how risky nights are), stability, performance and polish. They haven't published a content roadmap and say plans will follow feedback.

1. Sail a flooded world and explore abandoned places
2. Fish for a living, including mutated species
3. Upgrade the trawler and your gear for longer trips
4. Scavenge and manage supplies
5. Decide whether to go out at night, when the water is more dangerous

Both store pages list the same processor, memory and graphics card. Both need Windows 10 or later, 64-bit, and DirectX 12. The difference is disk space: the full game asks for 60 GB free, the demo for 20 GB.

The studio said in October that the demo is playable on Steam Deck and that they're improving it for the device, but it had no official Steam Deck Verified rating then. We haven't tried it on a Deck.

On November 9 the full game's store page lists full controller support, including DualShock and DualSense, matching the demo's page (on November 2 the full game listed none). The demo's settings have adaptive trigger and vibration options. We've only played with mouse and keyboard.

Both store pages list Windows only. No console or Mac version has been announced in the posts we read.

There are 12 languages at launch: English, French, Italian, German, Spanish (Spain), Portuguese (Brazil), Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Korean, Polish, Russian and Japanese.

The announcement says voice acting is in English and Russian, with localised text and subtitles for the rest. Steam's language table agrees: full audio is marked for English and Russian only, and every other language has interface and subtitles.

No official post we found up to November 9, including the launch post, says whether demo saves carry into Early Access.

The studio's track record points to a fresh start. In August and September its playtest posts said playtest progress wouldn't be kept for later versions. When the demo came out, they told returning playtesters not to load old saves, which could cause bugs and crashes, and to delete the Saved folder in the game's local files first.

On our PC the demo kept its saves in %LOCALAPPDATA%\Dreadmoor\Saved\SaveGames, not in the install folder. Our walkthroughs cover the demo's opening, which we expect you'll replay in Early Access, though the full game may change it.

The store page warns about horror and disturbing themes, mutated creatures and frightening scenes. It also says you can cut up fish to harvest organs and body parts for crafting lures and gear. It states there's no sexual content or nudity.