After DREDGE: New Zealand's Black Salt Games Splits in Two
The creators of the eldritch fishing hit have closed the book on DREDGE, opened a second studio in Christchurch and started work on a dark open-world RPG. What we know about both projects, and why it is not DREDGE 2.
Some games scare you with monsters. DREDGE scared players with a fishing rod. You chug around a foggy archipelago in a small trawler, haul up fish, sell them in port and try very hard to get home before dark, because after dark the sea starts showing you things.
That simple, creepy loop turned a tiny team in New Zealand into one of the most admired indie studios in the world. Now Black Salt Games is moving on. The studio has confirmed that development on DREDGE is finished, that its next game is not DREDGE 2, and that it has opened a second studio, Disc 2 Games, in the same building in Christchurch.
The end of the voyage
DREDGE launched on Steam on 30 March 2023, published by Team17, and quickly became one of that year's most acclaimed indies, collecting several international awards. Black Salt kept supporting it with paid expansions, including The Pale Reach and The Iron Rig, plus the Blackstone Key add-on.
The Iron Rig was the last one. In a social media post, the studio said that with the team focused on its next journey, development of DREDGE had officially wrapped up. CEO and producer Nadia Thorne explained that the team had taken the game as far as it could technically, especially while still supporting players on previous-generation consoles.
Black Salt's next game
Black Salt itself is in pre-production on its second game. Details are under wraps, but the studio has described it as an open-world RPG in a brand new, dark setting. It promises to keep the qualities that made DREDGE special, atmosphere, intrigue and surprising mechanics, in a different world.
Pre-production means the very early stage, when ideas are tested before full development begins. ScreenHub suggested that the game is probably several years away, so this is one to file under "long-term excitement".
Meet Disc 2 Games
The bigger surprise is Disc 2 Games, a sibling studio co-founded by Nadia Thorne with technical director Kris Nicholson and creative director Johannes Otte. Both studios share a building and what they call creative DNA, but they run independently, and Thorne produces games for both.
According to the team, it combines several ideas and opens with a bright, stylish and fun look that hides a gritty world where players rebel against the forces around them. The studio's identity draws on bright colours and 1990s retro style, a sharp contrast with DREDGE's gloomy sea.
The genre has not been confirmed. Pocket Tactics noted that the announcement promises the game will be "dropping in", and wondered whether that hints at something like a battle royale or a skating game, but that is speculation, not a confirmed detail.
Where to play DREDGE now
- Platforms: PC and Mac on Steam, Nintendo Switch and other consoles.
- Expansions: The Pale Reach, The Iron Rig and Blackstone Key.
- Popularity: more than 47,000 user reviews on Steam.
If you have never played it, DREDGE is the perfect autumn game: fishing, map-filling and gentle dread in equal measure. If you have finished it, the Iron Rig expansion is the final word.
Why it matters
New Zealand is not the first country most players associate with games, but DREDGE showed that a small team far from the industry's usual hubs can make something the whole world plays. Black Salt is now doing what successful indies rarely manage: growing without losing focus, by splitting into two small teams rather than one big one.
WGC's take: two new games from the DREDGE team, one dark and one bright, is the best kind of uncertainty. We will be watching Christchurch closely.