Dredge dev says a mechanic that killed NPCs without warning if you let them go hungry lasted for about 3 days after the game's launch before they patched it out, because 'people f*cking hated it'

An image of a hooded figure from Dredge with their fingers interlaced, features obscured by a grim cloak.

Dredge was one of 2023's out-of-left field indie greats—we gave it an 89 in our Dredge review, then later bestowed it with Best Setting award for our Game of the Year shoutouts. It wears that mantle well from what I've seen as a genuinely brilliant bit of bathophobia–inducing atmospheric horror, in which you man a dinky little tugboat on an ocean of lovecraftian terrors.

It also attempted to create a dire, consequence-filled world where you can fail quests by accident. While the air of sea-soaked tension definitely landed for its players, one choice in that vein was so unpopular the devs patched it out in around three days, as revealed in an interview with the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences earlier this week.