The Game Census
The Dream Machine: Chapter 1 & 2 cover art

The Dream Machine: Chapter 1 & 2

Cockroach Inc. · The Sleeping Machine · 2012-05-11

SteamGOG

AdventureCasualIndie

Modes: Single player

Releases: May 11, 2012 (Mac), May 11, 2012 (PC (Microsoft Windows))

The Dream Machine is an award-winning point & click adventure game about exploring other people's dreams. It's built by hand using materials such as clay, cardboard and broccoli.

The Dream Machine: Chapter 1 & 2 is an Adventure, Casual, and Indie game released in 2012, priced at $3.99, with an estimated 200,000 to 500,000 owners and a Very Positive review sentiment (87% of 2244 reviews).

3
playing now
87%
positive of 2.3k reviews
Very Positive
steam's rating (official)
200,000–500,000
owners (SteamSpy est.)
72/100
IGDB user rating (20 ratings)
platinum
deck/linux tier (ProtonDB)
Playable
Steam Deck (Valve)
SteamOS: Playable
$3.99
steam price (US)

3 players in-game as of 2026-10-14 13:00 UTC (census sample)

The Dream Machine is an episodic point-and-click adventure game developed and published by Cockroach Inc. Its main themes are dreams and voyeurism. The game was built by hand, using materials such as clay and cardboard. The Dream Machine consists of six chapters released between December 2010 and May 2017. It was nominated for an Independent Games Festival Visual Excellence award in 2011. The game is available on Windows and Mac OS X.

Health check

Quietly active
  • · 3 players in-game at the last census sample.
  • · 30 reviews in the last 8 weeks (~4/week).
  • · Review velocity up 15% vs the prior 8 weeks.
  • · Top 9% of 28,763 Adventure games in the census by review count.

Health tier since 2026-08-30

Estimated sales: 90k–180k copies

Review-multiple estimate from 2,256 total reviews — how this is computed.

Current store prices

GOG$4.99-75%

Deal snapshots via CheapShark, refreshed daily.

All-time low: $0.79 at Steam (2017-05-08) · bundled 1×via IsThereAnyDeal

12-month high $19.95 · on sale 58 of 64 observed days · $4.20 above the all-time low (census price snapshots)

Review momentum

PositiveNegative
252520182026Week of 2018-01-01: 13 positiveWeek of 2018-01-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2018-02-01: 17 positiveWeek of 2018-02-01: 3 negativeWeek of 2018-03-01: 12 positiveWeek of 2018-03-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2018-04-01: 7 positiveWeek of 2018-04-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2018-05-01: 5 positiveWeek of 2018-05-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2018-06-01: 15 positiveWeek of 2018-06-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2018-07-01: 19 positiveWeek of 2018-07-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2018-08-01: 13 positiveWeek of 2018-09-01: 6 positiveWeek of 2018-09-01: 3 negativeWeek of 2018-10-01: 11 positiveWeek of 2018-10-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2018-11-01: 25 positiveWeek of 2018-11-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2018-12-01: 7 positiveWeek of 2019-01-01: 8 positiveWeek of 2019-01-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2019-02-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2019-03-01: 6 positiveWeek of 2019-04-01: 3 positiveWeek of 2019-04-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2019-05-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2019-05-01: 4 negativeWeek of 2019-06-01: 24 positiveWeek of 2019-06-01: 6 negativeWeek of 2019-07-01: 13 positiveWeek of 2019-07-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2019-08-01: 9 positiveWeek of 2019-08-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2019-09-01: 3 positiveWeek of 2019-09-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2019-10-01: 8 positiveWeek of 2019-10-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2019-11-01: 18 positiveWeek of 2019-12-01: 13 positiveWeek of 2019-12-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2020-01-01: 8 positiveWeek of 2020-01-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2020-02-01: 18 positiveWeek of 2020-03-01: 12 positiveWeek of 2020-03-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2020-04-01: 16 positiveWeek of 2020-05-01: 8 positiveWeek of 2020-05-01: 4 negativeWeek of 2020-06-01: 13 positiveWeek of 2020-06-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2020-07-01: 12 positiveWeek of 2020-07-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2020-08-01: 6 positiveWeek of 2020-08-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2020-09-01: 8 positiveWeek of 2020-10-01: 11 positiveWeek of 2020-10-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2020-11-01: 18 positiveWeek of 2020-11-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2020-12-01: 8 positiveWeek of 2020-12-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2021-01-01: 10 positiveWeek of 2021-01-01: 3 negativeWeek of 2021-02-01: 13 positiveWeek of 2021-03-01: 12 positiveWeek of 2021-03-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2021-04-01: 4 positiveWeek of 2021-05-01: 23 positiveWeek of 2021-05-01: 3 negativeWeek of 2021-06-01: 13 positiveWeek of 2021-06-01: 3 negativeWeek of 2021-07-01: 6 positiveWeek of 2021-07-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2021-08-01: 4 positiveWeek of 2021-08-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2021-09-01: 6 positiveWeek of 2021-09-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2021-10-01: 8 positiveWeek of 2021-11-01: 5 positiveWeek of 2021-11-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2021-12-01: 15 positiveWeek of 2022-01-01: 6 positiveWeek of 2022-02-01: 5 positiveWeek of 2022-03-01: 3 positiveWeek of 2022-03-01: 3 negativeWeek of 2022-04-01: 6 positiveWeek of 2022-04-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2022-05-01: 5 positiveWeek of 2022-05-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2022-06-01: 5 positiveWeek of 2022-06-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2022-07-01: 4 positiveWeek of 2022-08-01: 3 positiveWeek of 2022-08-01: 3 negativeWeek of 2022-09-01: 5 positiveWeek of 2022-10-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2022-10-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2022-11-01: 4 positiveWeek of 2022-11-01: 3 negativeWeek of 2022-12-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2023-01-01: 3 positiveWeek of 2023-02-01: 4 positiveWeek of 2023-03-01: 7 positiveWeek of 2023-03-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2023-04-01: 4 positiveWeek of 2023-04-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2023-05-01: 6 positiveWeek of 2023-06-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2023-07-01: 5 positiveWeek of 2023-07-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2023-08-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2023-09-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2023-09-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2023-10-01: 3 positiveWeek of 2023-10-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2023-11-01: 8 positiveWeek of 2023-12-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2023-12-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2024-02-01: 3 positiveWeek of 2024-03-01: 4 positiveWeek of 2024-04-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2024-05-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2024-06-01: 7 positiveWeek of 2024-07-01: 6 positiveWeek of 2024-07-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2024-08-01: 4 positiveWeek of 2024-09-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2024-10-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2024-11-01: 3 positiveWeek of 2024-12-01: 4 positiveWeek of 2024-12-01: 5 negativeWeek of 2025-01-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2025-01-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2025-02-01: 3 positiveWeek of 2025-02-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2025-03-01: 3 negativeWeek of 2025-04-01: 4 positiveWeek of 2025-04-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2025-05-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2025-05-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2025-06-01: 4 positiveWeek of 2025-07-01: 6 positiveWeek of 2025-07-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2025-08-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2025-09-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2025-09-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2025-10-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2025-11-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2025-12-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2025-12-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2026-01-01: 3 positiveWeek of 2026-01-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2026-02-01: 4 positiveWeek of 2026-03-01: 4 positiveWeek of 2026-03-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2026-04-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2026-05-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2026-06-01: 5 positiveWeek of 2026-06-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2026-07-01: 4 positiveWeek of 2026-07-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2026-08-01: 3 positiveWeek of 2026-08-01: 2 negative
Weekly review counts (Steam review histogram). Positive above the line, negative below.

Players online

1302026-09-14 22:00 — 1 players2026-09-16 07:00 — 0 players2026-09-17 14:00 — 1 players2026-09-18 22:00 — 2 players2026-09-20 05:00 — 2 players2026-09-21 13:00 — 0 players2026-09-22 20:00 — 1 players2026-09-24 04:00 — 2 players2026-09-25 11:00 — 1 players2026-09-26 19:00 — 2 players2026-09-28 02:00 — 2 players2026-09-29 10:00 — 2 players2026-09-30 17:00 — 0 players2026-10-02 01:00 — 0 players2026-10-03 08:00 — 1 players2026-10-04 17:00 — 3 players2026-10-06 00:00 — 13 players2026-10-07 08:00 — 2 players2026-10-08 15:00 — 2 players2026-10-09 23:00 — 1 players2026-10-11 06:00 — 2 players2026-10-12 14:00 — 1 players2026-10-13 21:00 — 1 players2026-10-14 13:00 — 3 players
Concurrent players, hourly average, last 30 days (census samples).
681Jul 2012Jul 2025Jul 2012 — avg 12 · peak 34Nov 2012 — avg 4 · peak 18Mar 2013 — avg 3 · peak 20Jul 2013 — avg 2 · peak 9Nov 2013 — avg 2 · peak 11Mar 2014 — avg 5 · peak 23Jul 2014 — avg 5 · peak 17Nov 2014 — avg 30 · peak 116Mar 2015 — avg 7 · peak 20Jul 2015 — avg 14 · peak 42Nov 2015 — avg 9 · peak 33Mar 2016 — avg 8 · peak 32Jul 2016 — avg 8 · peak 27Nov 2016 — avg 6 · peak 21Mar 2017 — avg 4 · peak 17Jul 2017 — avg 12 · peak 41Nov 2017 — avg 7 · peak 27Mar 2018 — avg 6 · peak 19Jul 2018 — avg 7 · peak 19Nov 2018 — avg 5 · peak 18Mar 2019 — avg 5 · peak 21Jul 2019 — avg 5 · peak 21Nov 2019 — avg 4 · peak 14Mar 2020 — avg 3 · peak 15Jul 2020 — avg 3 · peak 13Nov 2020 — avg 4 · peak 15Mar 2021 — avg 4 · peak 16Jul 2021 — avg 12 · peak 31Nov 2021 — avg 5 · peak 15Mar 2022 — avg 4 · peak 11Jul 2022 — avg 4 · peak 11Nov 2022 — avg 3 · peak 11Mar 2023 — avg 5 · peak 14Jul 2023 — avg 3 · peak 10Nov 2023 — avg 3 · peak 11Mar 2024 — avg 2 · peak 10Jul 2024 — avg 3 · peak 9Dec 2024 — avg 3 · peak 9Jul 2025 — avg 2 · peak 7
Monthly average players (source: steamcharts.com) — history via steamcharts.com; live census sampling since Aug 2026.

Price history

$19.95$0.992015-01-012026-10-142015-01-01 — best price $2.492015-10-29 — best price $2.492016-02-25 — best price $3.992016-08-08 — best price $3.992016-12-12 — best price $3.992017-07-05 — best price $3.992017-11-28 — best price $3.992018-04-09 — best price $3.992018-11-01 — best price $3.992019-02-11 — best price $3.992019-08-26 — best price $0.992019-12-19 — best price $0.992020-03-30 — best price $0.992020-05-20 — best price $2.932020-10-12 — best price $3.992021-02-01 — best price $3.992021-08-09 — best price $3.992021-12-20 — best price $3.992022-05-23 — best price $3.992022-11-01 — best price $3.992023-03-06 — best price $3.992023-07-13 — best price $3.992023-11-28 — best price $3.992024-06-24 — best price $3.992024-12-04 — best price $3.992025-03-20 — best price $3.992025-07-28 — best price $3.992025-12-15 — best price $3.992026-06-15 — best price $3.992026-08-31 — best price $4.992026-09-08 — best price $4.992026-09-16 — best price $4.992026-09-24 — best price $4.992026-10-02 — best price $4.992026-10-10 — best price $4.992026-10-14 — best price $4.99
Lowest recorded price across tracked stores, per day (census snapshots).

Attention

7122026-05-31 — 11 pageviews2026-06-04 — 12 pageviews2026-06-08 — 11 pageviews2026-06-12 — 5 pageviews2026-06-16 — 9 pageviews2026-06-20 — 8 pageviews2026-06-24 — 6 pageviews2026-06-28 — 5 pageviews2026-07-02 — 13 pageviews2026-07-06 — 15 pageviews2026-07-10 — 71 pageviews2026-07-14 — 10 pageviews2026-07-18 — 12 pageviews2026-07-22 — 18 pageviews2026-07-26 — 7 pageviews2026-07-30 — 2 pageviews2026-08-03 — 11 pageviews2026-08-07 — 20 pageviews2026-08-11 — 6 pageviews2026-08-15 — 14 pageviews2026-08-19 — 4 pageviews2026-08-23 — 9 pageviews2026-08-27 — 9 pageviews2026-08-31 — 8 pageviews2026-09-04 — 18 pageviews2026-09-08 — 17 pageviews2026-09-12 — 9 pageviews2026-09-16 — 12 pageviews2026-09-20 — 17 pageviews2026-09-24 — 14 pageviews2026-09-28 — 11 pageviews2026-10-02 — 11 pageviews2026-10-06 — 7 pageviews2026-10-09 — 12 pageviews
Daily Wikipedia pageviews (attention proxy, census-recorded).

Completion

46
achievements tracked
24.4%
earned "Island Life"
7.2%
median achievement earned by

Global achievement rates from Steam.

Details

WindowsSingle-playerSteam AchievementsSteam Trading CardsColor AlternativesCustom Volume ControlsMouse Only OptionNarrated Game MenusPlayable without Timed InputSave AnytimeStereo Sound5 DLC

1 supported languages: English

Post-launch support: 5 DLC released, first 2012-05-11, latest 2021-05-10 (Steam store data)

Where its players are

Share of Steam reviews by language (top languages measured) — a proxy for where the player base lives.

Player tags

2DDarkHorrorPuzzleSurrealAdventureNarrativeHand-drawnStory RichExploration

Census log

Computed from census-recorded observations only — dates are observation dates.

Players also track

Don't Knock TwiceHouse of CaravanMasochisiaRusty Lake HotelUnforeseen IncidentsQuern - Undying ThoughtsRusty Lake: RootsRusty Lake Paradise

Similarity via IGDB.

Wikipedia ↗Official site ↗