Volstead

Co-op smuggling sandbox ยท 1 to 4 players

Run a bootleg empire with your friends.

Brew it, bottle it, and haul it by truck, boat and plane before the revenue men catch you. Volstead is set on a fictional Great Lakes archipelago where Prohibition never ended.

Wishlist on Epic Games Store See how it plays
  • Windows PC
  • Epic and Steam crossplay
  • Controller support
  • Early Access
Volstead icon: a stenciled amber crate afloat on low-poly waves under a searchlight beam Early Access

One lap, six jobs

A lap takes a few minutes of mixed work. Planning at the base is calm. The run is where patrols, rivals, weather and spoilage hit, so that is the tense part. Selling and upgrading raise your heat, which makes the next run harder.

  1. BrewRun the still, tune recipes and manage ingredients and quality.
  2. BottleFill, label and crate the goods, and track orders in the ledger.
  3. LoadPack the boat, truck or plane for the most profit.
  4. RunDodge patrols and rivals while weather and spoilage work against you.
  5. SellDemand moves by town. Flood a market and prices drop, festivals spike them.
  6. UpgradeBigger vehicles and deeper recipes, each with a cost or a risk.

Three ways to move cargo

Weather decides which one is safest, so the best route keeps changing.

Trucks

Roads and winter ice. Trucks are your best bet in fall and winter, and a gamble on spring ice, with thin-ice zones that shift each week.

Pickup to heavy truck

Boats

Open water. Summer is the season for boats, and also for peak patrol activity and busy shipping lanes.

Rowboat to speedboat to cargo launch

Floatplanes

Over everything. Spring is the aircraft season, but fog and storms in fall ground planes and hide hazards on the water. Helicopters are planned for the first post-launch update.

Floatplane to cargo plane

Season ledger
SeasonBest vehicleMain danger
SpringAircraftIce breakup makes ice roads deadly and boats risk floe damage.
SummerBoatsPeak patrol activity and busy shipping lanes.
FallTrucksFog and storms ground aircraft and hide hazards on water.
WinterTrucks on iceCold wear on engines and thin-ice zones that shift each week.

Four jobs, one crew

Roles are stations, not locked classes. Any player can use any station, and busy crews naturally split into four jobs.

Distiller

Runs the still, tunes recipes, and manages ingredients and quality.

Quartermaster

Bottles, labels and crates the goods, packs the boat, and keeps the ledger.

Captain

Drives or flies the truck, boat or plane, and reads the weather and terrain.

Lookout

Watches for patrols, signals, handles repairs underway and runs decoys.

Playing alone? Hire NPC hands for the stations you are not using. They work slower and make mistakes, so a friend is always better, but solo is never a punishment.

One lobby, any store

Volstead supports up to four players, with crossplay between Epic Games Store and Steam.

  • Create a lobby and share a six-character join code, or invite friends from the Epic or Steam overlay.
  • Everyone's character appears in the lobby before the run starts.
  • The host picks a save or starts a new one, and the whole crew travels into the same world together.
  • Progress is kept per player in the host's save, so you pick up where you left off.
  • World pressure scales with crew size, so two players and four players both feel challenged.
  • Full controller support, or keyboard and mouse.

Example join code

K7QX4M

Example lobby

  • Captain Host
  • Distiller Epic
  • Lookout Steam
  • Open slot Waiting

Every success draws attention

Every unlock opens a door and adds a cost or a risk, so the game never settles into a solved state. A lost cargo or a seized truck hurts but never wipes your save, so your crew can recover and keep going.

Revenue patrols
Boats on water, checkpoints on roads and spotter planes in the air. They grow with the volume you move.
Rival crews
They raid your stash, undercut prices and ambush your favorite routes.
Market shifts
Demand moves by town, and flooding a market drops prices.
Weather and seasons
Storms ground aircraft, fog hides boats and ice limits trucks.
Spoilage and wear
Quality drops in transit, and vehicles need fuel and repairs.
Overhead
Wages, bribes, rent and fuel drain your cash between runs.

Footage

The trailer and screenshots are on the way. Wishlist Volstead to hear first.

Grab your crew

Volstead launches in Early Access so updates can carry the never-finished promise. Helicopters are planned for the first post-launch update.

Wishlist on Epic Games Store