A lively seaside town where you run a restaurant, cast a fishing line off the dock, tend your garden, and — when the dinner rush is over — challenge your friends to a water gun fight: that is Pao Pao, the cozy co-op life sim from Moldovan indie studio ArtDock, which will enter Steam Early Access on October 26, 2026. A free demo is already playable on Steam for anyone who wants to try it before the launch date.

The game supports one to four players in online co-op, blending restaurant management, farming, fishing, open-world exploration, and home decoration into a single, unhurried package. It is published by Dreland Enterprises alongside developer ArtDock.

The studio behind Pao Pao has a story as distinctive as the game itself. ArtDock founder and CEO Dimitr Gibinski started his company in Ukraine. Then, at 4 a.m. on February 23, 2022, explosions near Kyiv airport jolted him awake where he lived. He gathered the essentials and left. After waiting in Poland to see whether the war would end, Gibinski relocated to Chisinau, Moldova, where he rebuilt ArtDock from scratch.

ArtDock: A Studio Born from War

The 47-person multinational development team is made up of Ukrainians, Belarusians, Moldovans, and Russians — a group united by game development. “We don’t just make games. We create art that speaks, excites and lasts,” Gibinski told Moldova’s Innovation Technology Park (MITP), whose preferential tax framework for tech companies helped stabilize the studio’s finances.

ArtDock has already shipped two games — SOS OPS, which drew 150,000 players after its cooperative action launch in November 2023, and Penguin Helper, a 3D adventure title. Pao Pao is its most ambitious release to date and has attracted international recognition before reaching Early Access.

What the Award Credentials Mean

At the Nordic Game 2025 conference in Malmo, Sweden — one of Europe’s premier game industry events — all conference participants were invited to play the games on display and vote for their favorite. Pao Pao won Nordic Game’s People’s Choice Award, with Gibinski accepting it on stage in May 2025.

“People’s Choice Award perfectly represents our initial intention to create a game people will love to play!” Gibinski said in a post-win interview with Nordic Game.

In August 2025, at ChinaJoy in Shanghai — the largest gaming event in Asia, drawing more than 300,000 visitors annually — Pao Pao was named ChinaJoy’s most notable title, with organizers giving it the event’s top award. The game has since accumulated over 100,000 Steam wishlists.

Cooking, Fishing, and Friendly Chaos — All in One Town

Pao Pao sets players in a single seaside town with a full day-night cycle, dynamic weather, and changing seasons. The premise is appealingly low-stakes: you are not saving the world, solving a mystery, or competing on a leaderboard. You are building a life — specifically, building a restaurant while fitting in everything else a day by the sea has to offer.

The restaurant side of things starts modest: a small kitchen, a bare menu, a handful of hungry customers. Over time, players can expand the kitchen layout, build out their menu, and grow the dining room from a few tables to a packed house. In co-op mode with up to four players, the kitchen loop becomes the cozy-game equivalent of Overcooked — the kind of cheerful chaos where burning a dish or botching an order is funny rather than frustrating, because the stakes are yours to set.

Outside the restaurant, a full town waits. Players can tend crops, fish, befriend NPCs who offer quests and deals, and gather resources in the forest. When the day’s work is done, the game opens up to something rarer in the genre: genuine unstructured play. Race boats. Hit up the arcade. Shoot your friends with water guns. The mix of domestic routine and spontaneous silliness is what the developers describe as the game’s core appeal — and what Gibinski calls the studio’s underlying philosophy: “Instead of searching for the enemies people should concentrate on making new friends and enjoying every single day together,” he said in his interview after the Nordic Game award.

Character and home customization are woven throughout. Players can change their character’s look on the fly and decorate house, restaurant, and yard with a mix-and-match furniture system that the developers say can produce everything from a snug minimalist cottage to an over-the-top restaurant fit for royalty.

What Early Access Includes — and What Comes Later

ArtDock has been transparent about the scope of the October 26 launch. The full core loop on day one — restaurant management, farming, fishing, exploration, and online co-op for up to four players — will be playable from the start, along with character and location customization and the main progression systems.

What the studio plans to build out during the Early Access period, which it estimates will last roughly six to twelve months, includes: expanded character progression, more customization options, additional town areas and activities, deeper cooking, fishing, and gardening mechanics, more NPC interactions, and seasonal events. Player feedback gathered through Steam’s Community Hub, in-game tools, and the studio’s Discord server will shape what the team prioritizes.

Notably, ArtDock has stated that the price stays the same at launch when Pao Pao moves from Early Access to full release. For Early Access buyers, that means no penalty for getting in early.

Can Your PC Handle It?

Pao Pao‘s minimum system requirements are modest, keeping the game accessible to a wide range of PC setups:

• OS: Windows 10/11 (64-bit)
• Processor: Intel Core i3-10100
• Memory: 4 GB RAM
• Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050
• DirectX: Version 11
• Storage: 2 GB

The recommended configuration replaces the i3 with an Intel Core i5-12400 and the GTX 1050 with an RTX 3060 and bumps RAM to 8 GB. A 2 GB storage footprint is notably compact for a co-op life sim with a full open-world town, suggesting efficient asset management or streaming.

The game launches in English plus 12 additional languages: French, German, Spanish, Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese, Korean, Russian, Japanese, Portuguese (Brazil), Polish, Turkish, and Ukrainian.

How to Try It Before Launch

A free playable demo — listed separately on Steam as Pao Pao Demo (App ID 3498580) — is available now for hands-on play for anyone who wants to experience the restaurant loop, the town exploration, and the co-op mode before committing to the Early Access launch. The Steam page also accepts wishlists, which triggers an automatic notification when Pao Pao goes live on October 26.

Frequently Asked Questions

When does Pao Pao launch on Steam Early Access?

Pao Pao is scheduled to enter Steam Early Access on October 26, 2026. The launch date was confirmed on the game’s Steam store page, developed by ArtDock and published by Dreland Enterprises.

Does Pao Pao have co-op multiplayer?

Yes. Pao Pao supports online co-op for one to four players, meaning you can run the restaurant, explore the town, farm, fish, and engage in activities like boat racing and water gun fights alongside up to three friends simultaneously.

What is included in Pao Pao’s Early Access version versus the planned full release?

The Early Access version includes the full core gameplay loop: restaurant management, farming, fishing, town exploration, and four-player online co-op. Character and location customization and progression systems are also available from day one. During the estimated six-to-twelve-month Early Access period, ArtDock plans to add expanded character progression, additional town areas and activities, deeper cooking and fishing mechanics, more NPC interactions, and seasonal events. The developers have stated the price will not increase at full launch.

Can I try Pao Pao before it officially launches?

Yes. A free demo is currently available on Steam and provides hands-on access to the game’s restaurant management loop, co-op mode, and town exploration before the October 26 Early Access launch.