Graveyard Keeper 2 Demo

The demo is a free, separate download rather than a trial attached to the paid game. On PC it has its own Steam page.

It launched simultaneously on Steam, Xbox, PlayStation and Nintendo Switch and Switch 2, so there is no platform waiting for access.

It went live on September 14, 2026, eight days ahead of the full release on September 22.

The developers describe it as roughly 3–4 hours of adventure, from your first steps all the way to the introduction of The Town.

Within that scope you get crafting, scavenging, graveyard digging and decorating, and even a first experience of leading an army to protect The Town.

In other words, it is a proper slice of the game's opening loop rather than a scripted showcase level.

The single most important detail: the demo save file carries over to the main game when it launches.

That makes the demo effectively the first few hours of your real playthrough, which changes how you should approach it — building and layout decisions matter.

The transfer works within the same platform ecosystem, so play the demo where you plan to buy.

The demo's Steam page shows a Very Positive rating, with 88% of 526 user reviews favourable at the time of writing.

That reception is one of the clearest signals available before launch, since full-game reviews were still rolling in during the same week.

Media coverage of the demo release ran alongside a gameplay trailer published the same day.

The demo stops as The Town is introduced, so rebuilding the city district by district sits outside it.

Later tech tree unlocks are also out of scope. Some materials players go looking for simply require technology the demo never reaches, which is why they cannot be crafted yet.

The full combat layer — weekly street battles, sewers, barricades, towers and armed squads — belongs to the retail release.

Because progress persists, spend demo time on things that compound: clear trash piles and broken barrels for Bronze Nails, Bronze Scrap and Boards, and get your first workbenches up.

Follow the main story to the locked hatch under your house and speak to the Plague Doctor — that is how the first zombie workers enter your save.

Keep an eye on insanity while you do it, and sleep when the ZZZ icon appears rather than grinding through exhaustion.

The opening puts you in the Keeper's role with a talking skull companion — who the developers confirm is not Gerry from the first game.

Early work is graveyard work: receiving bodies, processing them and burying them, with corpse quality scored as white skulls minus red.

Around that sits the crafting loop: clearing yard junk, cutting wood, and putting up your first benches.

Energy and insanity both matter from the first hour, and Berry Pie from the Kitchen Oven is the portable fix for the latter.

Tech points are earned from ordinary labour, and spending them is what reveals recipes — stockpiling materials never does.

Wood processing is the first unlock worth buying, since planks and wood feed almost every early build.

Pottery comes next because it opens fishing, which is the first real step up in food quality.

Metallurgy is where fuel and bronze live, and it is the branch that stops the early production stall.

Everything in the demo is the real game's opening rather than a separate build, which is why the save continues.

What is missing is scale: the Town rebuild, the full tech tree and the weekly battle loop are all past its end point.

The developers describe a campaign in which you eventually put a little over 4,000 zombies to rest.

Against that, three to four hours is a small sample — but an honest one.

Since it is free on every platform and the progress persists, there is no cost to trying it beyond time.

It is also the most reliable way to judge how the game runs on your specific console before paying.

If you do buy, the pre-order discount takes the price from $24.99 to $19.99 and adds a Sauna building and an outfit.

Just play it on the platform you intend to buy on, because saves do not cross ecosystems.

The basement questline is reachable before the demo ends, which means your first two zombie workers are too.

Follow the story to the locked hatch in your house, clear the junk and speak to the Plague Doctor below.

Build the Zombie Supplier Station to assign them, and equip each one with a tool first — a zombie with 0 Work Mastery does nothing.

An early axe grants +2 Mastery, which is enough to make some jobs assignable.

The demo is free, but the full game is $24.99 with a 20% pre-order discount bringing it to $19.99.

Pre-ordering adds a Sauna building and an outfit that varies by platform, both granted automatically.

There is no early access tier, season pass or code to redeem.

So the only real decision the demo leaves you is whether to pre-order before September 22 or buy afterwards.