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We've Expanded the Core Keeper OST

In celebration of World Music Day yesterday, we uploaded the latest version of the Core Keeper soundtrack to our YouTube channel. This includes all the existing music from our Early Access launch, all the new tracks composed for the Sunken Sea Biome, and new music for the Dirt Biome, The Forgotten Ruins, The Clay Caves, Azeos’ Wilderness, and The Mold Dungeon. Listen to the most up-to-date version of the OST below…

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

We’ve been working with talented video-game composer, Jonathan Geer – who has previously worked on titles such as Owl Boy, Neon Chrome, and Undead Horde – to create a unique and enchanting soundtrack for Core Keeper. Our Early Access launch boasted 13 original songs, and this has expanded even more with The Sunken Sea update, giving you 21 individual tracks to enjoy as you explore the underground. You can find a full list of these tracks at the bottom of this post.

[h2]An Interview with Jonathan Geer[/h2]

We spoke to Jonathan to get an idea of his inspirations and processes when creating the Core Keeper soundtrack, and this is what he had to say!

What were your main inspirations when crafting the music for Core Keeper?

Well, when Sven approached me and I met the rest of the team, they were all huge fans of the music I had written for Owlboy; and that was really the reason that they got in touch with me about creating a soundtrack for Core Keeper.

So that was a starting point, but obviously the music for Core Keeper would have to be pretty different. The team really wanted that lush, organic sound of Owlboy though, and that has been a guiding principle for the soundtrack. We didn't want anything overly synthetic or artificial sounding.

Apart from that, I didn't have too many specific inspirations while composing the music. Though I have to say, for the "Living Walls" track, I definitely had this one little riff from Castlevania's "Vampire Killer" going through my head when I wrote the groovy section at the beginning. I'm sure that seeped into the music a bit!

What has your favourite track been to compose so far?

Oh gosh, I don't know...I've had such a blast working on all this music, so it's really hard to say, and I'm always terrible at picking favorites or ranking things, haha! I'd say maybe "Light Traveling" from the Nature Biome just because I feel like it has a bit of a different sound from the rest of the soundtrack.

It's very guitar heavy, and that was fun to do, but to me, it also feels much more open and spacious than the other tracks. I had been really focused on keeping this "underground" vibe for the music, and I just let it open up more with "Light Traveling". It really feels like you could be going above ground and riding your horse through the plains and forests, exploring the natural world. Maybe that's just what nature does to you? It opens you up.

Is there a biome that you particularly enjoyed crafting the music for?

Are you asking me to pick favorites again? Don't make me do it!! I might say the Nature Biome, for a lot of the same reasons I listed in the last question. It felt good to have that more open, adventurous feeling in the music. It's also been really fun to create the new music for the Sunken Sea biome. It's so hard to choose!!

What challenges have you faced when creating the soundtrack for Core Keeper?

Honestly, I think the biggest challenge was just honing in on the sound at the very beginning of our whole process working together. Sven and the rest of the team have been great to work with and helped me find the sound after experimenting with a few different ideas. Sometimes you can hit on a sound that works right away and, other times, it takes a bit of experimenting and back and forth. It did take me some time to find the right vibe, but once I found it, we were off and running, and it's been pretty smooth sailing since then!

Was there anything you specifically wanted to accomplish with the Sunken Sea tracks? Were you trying to craft a specific sound or invoke a certain feeling when designing them?

I definitely wanted this biome to have a different feel than the others. I wanted something a little more ethereal and mysterious, but obviously it still needed to fit within the soundtrack as a whole. I think you can hear that different mood immediately in the beginning of "Glowing Waters" with those elongated swelling chords.

I also introduce a choral element into both of the tracks, so that becomes a defining trait of the music for this biome. At first, I was looking at using a Theremin to play some of the melodies, but a whistling sample ended up working beautifully, and I really like it as a unique sound for the Sunken Sea. It gives you that mysteriousness of the Theremin without going too sci-fi and over the top.

[h2]Core Keeper Tracklist:[/h2]

#1 Echo of the Past: Main Menu
#2 Curiosity: Intro
#3 Mysteries Uncovered: Dirt Biome 1
#4 Ancient Blue: Dirt Biome 2
#5 Light from Above: Dirt Biome 3
#6 Unlit Caves: Dirt Biome 4
#7 Notes from the Underground: Dirt Biome 5
#8 Uncanny: Clay Caves 1
#9 Creeping & Crawling: Clay Caves 2
#10 Living Walls: Clay Caves 3
#11 Exploring Ruins: Forgotten Ruins 1
#12 Cavelings: Forgotten Ruins 2
#13 Simple Lives: Forgotten Ruins 3
#14 Thriving Habitat: Azeos’ Wilderness 1
#15 My Growing Home: Azeos’ Wilderness 2
#16 Light Traveling: Azeos’ Wilderness 3
#17 Infection: Mold Sub-Biome
#18 Glowing Waters: The Sunken Sea 1
#19 Statues by the Sea: The Sunken Sea 2
#20 Forlorn Metropolis: Forlorn Metropolis Sub-Biome
#21 Colossal Predators: Boss 1

We hope you’re enjoying our soundtrack so far, and we’d love to know which tracks are your favourites! You can let us know by commenting on this post, by tagging us in a post on Twitter, or directly in the official Core Keeper Discord server.

Core Keeper's first major update The Sunken Sea is out now

An absolute gem of a game this and now perhaps a good time to go back and spend some proper time with it, as the rather large The Sunken Sea update is out now.

Read the full article here: https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2022/06/core-keepers-first-major-update-the-sunken-sea-is-out-now

Hotfix Patch - 0.4.1

  • Fixed Merchant inventory being able to be picked up by Robot Arms.
  • Fixed an issue causing some worlds to crash on startup.
  • Fixed an issue where empty loot would sometimes float around showing only its shadow.

Introducing Core Keeper’s First Major Update: The Sunken Sea Update!

We’re delighted to announce that our first major update, The Sunken Sea Biome, has just launched! We hope you’ll join us in celebrating this exciting milestone following our Early Access launch in March. After defeating our first three bosses, you'll be able to lower the mysterious wall that separates you and The Sunken Sea Biome, and we can’t wait to watch you uncover all the secrets this ocean-based biome has hidden away.



[h2]What Can You Expect from the Sunken Sea Biome?[/h2]

You might recall we shared our Sunken Sea roadmap a little while ago, and you’ll be pleased to know that everything featured there and more is now available in game! We’ve had a lot of community excitement over the prospect of Teleporters and Sprinklers, and these were two features we’ve been looking forward to showing off for a while now. Players can also look forward to new plants, fish, ore, base-building items, and enemies; including a brand-new Titan boss to battle.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Of course, we’ve been teasing some of the Sunken Sea Biome’s enemies and items on our social media channels, and it didn’t take you very long to spot things like boats and Blue Slime hiding away in our screenshots. We can’t wait for you to stumble upon a powerful Core Sentry golem and run into this biome’s native Cavelings all while experiencing a brand new Sunken Sea soundtrack created by the talented Jonathan Geer.



There’s plenty for you to uncover, and we won’t reveal all the new content here so that you’ve got a chance to discover it for yourselves. If you would like a full breakdown of what we have been working on for the Sunken Sea Update, then check out the patch notes here!

As always, we love to hear your thoughts, feedback, and opinions on Core Keeper, and we welcome you to let us know what you think of the Sunken Sea Biome in the Steam Discussions, on Twitter, or in the Discord. Bearing in mind that Core Keeper is still in Early Access, we also encourage you to report any bugs you encounter here!

Core Keeper - Patch Notes - 0.4.0

NEW FEATURES


[h2]Main Features[/h2]
  • New biome: Sunken Sea.
  • New sub-biome in the Sunken Sea: Forlorn Metropolis.


[h2]New NPCs[/h2]
  • Omoroth the Sea Titan (titan boss).
  • Morpha the Aquatic Mass (side boss).
  • 5 New enemies: Bubble Crab, Slippery Slime Blob, Tentacle, Caveling Scholar, Core Sentry.
  • New Fishing Merchant found in Azeos' Wilderness.
  • New mushroom-like enemy that spawns in the Dirt Biome and from Fungal Growth (Fungal Growth will only generate in worlds created after the update).


[h2]New Mechanics[/h2]
  • Octarine workbench with new tools, crafting, and base building options.
  • Boats.
  • Portals that can be crafted and placed in the world to teleport between.
  • New Jewelry workbench allowing players to craft new jewelry.
  • A Table Saw can be crafted at the Electronics Table that allows players to cut wood into planks.
  • Added a Fishing Merchant Idol to Azeos' loot drops that allows the Fishing Merchant to move into the player's base.
  • Sprinklers that can be crafted at the Automation Table.
  • Vanity slots. A Dresser can be crafted at the Carpenter Bench in which players can change what equipment is visually shown on their character.
  • Bait Workbench for crafting baits.
  • Map markers that can be placed on the map.
  • Players can now eat food, drink potions, place objects, and fight while in a minecart or a boat.
  • Added Fungal Growth that appears in the Dirt Biome. Fungal Growth allows Mushrooms to grow and Mushroom enemies to appear. Fungal Growth can also drop from Slime Blobs and the new Mushroom Enemy. Please note that Fungal Growth will be available as a drop from Slime Blobs in all worlds, however it will only spawn in the Dirt Biome and it will only allow Mushroom Enemies to appear in worlds generated after the Sunken Sea Update.
  • Added different types of Caveling Moss that appear in the Stone, Nature, and Ancient City Ruins biomes (appears in newly explored areas). Similar to Ground Slime and Chrysalis, this new Caveling Moss will spawn different types of Cavelings. The moss can also drop from Cavelings.


[h2]New Items[/h2]
  • Octarine Ore.
  • 10 new weapons.
  • 7 new offhands.
  • 20 rings and necklaces.
  • 24 new armour pieces.
  • 20+ new decorative objects.
  • 3 new plants.
  • 2 new types of food.
  • 5 new fishes.
  • New valuables.
  • New legendary ranged weapon.
  • Baits that can be held in the off-hand slot while fishing for different bonuses.
  • New fishing equipment set that can be gained from fishing in the different biomes.
  • Added a Wood Bow that can drop in Dirt Biome, an Iron Bow that can be crafted at the Iron Anvil, and a new Octarine Bow.


[h2]Additional Content[/h2]
  • New unique locations in the Sunken Sea Biome.
  • A new Dash Feather has replaced the Hand Mortar in Azeos' loot table.
  • The Iron Chunk Necklace sold by one of the Merchants has been replaced with a mysterious slate device that becomes available after activating The Core.



[h2]Additional Localisation[/h2]
  • New supported languages: Japanese, German, and Korean.


[h2]Menu and Settings[/h2]
  • Added a particles quality setting.
  • The “low” light quality setting also disables shadows on several objects to slightly improve performance.
  • The language of the game will default to the language set in Steam instead of the device language. This will cause the current selected language to change for any players that have a different language set in Steam on first start up of the game with this patch.
  • When the game loads, select the third option down. On this new screen, the top option cycles through languages.



GAMEPLAY CHANGES


[h2]Balancing Improvements[/h2]
  • Bosses are now guaranteed to always drop at least one piece of equipment or weapon.
  • The Cartography Table and Distillery Table costs planks instead of wood.
  • Increased chance for chests to appear in Mold sub-biome and increased the rewards from those chests. This only applies to newly generated sub-biomes.
  • Damage caused by players' titan soul powers such as the thunder beams now scales with player damage.
  • Doubled the amount of ores in Ore Boulders making them last for twice as long.
  • Increased chance for higher rarity fishes to bite.
  • Increased damage of all range weapons a bit.
  • Slight increase of Slingshot attack speed and Slingshot now has uncommon rarity.
  • Increased the burning damage from Fireball Staff.
  • Burning effects tick a bit more frequently but last for a slightly shorter duration.
  • Soul Orbs' despawn time has been halved, allowing titans to respawn quicker.
  • Halved the attack speed gained from Fast and Furious talent.
  • Increased range damage gained from the Well-trained Aim talent.
  • Increased the health ratio at which Ghorm enrages and starts attacking the player.
  • The Boss Idol Merchant now has 3 of each Boss Summoning Idols in stock. This amount will update the next time the Merchants restock their items after starting the game with this patch.
  • Respawn immunity starts fading out when any action is attempted.
  • Merchants no longer drop all their inventory on death.
  • Roots grow one piece at a time, but more often.
  • The Big Larvas from the Hive Mother eggs can now destroy hive walls when chasing the player.


[h2]Quality-of-Life[/h2]
  • Increased the hit radius of projectiles shot by the player, making it a bit easier to hit enemies with ranged weapons.
  • Merchants will follow the player when the player holds the item they like such as Slime Oil and Mysterious Idol.
  • Increased the range of electricity from generators.
  • Increased inventory size of Large Chests to have twice the amount of Small Chests' size.
  • Improved logic that moves the player out of blocking objects and walls so the player can no longer push themselves through to the other side of a wall by using a door for example.
  • Fixed so titans can respawn while players are at their spawn location.
  • Soul Orbs no longer require the player to be nearby to disappear, this allows titans to respawn when the player is far away from the spawn location.
  • Increased max zoom out of map.
  • Quick swapping a ring (shift click) will prioritize swapping with a ring that isn't the same ring.
  • Added a border to the chat input field.
  • Increased density of unique locations and areas of interest that spawn in the Dirt Biome. This only applies to newly generated areas.
  • Adjusted amount of wood gained from the roots in Azeos' Wilderness to match regular roots.
  • Gravestones can be placed in water.


[h2]Art and Animation[/h2]
  • Reduced animation overhead of objects that are not actively animated to slightly improve performance.
  • Adjusted position of the stun effect for several enemies.
  • Healing effect no longer shows on the player if already at full health.


[h2]Audio[/h2]
  • New music for the Sunken Sea biome and new music for all existing biomes.
  • The Core continues the speech a bit quicker after scanning the world.
  • Changed music to play more continuously.


[h2]Accessibility[/h2]
  • Improved readability of the amount of materials required when crafting.


[h2]Dedicated Servers[/h2]
  • Log common client commands on Dedicated Servers.
  • Forward arguments to Dedicated Server launch scripts.


BUG FIXES


[h2]NPCs[/h2]
  • Infected Cavelings no longer play regular Caveling animation when knocked back.
  • Fixed Merchant inventory not refreshing if the player is far away.


[h2]Mechanics[/h2]
  • Fixed an issue where crafting an item could be done without consuming materials from a nearby chest if the materials were taken out by a robot arm at the same time.
  • Fixed an issue where hitting an object larger than 1 tile would sometimes instead hit any object beneath it such as rugs or bridges.


[h2]Items[/h2]
  • Ore Boulders no longer give less total amount of ores before depleting when drilling with more than one drill.
  • Fixed a bug where the duration would sometimes show the wrong amount of minutes on food when having some points in the Long Lasting Food talent.
  • Players no longer lose durability on equipment when dodging attacks.
  • Fixed an issue where plants would sometimes not be visible when having a very large farm of plants.
  • Fixed an issue where negative stats on equipment would not get the correct reinforced value addition such as the movement speed affection from the Slime Sword and Larva Equipment.
  • Fixed a bug where the Breaking Barriers talent would give too much armor. Also increased the amount of armor the talent gives to be more balanced after the bug fix.
  • Fixed a bug where Sushi would not have the correct colors when dropped or placed on a pedestal.
  • Invalid items can no longer be placed in Furnaces and Smelter Kilns.
  • Electrical Wire is no longer placeable on other electrical components.
  • Fixed a bug where ground objects like floors, rugs, rails, etc. would not drop when destroyed with Bombs.


[h2]User Interface & Controls[/h2]
  • Fixed an issue where chat text would sometimes overlap crafting UI in a weird looking way.
  • Fixed an issue where players could still interact with menus behind pop ups.
  • Fixed an issue where binding movement keys on keyboard to other keys would still allow movement with wasd-keys.
  • Fixed an issue where the hover window of Cookbook ingredients and food would not be positioned at the bottom right corner of the screen.
  • Fixed common Linux issue where scroll wheels with low sensitivity were not working properly.


[h2]Networking / Dedicated Servers[/h2]
  • Fixed previous server join time not showing local time.
  • Fixed Windows Dedicated Server launch script not exiting gracefully, leading to up to 30 seconds of progress being lost.
  • Fixed parse error in previous server list for some regions.
  • Fixed Cartography Table being able to block normal game traffic, increasing ping.


[h2]Others[/h2]
  • Fixed visual artefact causing walls to light up a bit sometimes when being mined.
  • Fixed a bug where players would not get the effect from a set bonus when wearing more than the amount of pieces needed for the set bonus.
  • Fix some large destructibles in the Dirt Biome to show correct sprites.
  • Fixed a bug where Electrical Wires would not be destroyed by Bombs.
  • Fixed an issue where the acid from Hive Mother's projectile would not spawn on torches and other similar objects.
  • Generated Thorn Roots correctly drops regular Wood instead of Thorn Wood when being destroyed by world generation.
  • Fixed an issue where Thorn Wood would not drop the correct amount of Wood.
  • Fixed Cartography Table not reading saved map data properly.
  • Fixed an issue with Copper Ore Boulders sometimes spawning inside areas like labyrinths in the Forgotten Ruins. Already spawned Copper Ore Boulders will still remain.
  • Fixed an issue with Mold Tentacles playing the slime slow-down particle effect when they shouldn’t.
  • Automation structures (Conveyor Belt, Robot Arm, etc.) now work as expected at an infinite range.
  • Electricity now works as expected at an infinite range.
  • A difficulty option for worlds has been added with the options "normal" and "hard". This option can be selected when creating a new world. The hard option makes monsters and bosses deal more damage, have more health, and bosses will also drop more items.