Core Keeper News

What makes a development team happy? Well, we love meeting new community members in the Discord, reading your comments on Twitter, and hearing how much you’re looking forward to Core Keeper…but what makes us really happy is getting feedback from YOU on how we can improve our game!

We recently ran a week-long Closed Alpha on Steam, giving you the opportunity to play an early build of Core Keeper and let us know what you think. We’ve read through ALL your feedback, and we’re beyond thrilled to announce that we’ve already started working on some improvements. We know you’ll be interested in what’s been updated, so read on for info on the Alpha feedback and details from our changelog!

[h2]Hungry, Hungry Explorers[/h2]

One of the most important pieces of feedback we got was that players were getting hungry, fast! Currently, when a player’s hunger level gets too low, they experience a starvation debuff that impacts movement speed. This was frustrating for our Alpha Expedition, many of whom struggled to find enough food to satisfy their hunger before they located the materials to craft a cooking pot to make more filling dishes. Oops!
We’re working on balancing hunger so that finding food is still a challenge, but players aren’t totally nerfed at the start of the game. So far, to remedy this, we have reworked the food system so that food now drains based on the distance the player has moved; increased the food value that mushrooms give from 5 to 9; and made it so that seeds now have a chance to drop from slimes & wooden destructibles. We hope this will give players the opportunity to begin farming much earlier on in the game.



[h2]You Want to Play Core Keeper with Friends[/h2]

If there’s one thing our feedback confirmed, it’s that you can’t wait to play Core Keeper with friends. All of our Alpha Testers who provided feedback said they would be likely to recommend Core Keeper to a friend, with the majority of those Alpha testers giving the highest possible rating of recommendation. This kind of feedback warms our hearts, and we hope you’ll enjoy playing in up to 8-player multiplayer.

[h2]Glurch the Not so Abominous Mass [/h2]

Glurch is one of the first bosses you’re likely to encounter in Core Keeper (though our bosses can be fought in any order), and it’s one tough-looking blob. At least on the outside. It turns out, players were having a less-than-challenging time taking on the giant slime by employing a “hit and run” technique and chipping away at its health. To make Glurch a real threat, we’ve updated the game so that it now recovers 25% of its maximum health any time the player runs outside of aggro range.

[h2]The Ultimate Explorers![/h2]

We asked you which feature you enjoyed the most out of farming, cooking, crafting, exploring, combat, and base building. 68% of you found exploring to be the most enjoyable feature. You also enjoyed base building, farming, cooking, and crafting. Looks like we might have to work on combat a little bit though!

[h2]Wood You Believe It?[/h2]

Want to craft torches? You’ll need wood. Want to make tools or weapons? Better grab some wood. Want to build a base? Well…you get our point. Unfortunately, player feedback suggested that wood was a much less common resource in the underground than we intended. Crafting and base building are key components of Core Keeper, so we knew something had to be done.

Introducing the Root Plant! When a player harvests wood, the wood now has the chance to drop seeds that can be planted to re-grow wood, making this a farmable resource. No more struggling to choose between tools, weapons, or decorations! It may take you a little while to farm a sizeable crop, so you may have to prioritise how you use the wood you grow at first, but that’s part of the fun.



[h2]Our Full Closed Alpha Changelog[/h2]
Here’s the full list of everything we’re updating as a result of Closed Alpha feedback:

• Ranged weapons can now shoot in 360 degrees
  
• Gathering wood now has a chance to drop root seeds that can be planted to regrow wood as the Root Plant
  
• Biome locations are now placed in a random direction from The Core
  
• Melee weapons no longer hit torches when enemies are near the torch
  
• Unique colours for each player marker on the map
  
• Players can now hover over player markers on the map to see their names
  
• The Caveling Shaman’s attack anticipation time has been increased from 0.35 seconds to 0.6 seconds
  
• Enemies ranged attacks and melee attacks now share cooldown
  
• Healing Potion crafting cost has been decreased from 5 Slime and 5 Heart Berry to 5 Slime and 3 Heart Berry
  
• Healing Potion has been changed from healing 40hp to healing 40% of max health
  
• Glurch the Abominous mass now heals 25% of its max health whenever the player runs outside of aggro range
  
• Glurch the Abominous mass now spawns 10 tiles further away from The Core
  
• Seeds now have a chance to drop from slimes & wooden destructibles
  
• Decreased chance for seeds to drop from crosses on the ground
  
• Next item auto equips if the previous one breaks
  
• Decreased the amount of digging for Cavelings
  
• New enemy: Red Slime – found in the dirt biome and attacks you on sight
  
• Reworked food system so food now drains based on the distance the player has moved
  
• Increased the amount of food mushrooms give from 5 to 9
  
• Improved visuals for Caveling Shaman attack anticipation
  
• Removed “CK” from the Core Keeper icon
  
• Option to disable screenshake
  
• Facing mouse direction is now set to be the default
  

Thank you for taking part in the Alpha Expedition, we can’t wait to share more updates with you soon. In the meantime, why not sign up to our Discord so that you’re the first to hear Core Keeper news?

Exciting news, everyone. Core Keeper is going to be at EGX 2021 from the 7th to the 10th of October!
If you didn’t get a chance to participate in our Closed Alpha (or if you did, but you’re hungry for MORE), this is your chance to play. Come and meet the Sold Out team and get hands on with the game – we can’t wait to hear what you think!

[h2]“How Will I Be Able to Play Core Keeper at EGX?”[/h2]

We’ll have some PCs set up in a dedicated area of the Rezzed Zone where you can play our Core Keeper Closed Alpha live at EGX. Simply look out for stalls featuring the Core Keeper branding and chat to one of our representatives to play. We’ll be doing our best to make sure that you all get an fair amount of time with the game, but we also anticipate that lots of people will want to play, so we recommend stopping by as soon as possible.

If you haven’t got your EGX London tickets yet, you can find out more about the event and pick one up HERE.



[h2]“What’s Is the Closed Alpha?”[/h2]

Our Closed Alpha is a little bit like an early build and demo of the game rolled into one. It’s not the full version of the game, but you’ll be able to experience a lot of what Core Keeper has to offer in a fleshed out, procedurally generated underground world and take on our first two bosses!

We’ve had plenty of feedback on the Closed Alpha so far – and we’re going to be working hard on balancing the game and incorporating our community’s feedback – so please note that there’s lots that we’ll be updating in the next build of the game.

[h3]What you can expect in the Closed Alpha build is:[/h3]

• A gorgeous and mysterious underground world with unique biomes and lots to explore.
  
  
• The ability to play alone or in up to eight-player multiplayer.
  
  
• An array of weird and wonderful creatures, some friendly, some…not so much.
  
  
• Plenty of ancient relics to uncover while mining.
  
  
• Fascinating plant life, from the humble Glow Tulip to the powerful Bomb Pepper, and the ability to farm crops and combine them into recipes for powerful buffs!
  
  
• The opportunity to build bases all over the underground and decorate them to your liking.
  
  
• GIANT monsters just waiting to be defeated.
  

[h2]“How do I Become a Part of the Core Keeper Community?”[/h2]

We’re glad you asked! Our community members are the first to hear when we’ve got news and updates or the opportunity to play the game before it launches in Early Access via something like a Closed Alpha. You can become a part of the Core Keeper community by joining our Discord at the link HERE.

Make sure you read the server rules and react with the right emoji to gain access to the full version of the server and connect with your fellow Explorers.

We’re looking forward to seeing you at EGX, and we can’t wait to bring you even more Core Keeper announcements soon!

Guess who’s about to share an update that’s almost entirely about mould. Did you guess us? Good job! The prize for guessing correctly is the mould update – yay! As we close in on the starting date for our Closed Alpha (signups are open until the 23rd of September), we want to tell you about some exciting new features you can expect to see in game.


We’re beyond thrilled to announce our collaboration with award-winning musician, Jonathan Geer. We think music has such an important role in the overall feel of a game, and we wanted our soundtrack to be both beautiful and immersive.

After working with Jonathan these past few months, is that it’s clear that he is incredibly professional. From our slightly vague descriptions of how we imagine the music in the game, he can spin together masterful tracks that go above our expectations. It’s always a joy to hear the new tracks he has been working on, and we’re looking forward to this continued collaboration.

Here’s a little preview of a piece that Jonathan created for our main menu:

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

A place infested by mould. The unfortunate creatures that have travelled here have changed. Unnatural growths and mutations sprout from their bodies. “They” are a threat not to be taken lightly, but who knows what treasures they might be guarding hidden away under the mould’s many layers?

The Mould Dungeon is a fungus-infested area that can be found within the Nature Biome. We’ve been hard at work designing a full custom wall and floor tileset along with exciting new environmental objects and a brand-new enemy: the Infected Caveling.

There’s plenty to do and see in the Mould Dungeon, but you’ll have to keep your wits about you. Rumour has it that these Infected Cavelings are a little bit stronger than your average Cavelings – you certainly wouldn’t want to run into a group of them unarmed. Fighting them is a risk you might want to take though, as Infected Cavelings have been known to carry some pretty valuable loot.



Enemies aren’t the only things you have to worry about in the Mould Dungeon, however. This place is filled with dangerous fumes. Beware the mould smoke, unless you fancy taking on a hoard of Infected Cavelings at, say, -70% movement speed! It’s not all bad down here, though. If you’re up for navigating this challenging landscape, you might just find some useful jewellery and an intriguing new weapon...


Why go red when you can go scarlet? We’ve just introduced a new ore type – yep, you guessed it – say hello to scarlet ore! This hardy material is just a little bit stronger than iron and can be used to craft all manner of tools, including swords, mining picks, furnaces, workbenches, and more! Scarlet ore is found exclusively in the Nature Biome, so you’ll have to get exploring if you want to work with this fancy new material.


We’re so glad you asked! Alongside our music, mould and minerals, we’ve been working on a handful of new additions we just know you’re going to love, including.

• Updates to armour functionality (the right armour can now increase your maximum health)
  
• New buffs/debuffs in the form of conditions that can be applied to both the player and your enemies (poisoning, movement speed reduction, starvation, well-fed, glowing, healing, increased attack, increased defense, etc.)
  
• In-game chat to make online multiplayer even easier through simple text-based communication.
  

Phew, that was a big one – we hope we didn’t miss anything! We’ll have another developer update for you very soon. In the meantime, don’t miss the opportunity to experience Core Keeper first-hand, way before we go into Early Access in 2022. Sign up for the official Core Keeper Closed Alpha. Find out more, HERE.

It’s only been three months since we announced Core Keeper to the world, and we can’t believe how much our community has grown in such a short space of time. As summer draws to a close, we’re looking forward to all that autumn has to offer. Crunchy leaves, cosy jumpers, hot chocolate, the Core Keeper Closed Alpha, Halloween – you know, typical autumn stuff. What’s that? You want to know more about the Core Keeper Closed Alpha? Well, you’re in the right place!

[h2]What is the Core Keeper Closed Alpha?[/h2]
The Core Keeper Closed Alpha is YOUR opportunity to experience Core Keeper before it hits Early Access in 2022. We’ve made no secret of the fact that our community is very important to us, and we want to give you the chance to tell us what you want from the game. That’s why we’re inviting you to sign up for our Closed Alpha to spend a week hands-on with Core Keeper.

During this time, you can tell us what you like, what you think we could improve upon and what you think we could bring to the game to make it even more enjoyable. We can’t promise that we’ll input every single piece of feedback we receive, but we’ll be doing our best to ensure your feedback has an impact on the development of our game.

[h2]How do I Sign Up?[/h2]
You can sign up by visiting the Core Keeper Steam page and hitting the sign-up button HERE. Please note that sign-ups close on the 23rd of September and that we will be picking participants at random.

[h2]What Happens if I’m Selected?[/h2]
If you are selected, you will receive an email of notification from Steam on the 23rd of September, you will also see your status on the store page for the base game.

The Closed Alpha will run from the 23rd to the 30th of September. Please be aware that Steam will not email you when a build for a Closed Alpha is set to playable/non-playable, so it’s up to you to navigate to the store page and download the playtest build of the game.

While playtesting, participants will have the opportunity to provide as much feedback as they’d like about the game. Details on how to do so will be provided within the playtest build of the game.

If you don’t get selected to participate in the Closed Alpha, don’t worry! There will definitely be more alpha/beta versions of the game to apply for in the future.

[h2]What We Have Been Working On[/h2]
In preparation for the Closed Alpha, we’ve been ironing out bugs that have been impacting the overall gameplay experience. Most of these have been pretty small, but others have been a bit more significant. Here are some of the bug fixes we’ve been working on for the Closed Alpha that we think you’ll enjoy hearing about:

Super-Buff Projectiles:
We designed it so that any projectiles shot by players would utilise the ranged damage skill and crit chance of the player shooting them, but this resulted in projectiles that also inherited buffs/debuffs such as glow, poison, movement speed increase and healing over time. After this happy accident, we removed many of the unintentional buffs, but we decided to keep the functionality for projectiles to glow if the player has this buff on them.

Gate-ception:
We resolved an issue with fence gates where the player could place a object on the same tile as the gate if the gate was open. This resulted in an Inception-style bug where players could place a fence gate inside an open gate, then open that new gate and place another gate inside that open gate and repeat this for all eternity – eventually crashing the entire game.

And here are some slightly sillier bugs that we’re happy to see the back of!

• Bird poop can no longer spawn on pits.
• Players can no longer accidentally spawn in the middle of The Core.
• Players can no longer place bombs on themselves.


With these fixes, the Closed Alpha build of the game is looking great, and we’re very excited for some of you to get the opportunity to play. Your feedback is going to help us make Core Keeper all the more fun, and we can’t wait to hear what you have to tell us. Make sure you’re a part of our Discord community to hear about activity like the Closed Alpha before it is announced anywhere else!

Happy September, Explorers! Does anyone else feel like 2021 is just flying by? We won’t mention that it’s just over three months until Christmas…oops. It’s been another busy two weeks here developing Core Keeper, and we’ve spent a lot of time refining some of the core (we’ll never get tired of that pun) features of the game.

We’ve also been having a lot of fun over on social media with our “choose your own adventure” game. This Friday’s video will be the fifth instalment in that 10-part series, so if you’ve not had the opportunity to join in yet, there’s still time.

Outside of Core Keeper, the team spent this week’s game session playing Dark Souls the card game, which gave rise to this quote from our CEO and pixel artist, Sven: “Nearly died, highly recommended, 10/10.”
We think that’s enough introductory ramble for now! Here’s what we’ve been working on…


We’re hard at work play testing and balancing the game. Getting the pacing right and making sure that Core Keeper is challenging in all the right places and relaxing in others is something we’ll be focusing on throughout development. We don’t want to make things too easy on you, but we also don’t want you to get murdered by slimes in the first five minutes!

We’re also taking a lot of time to listen to the community and understand what YOU want to see in Core Keeper while we’re making changes to the game. You’ve all done an amazing job of sharing your thoughts in the Discord, and we’d love to hear from anyone who hasn’t already done so – plenty of input from the community will help us make Core Keeper even better!

Oh, and keep an eye out for info on the possibility of a closed alpha sometime in the future; we’ll be sharing more on this in the Discord soon.


There aren’t classes in Core Keeper, but that doesn’t mean that your character can’t specialise in certain areas of the game. That’s what skills are for! Whenever your character performs an action in game, you will gain experience in the respective skill. Levelling up skills give you a permanent bonus to your character. At the moment, we’ve implemented the following skills in Core Keeper, though these may still be subject to change before we go into Early Access:

• Mining
• Blacksmithing
• Gardening
• Running
• Melee Combat
• Ranged Combat
• Vitality




There’s no telling what you’ll run into when exploring the underground. That’s why we recommend you take a torch with you rather than mining in the dark…but we know some of you like to live dangerously! While there are plenty of low-level enemies to keep you occupied, there’s always a chance you’ll run into a gigantic monster or a boss. Don’t worry too much, though. Since each game has a procedurally generated world, the risk is slim.

For the more dedicated monster hunters out there, we have added boss scanners. These are artefacts that you can craft yourselves – with the right *special* materials. Using these scanners will help you track down bosses so that you can take them on in a fight. Just make sure you’ve got plenty of healing potions, some strong armour and even stronger weapons.

Finally, we want to confirm that Core Keeper will now be coming to Early Access in 2022. We’d like to thank you for your patience while we work on bringing you the best possible version of the game. We hope you enjoyed this update, and we can’t wait to bring you more soon. Make sure you’re following us on Twitter (@CoreKeeperGame) for even more Core Keeper content!