Core Keeper News

All of us here at Pugstorm and Fireshine Games would like to wish you a Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and a fantastic New Year!

We shared some of our Christmas plans with you in another Steam post and we’re pleased to report that we are very much in the swing of festivities right now. Whether you’re celebrating Christmas or just taking a little break this December as the world slows down, we hope you’re having a great month and get lots of opportunities to play video games.

Here’s a little recap of some of the Core Keeper activity you can look forward to in the new year, including our full 1.0 launch and console release.



As a reminder, Core Keeper is coming to Nintendo Switch, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 4, and there will be boxed editions available. Oh, and our 1.0 launch will, of course, include a major content update for you to enjoy!

Finally, we wanted to share with you this gorgeous live orchestra version of “Echo of the Past” as a little Christmas treat.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

We can’t wait to bring you plenty of underground adventures in 2024, here’s to an amazing new year!

Happy holidays, Explorers! We hope you’re all having a fantastic December, whether you celebrate Christmas or are simply looking forward to the start of another year. We’ve had an absolutely fantastic 2023 working on Core Keeper, and we’re beyond excited for our 1.0 and console launch in Summer 2024. In case you missed it, we’ve put together a little timeline of our Early Access journey so far, including all our major and minor updates, crossovers, and seasonal events.



We’ve put a lot of love into Core Keeper this year and we’ve got plenty more to work on as we approach 1.0, but it’s also important for us to take some time to unwind over the Christmas period so that we’re well-rested for the new year. With that in mind, we’re pleased to report that the Pugstorm team’s Christmas vacation starts tomorrow! You can find out a little bit more about some of our plans below, and we’ll be back on the 2nd of January full of energy to crack on with dev work!

[h2]Fredrik Präntare - Chief Executive Officer & Game Director[/h2]
This year, Fredrik will be travelling to Northern Sweden to visit his family. We’re sure he’ll be enjoying plenty of good food and festive fun but he’s also keen to get a little more exercise while he’s on vacation – hopefully, it won’t be too cold for him to go on lots of Christmas walks! After lots of socialising and exercise, he plans to spend a little time away from screens this year and get stuck into a Kazuo Ishiguro book or two!

[h2]Sven Thole - Chief Operating Officer & Development Director[/h2]
Sven will be heading out to his family forest to fetch a Christmas tree soon, and we honestly couldn’t think of a more wholesome festive activity! There’ll be plenty of family time on the cards, but he’s also looking forward to playing the new Darkest Dungeon 2 DLC and re-reading the Game of Thrones books in preparation for the “upcoming” release!

[h2]Julian Seifert-Olszewski - Lead Artist & Art Director[/h2]
Julian will also be visiting family this year and is very excited to announce that he’s expecting a new addition around February time. There’s lots to get ready when your first baby is on the way, and he’ll be spending plenty of time preparing for the new arrival. That won’t stop him from having a little fun watching movies, reading through his stack of freshly ordered books, and painting minis of course!

[h2]Herman Appelgren - Game Developer [/h2]
Herman has one thing on his mind this Christmas, and that’s cozy times in front of the fireplace at his Cabin in Dalarna. He’ll be playing plenty of board games with his siblings and is planning on playing Root and starting a new Gloomhaven campaign! He’ll also be learning to fly the B787 Dreamliner in Microsoft Flight Simulator and catching up on the Star Wars series!

We hope that, no matter what your plans are this month, you find plenty of time to unwind and to play games! We may be heading out on vacation, but we’ll still be sharing plenty of activity on our Twitter page, so keep an eye out.

[h2] Bug Fixes: [/h2]

• Fixed a bug where Ghorm would sometimes deal damage to players even if they did not appear to be hit.
  

[h2] Bug Fixes: [/h2]

• Ensure that local Windows/Linux usernames are not included in automatically submitted crash reports.
  
• Fixed the generation of the Caveling Merchant room to not contain water beneath the ground tiles, which were colliding with mobs as well as making the water edges disappear.
  
• Fixed translations for new Access Type category in mod UI.
  
• Fixed an issue where signs reverted to default color when off-screen. This was a purely visual bug, and any previously painted signs will regain their appropriate color.
  
• Changed the dedicated server to not try to load the mod UI asset. Didn’t break anything, but this was causing a bunch of nasty error messages in the log.
  
• Added a check to avoid getting an error for some modded objects.
  
• Fixed a bug where melee knockback chance was applied to ranged weapons as well.
  

From major updates such as Paws & Claws and The Shimmering Frontier to the addition of our Mod SDK and, of course, the announcement of our 1.0 and console launch, 2023 has certainly been a BIG year for Core Keeper! And that’s not to mention a whole bunch of smaller updates and seasonal content in between.

We’ve got one more minor content update to round the year off for you, Explorers: the aptly named Year-End Update! Playable now, this update includes a handful of fun additions including a new enemy for the Clay Caves, new decorative items, and a community-requested feature in the form of signs with customisable text! Read the full patch notes here.

[h2]Important Information on Mod Support [/h2]

The Year-End Update includes mod support feature improvements. We’ve introduced elevated access for mod creators, allowing them to create a wider variety of more advanced mods. When installed, these mods have increased access to resources outside of the game such as user files and the internet. Because of this, we strongly recommend that players only install mods from reputable sources such as trusted mod creators.

To support this, we have added a new category to Mod.io called “Access Type” and, any mod that needs to run with elevated access will require the Access Type “Script (Elevated Access)”.

Users will also experience a warning pop-up that appears when they subscribe to elevated-access mods that reads:

“Caution: 'Elevated Access' mods have increased access to resources outside the game like user files and the internet. For the best experience, install only from reputable sources.”

[h2]We're Looking for Mod.io Moderators[/h2]

We're on the lookout for members of the Core Keeper modding community to join our moderation team on Mod.io! Moderators are entrusted with reviewing mod submissions and keeping an eye on reports to ensure that available mods are in line with our rules and guidelines. If you like the idea of keeping Core Keeper mods a safe and enjoyable experience for everyone, then you can apply to be a Mod.io moderator here!

[h2]2024 and 1.0 F.A.Qs[/h2]

Following the Year-End Update, we’ll be hard at work prepping for 2024. We’ve noticed a couple of comments from community members asking whether or not 1.0 will be bringing new content to the game, and we’re happy to confirm that 1.0 will be a major content update for us, and this is something we’re putting a lot of developer time and attention into. We’ve answered some of your frequently asked questions about our 1.0 and console launch here.

We hope you enjoy the Year-End update and are looking forward to the game’s full launch next year! Don’t forget to follow us on Twitter for updates and announcements and join our official Discord to connect with our awesome community.