Core Keeper News

As we make our way into spring, flowers are blooming all over the world, but the Yoshino cherry blossoms that bloom this time of year in Japan have always held a special place in our hearts.

We wanted to share our love for Cherry Blossoms and show our appreciation for our growing Japanese community with our very own Cherry Blossom mini-event in Core Keeper – running from the 22nd until the 31st of March. It’s a small token of our love, and we hope it makes your games a little bit brighter this spring.

It’s no secret by now that the Pugstorm team shares a love of Japanese culture, you’ll even spot references to some of our favourite pieces of Japanese media in Core Keeper. Well, we thought the launch of our Cherry Blossom mini-event would be the perfect opportunity to share some more information about our experiences with Japanese culture and how they have influenced the game.

Our chairman, David Wallsten studied and worked in Japan and has fond memories of taking part in the custom of Hanami (花見) AKA "flower viewing". He enjoyed the social element of Hanami, and recalls meeting with lots of different groups of friends for picnics underneath the cherry trees every year.



CEO, Fredrik Präntare has visited Japan several times over the years, soaking up the culture in places like Tokyo, Kyoto, Hiroshima, and Fukuoka. On his many visits he has met with Japanese creatives and attended artificial intelligence conferences, immersing himself in a culture of innovation. While Fredrik is a big fan of exploring the city and enjoying the delicious cuisine on offer (he's a big fan of ramen and udon!), his favourite thing about Japan is the amazing people he's met on his journeys.

If you've spotted any Legend of Zelda references in Core Keeper, you can bet Fredrik had a hand in them! He's a huge fan of the franchise and has even hinted that we can expect more of these references in future, so keep an eye out! Alongside Fredrik's Zelda references, you'll come across some nods to Japanese media such as Made in Abyss, Studio Ghibli movies, and more.

We hope you’re looking forward to Core Keeper’s Cherry Blossom mini event – perhaps you’ll get some friends together and take part in a Hanami of your own? In the meantime, don’t forget to follow us on Twitter or join the discussions on the official Core Keeper Discord!

This time last year, Core Keeper launched in Early Access – happy birthday to us! It goes without saying (but we’re gonna say it anyway) that we wouldn’t be where we are now without our awesome community, and we wanted to celebrate and show our thanks by adding some birthday-themed goodies to the game.

[h2]Light the candles, grab yourself a slice of cake, and let's party! Our Anniversary Update is live and running until the 20th of March.[/h2]

We’ve released a list of patch notes that you can take a look at, but since this is a mini-update, we can walk you through the new content right here. Expect new stock (and a new look) for the Seasonal Merchant, including colourful party hats, new “Happy Birthday” sheet music, and a very special birthday cake (or should we say buff-day cake?) that grants players a permanent boost to their maximum health! Indie gaming fans will also spot a nod to our friends over at ReLogic with our new playable sheet music for the “Journey’s Beginning” track from Terraria, which they can pick up by defeating a certain royal slime.



When it comes to things like our Anniversary and Cherry Blossom mini-updates, we certainly love having the opportunity to share a little specialised content with our community while we work towards our next major content drops. That way you get a little something in between updates and we get to crack on with the big stuff. If our seasonal events are appetisers and our major updates are the main course, we like to think of our mini-updates as amuse-bouches – little bite-sized pieces of content to enjoy before you tuck into the Animal Update and Crystal Biome (names TBC). We’ll stop it with the food analogies now…never write a Steam post before lunch!

We hope you throw some wicked parties in the underground this week and, if you do, you should definitely share your screenshots over on the official Core Keeper Discord! It’s been an absolutely amazing year in Early Access, and we can’t wait to work our way down our 2023 roadmap and bring you lots more Core Keeper content on the road to 1.0.

[h2]Gameplay:[/h2]

• The Seasonal Merchant has a new skin and new items to sell for the new season. The skin will change back after the season ends but the items can still be bought.
  
• Anniversary Cake: Topped with Glow Tulip glaze. When eaten, it emits a strong glow around the player and also gives a permanent health increase. Sold by the Seasonal Merchant.
  
• Four festive birthday hats sold by the Seasonal Merchant.
  
• New “Happy Birthday” music sheet. Sold by the Seasonal Merchant.
  
• Terraria “Journey's Beginning” music sheet. Drops from the King Slime boss.
  
• New hidden achievement.
  

[h2]Graphics:[/h2]

• Updated the Flower Crown sprites to better fit all hairstyles.
  

[h2]BUG FIXES[/h2]

• Corrected sorting order of stone platforms in front of the Core.
  
• Fixed an issue where Ore Boulder shadows would sometimes flicker.
  
• Fixed Hive Larva Fish not being able to be fished in regular water in the Clay Caves biome.
  

[h2]OTHER[/h2]

• Changed Twisted Agate sprite to not be mistaken for a seed.
  
• Changed input backend on Linux to avoid issues when running the game with Steam Input enabled for some controllers.
  

It’s been a very exciting month with the launch of our Quality of Love Update. This was the first time we released something that was part seasonal event and part content update, and we were very pleased to see such a positive response from the Core Keeper community.

With all-new seasonal content, the addition of our brand-new music and instruments mechanic, and changes to our rendering pipeline for improvements to lighting and shadows, we think this was the perfect way to kick off the new year…and we’re just getting started! There’s so much we want to shout about on the horizon for 2023, and we’ve got plenty to share, but we think the best place to start is with the reveal of our brand-new roadmap! Scroll down to the bottom of the post for the roadmap image.

[h2]Anniversary Event[/h2]
If you’ve been with us since the very beginning, you’ll know that Core Keeper’s birthday is March 8th! That’s the day we launched in Early Access just one year ago. Developing the game has been a delight from day one, and we’re so excited to be celebrating our first birthday with such an incredible community. And what better way to celebrate our anniversary than with a little in-game Anniversary Event? With all-new seasonal items such as birthday hats and birthday cake, plus a permanent new music sheet for indie favourite Terraria, it’s shaping up to be a real celebration in the underground!



[h2]Cherry Blossom Festival[/h2]
Did you know that our CEO, Fredrik, is learning Japanese? そうなんです！Truth be told, the entire dev team has a fondness for Japanese culture, and you might just spot a few references to our favourite pieces of Japanese media in Core Keeper if you look hard enough. We’re especially fond of the beautiful cherry blossom season that occurs around late March to early April and covers huge parts of the country in a pink wash of petals. We wanted to share our love for cherry blossoms and give a nod to our growing Japanese community by celebrating with our very own Cherry Blossom festival mini-event in Core Keeper this spring.

[h2]Easter Seasonal Event[/h2]
We had such a blast running our Easter seasonal event last year that we knew we wanted to run it again this year. Our last Easter celebration was our first-ever seasonal event for Core Keeper, and we learnt so much from your community feedback. Since then, we’ve celebrated Halloween, Christmas/New Year, and Valentine’s with lots of exciting new seasonal content. With that in mind, we wanted to build on the Easter event to bring it up to par with what you’ve come to expect from our seasonal events, which is why you can expect a little something extra from us this year in the form of new seasonal outfits, decorative items, and environmental effects.

[h2]Animal Update (Name TBC)[/h2]
We’re very excited about this one, Explorers, as this is our next major content update. We’ve always been keen to develop the kind of game YOU want to play, and that means listening to what you have been asking for…and you really wanted animals! We’re already hard at work planning out the Animal Update, which will introduce a brand-new pets mechanic – allowing players to discover, hatch, and care for a variety of friendly critters. We hope you’re looking forward to finding the perfect pet and taking it with you on your underground adventure.

Alongside the addition of new content and mechanics, we’ll be making lots of game-wide improvements and adjustments with this update. We want each individual to have a unique experience when exploring the underground, and we’ve been keeping a close eye on how you, as a community, are actually playing the game. To that end, we’ll be revisiting and refining existing content to really enrich the in-game experience, paying special attention to the ways in which we can make the world feel more alive through features like environmental responses (such as cave-ins) and fleshed out combat (including a new parry mechanic for shields).

[h2]Crystal Biome (Name TBC)[/h2]
As if the Animal Update wasn’t exciting enough, you can expect another major content update from us later on in the year. That’s right, the Crystal Biome will introduce a new crystalline biome with all-new materials, equipment, enemies, crafting options, a new boss, and more! For those of you who don’t know, the Crystal Biome was announced in our last roadmap back in 2022. After careful consideration, we realised that we really wanted to increase the depth of gameplay through our other updates before we launched this one to ensure a richer experience for players, which is why the Crystal Biome has been moved further along into the year.

[h2]Core Keeper Pricing Information[/h2]
Alongside the launch of our latest roadmap, we wanted to share some information with you regarding changes to the pricing of Core Keeper. When we launched in Early Access on March 8th 2022, we had a rough idea of what we expected to offer in terms of content in the lead-up to our 1.0 release, and this was reflected in the game’s price point.

As both the game and community expanded over the course of the year and beyond, we realised that we wanted to be able to offer you so much more during Early Access, and we started to dream big. With the help of our publisher, Fireshine Games, we set out with a much more ambitious plan that included things like dedicated servers, seasonal events, mini-updates, early localisations, and even more major updates based on community feedback – adding lots more value and content to the game than we initially thought possible.

The price will be changing soon after the Animal Update is live, and we’ll be providing more information on the exact time and date of this in the future. Please note that the increase will not impact users who have already purchased the game in any way. We wanted to give you plenty of notice of this upcoming change so that you are able to make the most informed purchasing decisions possible.

[h2]An Exciting Year Ahead![/h2]
That’s everything from us for now, Explorers, but we just wanted to take a moment to say a big thank you for your continued support throughout 2023. We’ve got so much on the horizon that we can’t wait to talk about, so make sure that you’re following us on the official Core Keeper Discord and Twitter channels for the latest news, information, and updates. We’re off to put the finishing touches on our Anniversary Event!

• Fixed dedicated server not working in docker containers.
  
• Fixed network connection not closing properly on exit.
  
• Fixed broken graphics for mortar projectiles.
  
• Improved Firefly death effect.