New title Core Keeper glows onto Early Access this year

Over the past few years, there has been a massive industry in the “farming, gathering, building” genre of indie games, the “Stardew-like” if you will. Day one of the IGN Expo teased subterranean co-op Core Keeper, set for Early Access this year. This looks like a fantastic community co-op game.

The central point of Core Keeper is, as you may be able to expect, the core. Your burgeoning base of operation is in an ancient cavern, built with resources mined from the surrounding area. As you grow as a character, you can venture further afield, through a vast, procedurally-generated cave network. You will go toe-to-toe with a variety of combative critters and barbaric baddies, that call the caves home. By vanquishing these beasts, you learn more and gain new opportunities for crafting.

It’s essential to grow crops, cook food, and construct new items to properly develop the underground community and further increase your reach into the buried world. Furthermore, the enigmatic relic known only as “The Core”, can be powered up by using these resources. This gives a sense of community inherent to Core Keeper and its genre. It leads well into the game’s support of multiplayer, which allows up to eight players to work together on the subterrestrial encampment. In short, the gameplay, the narrative, it’s all about building something together, a game primed for a wonderful cooperative experience.

All this is hot off the presses of day one of the IGN Expo. As it currently stands, there isn’t a lot of information on the release. As it currently stands, Core Keeper is on Steam to wishlist and will be released in Early Access later in the year.