Welcome to 2023! We’re very excited to ring in the new year with such an amazing community, and we hope you’re all looking forward to what this year will bring for Core Keeper.
You can expect a new roadmap from us this year, with details on the Crystal Biome and beyond! You’ll also be pleased to know that our seasonal events will be recurring throughout 2023, and we miiiight just add some new content to these if the opportunity presents itself. Though we can’t say much at the moment, we can assure you that there’ll be plenty to look forward to over the coming months, so keep an eye out for news and updates in the Steam announcements – as well as over on our Twitter and Discord channels.
You can probably tell that we’re raring to go full steam ahead into the New Year, but we also think it’s important to take the time to look back and reflect on what a great year 2022 was for us. Here are our highlights!
Launching Core Keeper in Early Access in March:
This was an amazing moment for us, and it was made all the more special by the fact that we already had a dedicated community waiting for the game. From testing and open alphas, all the way to our very first public demo, we were so very grateful for your support as we brought the game into Early Access.
Our First Seasonal Event at Easter:
We had our very first seasonal event not long after our Early Access launch, and this was a fantastic learning opportunity for us. The Easter Seasonal Event lasted for just two weeks and, originally, we had planned for the eggs from our egg hunt to disappear from the world when the event ended.
Thanks to your feedback, we soon realised that it’d be much more fun if certain items from seasonal events remained in the game for you to enjoy year ‘round. We also realised that time-locking seasonal events wasn’t ideal for Explorers who were busy or unavailable during the event windows, and we set the plans in motion to change this for our next seasonal event.
Our First Major Update – The Sunken Sea:
After Easter (and a little work adding dedicated servers to the game), we were ready to bring you our first major update: The Sunken Sea! With a vast ocean and mystical sub-biome just waiting to be discovered, you set off in brand-new boats to battle the likes of Morpha the Aquatic Mass and Omoroth the Sea Titan. We added so much new content to the game for this update, including Portals, Sprinklers, the Dresser mechanic, map markers, new food, new enemies, new music, and more!
Cozy Caverns:
We knew there’d be a little time before our next seasonal event and a little more before our next major update, so we wanted to bring you some fun, decorative content in the interim! Our Cozy Caverns update included lots of new and paintable items, and we added mechanics that would allow you to paint existing items such as rugs, dressers, and pedestals.
We added new mechanics such as the ability for players to sit on objects like chairs, stools, thrones, and (of course) the Caveling Toilet. We also had lots of requests for an update that would allow players to place Torches on walls, and Cozy Caverns seemed like the perfect opportunity to introduce this. It was a joy to see all the ways you got creative with this update.
Terraria Crossover:
We’ve always admired the team over at Re-Logic, and our community had long been asking if there was ever going to be a Core Keeper and Terraria crossover. Well, in September 2022, we were beyond excited to bring King Slime to the world of Core Keeper and to see Caveling Pets as a feature in Terraria!
Our Halloween Seasonal Event:
Things got super spooky in the underground in October when we introduced our second seasonal event for Halloween. We added creepy variations to our enemies, introducing the Dracularva, Spookavelings, Frankenbrutes, and Pumpkings to the game – plus an extra-scary variation on The Hive Mother! We also introduced new equipment and cosmetics, such as the Pumpkin Lantern and Spooky Blanket Cape (because who doesn’t want to dress up as a ghost, right?). Our creepy enemies were dropping some interesting Halloween loot including delicious candy and Grumpkin seeds!
We also updated the way seasonal events worked so that, once a seasonal event has launched, players can activate it at any time by changing their PC’s time and date settings to the window within which the event was running.
Our Second Major Update – The Desert of Beginnings:
After adding so much new content to the game for The Sunken Sea, we were extra proud to be able to bring you even more for our second major update: The Desert of Beginnings. In this update, players were invited to comb the desert sands and battle their way through The Molten Quarry in search of new valuables that would help them in their battle against Ra-Akar the Sand Titan.
You upgraded your equipment with out-of-this-world Galaxite Ore, fought your way past six new enemies, stomped on new critters like beetles and worms, improved your circuitry skills, uncovered new fish, and crafted your very first Go-Karts! And that barely scratches the surface of all the wonderful ways we’ve seen Explorers enjoying The Desert of Beginnings.
Our Christmas Seasonal Event:
As the year drew to a close, we knew we wanted to bring something special to wrap things up (pun intended). Our Christmas Seasonal Event began on the 13th of December, turning the underground into a winter wonderland. A blanket of snow covered certain biomes and enemies got new, festive variations – some of which were almost too adorable to kill. We added a new Seasonal Merchant, as well as lots of new cosmetic and decorative items to the game. Oh, and we added fireworks too!
This felt like the perfect note to end the year on, and we’re looking forward to recurring seasonal events, the Crystal Biome, and more in 2023!