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Press release:
LONDON, UK – February 8, 2023,
The London-based (the UK) indie games publisher Fireshine Games and Linköping-based (Sweden) indie games developer Pugstorm, are today very happy and excited to announce that they have just released the “Quality of Love” update for their mining sandbox adventure/RPG “Core Keeper” (the said update is avaible right now for PC via Steam for free!).

Feel the love in the air with a range of free seasonal Valentine’s content and permanent new features, including the addition of fully-playable musical instruments for the very first time, plus guest music tracks from indie titles Owlboy and Cook, Serve, Delicious! 3?!. Players will also spot brand-new character customisation options and improvements to the game’s lighting and visuals.

NEW SEASONAL CONTENT: From today until February 28, collect love letters and pick up a Valentine’s Crafting Table from the Seasonal Merchant to unlock a range of new Valentine’s items. Equip yourself with the Cupid Bow and charm your enemies to stop them from attacking or don a Cupid Tunic to buff your health and ranged attack speed.

Give a Valentine Ring to that special explorer in your life, open Valentine’s presents to receive special surprises, and settle down for a romantic evening in with Valentine’s Candles, a Heart-Shaped Rug, and the Distilled Love health potion.

NEW PERMANENT CONTENT: Introduced permanently with today’s update, explorers can now express themselves with music by crafting and playing musical instruments. Choose from an ocarina, harp, flute and cello to compose your own music, or get together with friends online to form the world’s most underground orchestra.

Players can also find and collect sheet music they can input into music stands, which will allow them to automatically play looping melodies – including fan-favourite tracks from indie hits Owlboy and Cook, Serve, Delicious! 3?!.

Other permanent new features include the Magic Mirror, which lets players customise their character at any time; a Loom Workbench that players can use to craft brand-new wearables like an Explorer’s Hat and Wedding Dress; additional character customisation options, including never-seen-before hairstyles and clothing colours; plus the ability to equip your character with multiple equipment presets.

NEW VISUAL IMPROVEMENTS: Today’s update also brings improvements to the game’s lighting and shadows thanks to the introduction of a brand new rendering pipeline.

Raymarched shadows significantly overhaul the look of Core Keeper’s underground environments with far more realistic lighting effects, including improved shadow diffusion and shadows that react to simulated light paths to accurately represent objects in the game world.

A rework of the game’s indirect lighting system also allows for emissive surfaces to generate light and increase light spread to deliver improved visual quality. Additional graphical options introduced in today’s update, including bloom and screen-space ambient occlusion, can also be toggled on and off in the game’s settings.

“Our new rendering pipeline offers by far the most significant technical improvement for Core Keeper to date, and we can’t wait for players to see the new lighting improvements for themselves with today’s update,” said Fredrik Präntare, Chief Executive Officer & Creative Director at Pugstorm.

“Plus, with even more free seasonal content and fan-requested features introduced to the game, there really has never been a better time for players to discover Core Keeper.”

Winner of ‘Best Social Game 2022’ at the TIGA Games Industry Awards, nominated for ‘Best Early Access Launch’ at the Golden Joystick Awards 2022, and with over 1 million units already sold, Core Keeper is a 1-8 player mining sandbox adventure set in an ancient cavern of creatures, treasures and trinkets. Mine relics and resources to build your base, craft new equipment and survive. Defeat giant monsters, discover hidden secrets, farm crops, go fishing, cook new recipes and explore a procedurally generated underground world to unravel the mystery of the ancient core.

Core Keeper is available now on PC via Steam Early Access. For more information, follow @CoreKeeperGame on Twitter and join the discussion on Discord.

About Pugstorm
Pugstorm is an award-winning development studio specialising in juicy pixel art games that will make your inner dog bark with joy. For more information, please visit pugstorm.eu.

About Fireshine Games
Fireshine Games is a global publisher of digital and physical videogames based in London, England. Originally established in 2014 under the name Sold Out, Fireshine Games works with studio giants such as Team 17, Rebellion and Frontier Developments as well as introducing new indie dev studios to the world like Pugstorm, Stonewheat & Sons, Spiral Circus, ColePowered Games and many more – publishing for physical and digital distribution. Fireshine is also part of the EG7 group of companies. For more information on Fireshine Games and its upcoming titles, visit the official website at fireshinegames.co.uk.