As someone who grew up when true cooperative games were vanishingly rare, the sheer number of games that allow you to play with pals at your side these days is astonishing. Every other game seems to support larking around for up to four people. And in the increasingly unlikely event that a game doesn’t have co-op to begin with, chances are someone will make a version of it that does.
Such is the case with Keep Digging, which lifts the premise of DoubleBee’s surprise hit A Game About Digging A Hole, er, wholesale, opens up its shovelling shenanigans for up to eight players, then rests its hard hat over its eyes for a wee nap while the cash rolls in.
Like DoubleBee’s burrowing sim, Keep Digging sees players break ground using basic tools like spades and pickaxes, which they use to unearth valuable ores and treasures. These can be sold to purchase more advanced equipment like dynamite, wire rope, and batteries. I presume the latter are used to power some other excavation device, but the Steam page just reads “batteries” so it isn’t clear. Anyway, your descent also takes you through various biomes, such as an abandoned mine filled with dinosaur fossils, a ruined temple, and some kind of subterranean cathedral.
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Keep Digging Gameplay Trailer – YouTube
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Aside from the co-op functionality, Keep Digging has a few other ideas of its own. While the game sees you play as burly white blokes by default, you can adjust their body shape, customise their appearance with various apparel (including shirts!). The Steam page also shows a clip of a chimpanzee getting in on the action, although it isn’t clear if this is an alternative character model or an AI NPC.
Yes, Keep Digging supports NPC companions for when human players aren’t around, Moreover, those AI miners will “continue mining autonomously when players are offline”, just in case you can’t be bothered to play the game yourself. Oh, and it has an emote for flipping other players off. This causes your character’s hand to swell up to twice its normal size, which A) seems like something a doctor should know about and B) is a feature every other game should have.
Like many of these co-op experiences (and arguably A Game About Digging A Hole too), Keep Digging does not appear to have much nutritional value. Then again, it’s also dirt cheap, selling at $5 (£4.29) RRP and currently running a 10% launch discount. So if you want to dig a massive hole with your mates, but don’t want to ruin the lawn, Keep Digging is the game for you. At least until another cooperative digging sim tunnels into Steam, which at the current rate of iteration will probably be next week.