Graveyard Keeper- running a Graveyard with a drunk Skull


After a successful Kickstarter campaign, the game studio Lazy Bear Games were able to launch the alpha of Graveyard Keeper in May. But, now the full release is getting closer its time to look at the title that is also known as a darker version of Stardew Valley.

Dark humor and capitalists

As the name already suggests, you become the keeper of an old graveyard. While it’s your job to process the bodies and bury them, the darker side of the game appears rapidly. Because, why would you bury them? If you can strip them from everything and then throw in the river. Not to forget, you can even sell the meat to the local tavern, so you can understand why we rather don’t touch the food that’s served there!

Graveyard Keeper
Turns out not everyone in the medieval world is as friendly.

However, repairing the graveyard is not your only job as later on you unlock the church and need to act as the town priest. Besides that, some buildings that are in your possession need to be repaired. To do so, you will need to collect resources and craft the items at the right crafting stations. But, not all crafting recipes are directly available as there are different ability trees. Each action in the game gives you different color experience, which you then can spend.

Stardew Valley but darker?

Just as in Stardew Valley the actions you can do each day depends on your energy management. If your energy is low you are too tired to do anything and either need to eat or sleep. However, you don’t need to sleep until the next day as you can decide to wake up earlier. But, of course, sleeping for just a few hours won’t fully recharge your energy. The saving system is also similar because it happens each time you wake up in your bed.

While some elements and the art style are the similar, Graveyard Keeper is clearly its own game. Not only is it darker with more humor, the ability trees, crafting system, and the activities in the open world are not comparable. Yet, fans of the Stardew Valley type of games might want to keep an eye on it.

Graveyard Keeper will release on August 15th on Steam and Xbox One for a price tag of 20 euro. It’s not known yet if or when the game will appear on the PlayStation 4. Also, keep in mind, that the game is not available for Linux and Mac.



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Anita van Beugen