Valheim devs have been working on a first-person co-op dungeon-crawler 'in the evenings and on weekends,' and you can try it now on Steam

It's been a minute since Valheim launched into early access, if "a minute" can mean "almost exactly five years." While the Viking survival game has grown considerably since February 2021 with new biomes and bosses, and work continues on the final "Deep North" biome, some of Valheim's developers have also been using their spare time for something completely new.

Begraved is a first-person co-op dungeon-crawler three of Valheim's developers have been working on "in the evenings and on weekends," and its demo just landed on Steam. Described by its community manager in an announcement video as "Lethal Company but it's medieval," Begraved sends you into dark crypts to rob the dead because "the Taxman always comes for his due." Sounds ominous!

"You are one of the Gravebound, condemned to loot cursed tombs around the city, driven by a corrupt balance of ruin and despair. Beneath the ground you delve, where forgotten snares await the unwary, whispers coil in the dark, and curses rest silent within relics long undisturbed. Your light is limited, your pack is small, and the Taxman will come whether you live or die."

Begraved's "procedurally generated tombs filled with hazards, secrets, and things best left undisturbed" supports up to five players and proximity voice chat. Equip yourself, loot some tombs, and sell your stolen treasures to a shopkeeper. If you don't earn enough by the time the Taxman visits, you'll wind up at the end of the rope (unless, perhaps, you can bargain with him). You also have a hideout, so what you don't sell off you can use to decorate your grim little pad.

I played a bit alone today—definitely not the best way to go about it—and after doing some exploring and looting I stole something I probably shouldn't have, which awoke a spooky slumbering spirit and activated some deadly traps in the crypt.

Begraved has one of my favorite features in games: if you pick up a large item, you actually have to carry it in both hands instead of simply tucking it into an inventory slot. That makes it much trickier (and much more fun) to escape a dangerous situation, because if you want to hold a torch or use a tool or weapon, you're gonna have to drop the very thing you're stealing. I'm into that sort of clumsy, chaotic business.

Suffice to say, I didn't make it out alive. My torch burned out so I couldn't light a path for myself to follow back to safely, and I quickly got lost in the gloomy dungeon before a few traps and that spooky spirit finished me off.

Begraved is being developed by a small studio, Grip Jaw, which includes Valheim's creative director Robin Eyre, "VP of Problem Solving" Emilia Oscarsson, and designer and QA manager Andreas Tomasson. Grip Jaw also says Begraved is "fully independent"—in other words, it's not being published by Coffee Stain, which was owned by THQ Nordic, which became Embracer Group, which later spun off Coffee Stain into Coffee Stain Group, which… look, I don't know, a bunch of business stuff happened. Point is, it sounds like Grip Jaw and Begraved aren't part of all that.

There's no word when Begraved will launch, but when it does it'll be in early access. You can check out the free demo on Steam.