Keep Digging: The Co-op Digging Game That Goes Deeper
With the Borderlands 4 Release last Thursday and the Fellowship Closed Playtest over the weekend, this gem of a game, almost had to be "dug up". Keep Digging released on September 11th, and it makes for some cheap and easy co-op fun!
What is Keep Digging and Why Do I Want It?
Keep Digging is a recently released indie game that leans into the simple, primal joy of mining and exploration, but with a cooperative twist. Developed by Wild Dog, and clearly heavily inspired by A Game About Digging A Hole, this game allows up to eight players to dig, explore, collect treasures, and upgrade gear in underground layers up to 1,000 meters deep.
Unlike many digging or mining games, Keep Digging removes combat and stealth, focusing purely on the relaxing satisfaction of digging, discovery, and upgrading. The environments are procedurally generated, so each dig feels (slightly) different. There are several distinct underground layers, filled with ore veins, technology, treasures, and hidden dungeons. Gear can be upgraded to become better and/or stronger, and cosmetics like skins and emotes let you personalize your character.
For solo players, Keep Digging also offers the ability to recruit NPC diggers (or "companions") who continue working when you're offline. Rewards and currency earned in single-player can be carried into co-op sessions, and loot found in friends' worlds can be brought back to your own.
Why Keep Digging Stands Out
There are a few things that make Keep Digging more than just another digging simulator:
- Cooperative Multiplayer: Up to 8 players cooperating in real time makes for shared discovery and strategy.
- Depth & Progression: The 1000-meter depth goal provides a long-term challenge.
- Relaxed Style Without Combat: By dropping combat, the focus is entirely on exploration and mining. Perfect for fans of cozy or chill games.
- Infinite Replayability: Procedurally generated worlds plus cross-compatible rewards between solo and multiplayer keep things fresh.
How It Compares: Keep Digging vs A Game About Digging a Hole
If you enjoyed A Game About Digging a Hole, than Keep Digging will feel both familiar and fresh. Both games share the same satisfying loop of digging, upgrading, and discovering. But Keep Digging builds on that foundation with co-op depth and more structured progression. You and your friends can buy it on Steam for just five dollars.
What to Watch Out For
Early feedback from Steam players has mentioned:
- Performance hiccups in co-op at deeper layers.
- Lobby/matching quirks that could use smoother integration.
- Optimization for procedural generation and underground visuals.
Wild Dog has been patching quickly, so improvements are expected in future updates.
Final Thoughts
Keep Digging is carving out a place for itself among the growing wave of digging and mining sims. Its focus on cooperation, relaxing gameplay, and meaningful progression gives both casual players and completionists something to "dig into".
If you've been having fun with A Game About Digging a Hole, then Keep Digging is the logical next step. It takes the same addictively simple premise and pushes it deeper, literally and figuratively.
