You can now play the Valheim leads' side project - a "cozy & dark" co-op dungeon crawler blending Lethal Company and Phasmophobia with a dash of Animal Crossing - thanks to its new Steam demo

Back in November, a team of Valheim leads quietly announced their new studio Grip Jaw and debut project Begraved, a game billed as a mishmash of Lethal Company, Phasmophobia, and Content Warning, and now you can check out what they've been up to yourself.

Grip Jaw is a small studio led by Valheim creative director Robin Eyre, and it just released a free demo for Begraved on Steam, giving you the chance to go hands on with what sounds like a pretty interesting concept. You start out in a huge mansion of a hideout filled with various items like torches and pickaxes to slot into your tiny inventory and then head out into procedurally generated dungeons crawling with grotesque, violent creatures. Why? Money, of course.

Your goal is simple: get in, collect treasure, and get out, definitely a familiar gameplay loop for fans of indie horror right now, but there's a fun twist: you have to sell enough stuff to to afford paying the taxman when he comes around, and if you don't, it's straight to the gallows. It's unclear what consequences you face for getting hanged, and in my testing I just got kicked back to the beginning of the demo, but I imagine it's not good.

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As for the cozy element, I guess that's the hideout, which Grip Jaw promises you'll be able to expand and customize in the full version of the game. What I do find very cozy indeed is the adorable black cat that meows and roams around the hideout, although I don't love how when you pick him up, you grab him by the scruff of his neck, which I've heard you're not supposed to do. Anyway, Grip Jaw says there will be more pets and cosmetics in the full game, as well as a night garden where you can tend to crops. I always appreciate when an otherwise action-packed game like this one gives you some cozy stuff to break up the tension, like how Dondoko Island basically turns Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth into Animal Crossing.

Admittedly, it's a peculiar look going and forming a different studio and releasing a new game while still working on Valheim, which has been in early access for five years. As I mentioned, I played the demo and had an alright time, but so far Begraved hasn't clicked in a way that Valheim did pretty much instantaneously for me. That could be because I was playing solo, though, as the game is clearly designed for co-op play. Give it a try yourself and let us know what you think in the comments.