Graveyard Keeper 2 is coming this year, and the original is free to keep on Steam if you grab it now

I played nearly 50 hours of Graveyard Keeper in 2018 and its grim take on a Stardew Valley life sim turned me into one of the most evil characters I've ever played. As the caretaker of the dead, I quickly came to view human body parts as just another crafting resource to be harvested for profit—and business was booming.

I used human fat to craft prayer candles for the local church. I donated buckets of blood and human skulls to a cultist so he'd do me favors. I sold human meat to a restaurant, authorized by a counterfeit royal stamp I'd illegally acquired. All in a day's work.

Looks like I'll get the chance to delve back into the organ trade this year, as Graveyard Keeper 2 was announced at today's Triple-I Initiative showcase and will launch in 2026. While the trailer begins with some standard life sim activities like chopping down trees and fishing in ponds, it gets down to the real work quickly enough: burying bodies, decorating the graveyard, and battling the undead as they try to invade your grim little town.

You'll eventually go from mild-mannered undertaker to full-on necromancer: the trailer shows a basement laboratory where reanimated corpses are pushing a wheel in a circle, presumably to provide power for your workstations. There's automation, too, as conveyor belts trundle resources to crafting benches where they can be assembled into products like suits of armor for town defense.

"Become the Inquisitor and lead your undead army into battle to save the Kingdom from a zombie apocalypse. Build towers and fortifications, craft powerful armour and weapons, arm and train your not-so-smart troops, and slash your way to victory!" says developer Lazy Bear Games.

"Help the townsfolk rebuild their homes and complete quests throughout the city, as your undead workers take care of the heavy lifting behind the scenes. With zombie-based automation and structured systems, you can transform local efforts into a scalable and profitable operation."

There's an extremely nifty bonus to the announcement of the sequel: the original Graveyard Keeper is now a real keeper, by which I mean it's free to own on Steam until April 13. Give it a try if you haven't yet, just try not to be quite as evil as I was.