At IGN Fan Fest, Channel37 — a Finnish independent studio founded by industry veterans—unveiled its premiere title, The Last Caretaker. This first-person survival action-adventure takes players into a vast, uncharted ocean world where remnants of the past linger amongst the waves, and the future of humanity rests in the hands of a single caretaker.
“At Channel37, we’re not just making a game. We’re building something deeply personal, something that reflects decades of experience and passion,” said Antti Ilvessuo, Co-Founder of Channel37. “Our team has been creating games for over 25 years, and with the backing of Supercell, we’ve had the freedom to craft something truly new. This is not just another survival game; it’s a story about duty, legacy, and the burden of carrying humanity’s last hope.”
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He continued, “The Last Caretaker is our love letter to exploration, mystery, and resilience. We’ve built a world that reacts, evolves, and hides secrets in plain sight. This is a game we believe in, and we can’t wait to share it with players.”
About The Last Caretaker
The world has changed. An endless ocean stretches in every direction, its surface broken by the last remnants of those who stayed behind. Machines still hum with forgotten purpose, beacons flicker with old signals, and infrastructure continues its silent operations. But something else stirs — technology repurposed, reshaped to drift in silence.
As the Last Caretaker, a player must navigate this vast ocean, scavenging lost knowledge, reactivating dormant systems, and ensuring the survival of humanity’s final remnants. Deep within the Seed Vaults, the last human embryos wait for their journey to the stars. But not all that remains is dormant. Some machines still whisper, still move, still watch.
What can players expect going into the game?
The Last Caretaker is built on four core pillars that shape gameplay and story: Connection, Exploration, Caretaking, and Resilience. Every action, choice, and discovery brings players closer to fulfilling their mission of ensuring humanity’s future.
Key Features of The Last Caretaker:
- Create – Scavenge valuable resources to repair critical systems, upgrade your robotic capabilities, and craft tools essential for maintaining your operational capabilities.
- Explore – Navigate an endless ocean dotted with towering remnants of another time. Weathered megastructures, decayed platforms, and forgotten stations still cling to purpose. Some structures hold valuable resources, others whisper with long-lost signals.
- Discover – From encrypted recordings to long-dormant terminals, fragments of human history remain scattered across the ocean. Each piece recovered adds another thread to the story of what came before and what must come next.
- Nurture – Balance nutrition, energy, and memories to cultivate the first new humans in centuries. Every launch to the orbital colonies is a step closer to completing the Caretaker’s ultimate directive.
- Survive – The ocean is beautiful, but it is not safe. Rogue machines, biomechanical threats, and unknown forces seek to disrupt your mission. You must adapt, defend, and find a way forward, no matter the cost.
The team behind The Last Caretaker
Founded in Helsinki, Finland, in 2021, Channel37 is a studio that draws upon decades of games industry experience to create bold titles that connect players and provide experiences worth talking about.
The seven-person studio comprises CEO and co-founder Miika Aulio, co-founders Vesa Halonen, Antti Ilvessuo, Sami Saarinen, and Community Manager Jack Pattillo. Collectively, the team has many decades of experience in the games industry, shipping major PC and console titles.
Channel 37’s The Last Caretaker will be released in Early Access in the summer of 2025 for Windows PC on Steam and the Epic Games Store. A console release will occur at a later date. Future caretakers can wishlist the game now.
