Co-op base-building survival, floating sky islands, and a dwarf in a mech—do I need to go on?

Now that I think about it, dwarves are a perfect match for mechs. They mine the sturdiest metals, which you need if you're gonna build a mech. They're brilliant engineers, capable of building fantastic mechanical devices, so why not one they can ride around in? And they craft huge honkin' weapons like hammers and axes—exactly the kind of thing a giant robot would excel at swinging around.

Developer Star Drifters realized that mechs and dwarves go together like peas and carrots a while ago and have been working hard on First Dwarf, a co-op base-building survival game. A demo is out now, and early access begins on June 19. Just check out the launch trailer revealed at the Future Games Show:

But a dwarf crafting and stomping around in a giant mech isn't the only draw in First Dwarf. As you build up your colony and research new tech to create more advanced structures, you'll also need to construct a tower defense system with turrets and walls. That's because the island is home to mutated creatures that swarm your base when night falls.

Just to make things even cooler, your dwarf has a sky ship that can sail to other floating islands in this fractured world, where you can construct new colonies and find new blueprints and resources.

Dwarves, mechs, floating islands, sky ships, tower defense, crafting, and colony survival? You can even play co-op with a friend. That's a whole lotta stuff I can get behind. I'm diving into the First Dwarf demo right now.