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Usually, when a bird stumbles upon an abandoned lighthouse, it might land, rest momentarily, leave a mess, and fly away. That's not the case in Keeper, an upcoming over-the-shoulder puzzle adventure game created by the development studio; in this world, the lighthouse sprouts tiny limbs, becomes BFFs with the bird, and sets off on an ambitious hike.

Although a recent preview at the gaming convention clarified some questions, it also sparked a curiosity to discover additional details about this surreal lighthouse-meets-bird tale. Therefore, we connected with the creative director, the creative director behind Keeper, to shed light on his team's vibrant creation.

A Unique Journey Gameplay

While at its core designed as an exploration title, Petty explains that Keeper aims to deliver a distinctive gameplay through a blend of dreamlike graphics, enigmatic setting, accessible puzzles, and, importantly, the lack of words. He calls the game a “refreshing break,” a brief adventure different from any title gamers have experienced before.

“Keeper conveys less than a typical game,” he notes. “It was essential for us to let the player unwind and not worry about making mistakes; just pause to try and accept the unusual aspects.”

Consequently, Keeper isn’t just a series of challenges, nor is its exploration very goal-oriented. Set in a post-civilization realm devoid of humans, players traverse the world as a sentient lighthouse joined by a bird sidekick named Twig, but you can’t die, there are no skill trees, and you’ll never have to grind for items.

Gameplay Mechanics and Environmental Interaction

“When we set out to create the puzzles, we aimed to develop puzzles that felt deeply woven into the world and the characters there. In a typical adventure game, you might find a obstacle first,” Petty clarifies. “You're like, oh, I cannot enter in this door, and you usually grasp that, since there are people there telling you so with dialogue.”

“But in our game, we aimed to really establish this sense of an peculiar, evocative world and not tell you precisely what it's about. Our puzzles function a bit uniquely, so you frequently kind of stumble upon them without knowing what you need to be doing.”

Handmade Aesthetics and Limited Controls

To impart the game a “crafted” feel, Keeper steers clear of using many iterations of the identical concept. “We implement that to some extent, as it's not like each element is done only one time and thrown away,” Petty elaborates, “but there is a great deal of distinct setup. Every few steps away, you see something very different from the remainder of the game.”

In response about maintaining gamer’s interest without of failure and defined objectives, Petty is adamant: “I believe we engage the player's attention through the unexpected. You're not really sure what's will occur around each corner.”

This thoughtfully designed approach is also noticeable in Keeper’s limited set of interactions. To find your way through its dreamlike world, you don’t need only a few buttons, as the lighthouse’s primary way of engaging with the world is through its beacon, which has a default mode and a focused mode. For example, you can aim it at plants to make them grow, beam toward a creature to make it react, and use it to uncover secrets and solve puzzles.

Partner Mechanics and Diverse Interactions

Twig, the lighthouse’s trusty bird companion, is usually sitting on the lighthouse, from where it will sometimes take flight to indicate the path forward or activate secrets. In addition to these automatic movements, the lighthouse can also direct the bird to perform actions like lifting objects, operating levers, or — perhaps the intriguing one — attaching itself to creatures.

The last example is a prime example of how Keeper’s streamlined approach to the control system nevertheless offers a wide variety of interactive features. The various environments, items, and creatures open the way to distinctive interactions, and especially metamorphosis.

“For instance, there's a segment where a sort of pink pollen, which resembles fairy floss, gets stuck to the lighthouse, rendering it lighter. For that segment of the game, the lighthouse can leap, hover, and navigate,” Petty explains. “A welcome change from being stuck to the ground. So we try to change the pace up in a many different ways.”

Narrative Devoid of Words

But hopping around and interacting with their surroundings isn’t the only task assigned upon the lighthouse and its bird; they must also convey a story of companionship, companionship, and overcoming obstacles together as they journey toward a magnificent mountain peak. To add to the challenge, they must accomplish this without using words — and without the kind of expressions and facial expressions a human character could have relied upon.

While Petty assures that gamers will get to sense more expression than one would expect from a lighthouse, it’s the bird, in particular, who is instrumental in conveying emotions. “When the bird is perched on the lighthouse, you actually have a dedicated button dedicated to just emoting with the bird, and a lot of times it will reflect the emotional tenor of that location,” he states.

“For instance, when you enter a somewhat unsettling or darker area, the bird will hunker down and coil around the top of the lighthouse. And if you hit the emote button, rather than a cheerful tweet or guiding you, it'll kind of look around and duck down.”

Dangers and Benevolent Creatures

By “darker area,” Petty is referring to the menace that derives from something called the “Wither,” a malevolent ecosystem. As the lighthouse and Twig proceed on their journey, they’ll see more and more of this violet, corrosive substance, which sometimes take the form of thorns, vines, and insects. “It's what Twig is flying away from,” Petty explains.

Unlike the Wither, the majority of creatures in Keeper are in fact amicable. When Twig emotes at one of the peculiar critters, for example, it may respond and perhaps produce an background sound — in the absence of words, audio cues and music are another tool used to narrate Keeper’s story.

Story Closure and Inspiration

This method of wordless storytelling makes me wonder if Keeper’s narrative concludes in a cryptic conclusion, but Petty reassures that there will be a middle ground. “It's not a total mystery, but because it's wordless, it's inherently subject to interpretation. We purposely want to leave some room for that because that's my most loved thing about art; the conversations that happen after people experience something,” he notes, “But we do provide defined narrative arcs and closure.”

A quick look at Keeper’s snowy mountaintops, elaborate cave systems, and unusual rock formations will tell you that the outdoors served as one of the main influences for this people-free tale. As Petty shares, the scenery isn’t just based on any old place: “I reside in California and there's a lot of really cool mountains in this region,” he says. “Near where I live, there's an abandoned Mercury mine that was left like a hundred years ago, and they've turned it into walking paths; that's one of my major inspirations. It's not anything super remarkable, but what adds intrigue is the many hills, and as you ascend, you occasionally discover remnants of machinery that you can’t identify what they were for.”

“They kind of look like weird monuments, just resting among nature, with nature taking back the space. When I reflect at the game and the remains of humanity in there, I can see the clear connection to me hiking around all that stuff.”

Symbolic Meaning and Closing Thoughts

Although Petty humorously refers to the lighthouse protagonist