Usually, when a bird stumbles upon an deserted lighthouse, it might perch, relax momentarily, make a deposit, and take off. Not so in Keeper, an forthcoming over-the-shoulder adventure puzzle game created by Double Fine Productions; in this world, the lighthouse grows tiny limbs, becomes BFFs with the bird, and embarks on an daring hike.
While a recent sneak peek at the gaming convention clarified some questions, it also sparked a desire to learn more about this surreal lighthouse-meets-bird tale. Thus, we sat down with Lee Petty, the creative director behind Keeper, to illuminate on his team's colorful creation.
An Unconventional Adventure Experience
While fundamentally built as an exploration title, Petty states that Keeper aims to deliver a unique experience through a combination of surreal graphics, enigmatic setting, accessible puzzles, and, importantly, the absence of words. He calls the game a “palate cleanser,” a short adventure different from any title you’ve played before.
“Keeper conveys fewer details than a standard game,” he says. “It was important for us to let the player unwind and not worry about messing up; just pause to attempt and embrace the unusual aspects.”
Consequently, Keeper is not merely a sequence of challenges, nor is its exploration very objective-driven. Taking place in a post-civilization realm without humans, players traverse the world as a living lighthouse joined by a bird companion named Twig, but there is no death, there are no skill trees, and you’ll never have to grind for items.
Gameplay Mechanics and Environmental Interaction
“When we began to design the puzzles, we aimed to develop puzzles that felt deeply integrated into the world and the characters there. In a standard adventure game, you might encounter a obstacle first,” Petty clarifies. “For instance, oh, I can't get through this door, and you typically understand that, since there are characters there telling you so with dialogue.”
“But in our game, we aimed to really create this feeling of an unusual, atmospheric world and not tell you exactly what it's about. Our puzzles work a little differently, so you frequently sort of stumble upon them without knowing what you're supposed to be doing.”
Artisanal Aesthetics and Minimalist Interactions
To impart the game a “crafted” feel, Keeper avoids using many iterations of the identical concept. “We implement that to a degree, as it's not like everything is created exactly once and thrown away,” Petty explains, “but there is a great deal of unique setup. Every few steps away, you see something very different from the remainder of the game.”
When asked about sustaining player’s interest in the absence of failure and defined objectives, Petty is adamant: “I believe we engage the player's attention through the surprising. You're not really sure what's going to happen around each corner.”
This curated method is additionally evident in Keeper’s limited set of interactions. To navigate through its dreamlike world, you don’t need more than a handful of buttons, as the lighthouse’s main way of interacting with the world is through its headlight, which has a default mode and a focused mode. For instance, you can direct it at plants to make them flourish, shine toward a creature to make it react, and use it to uncover secrets and solve puzzles.
Companion Mechanics and Gameplay Variety
Twig, the lighthouse’s reliable bird companion, is usually perched on the lighthouse, from where it will occasionally fly off to show the path forward or trigger secrets. In addition to these automatic movements, the lighthouse can additionally command the bird to do actions like raising objects, pulling levers, or — maybe the most interesting one — attaching itself to creatures.
The last example is a great illustration of how Keeper’s streamlined approach to the input scheme still offers a broad range of gameplay mechanics. The diverse environments, items, and creatures pave the path to unique interactions, and particularly metamorphosis.
“For example, there's a segment where a type of pink pollen, which resembles cotton candy, gets attached to the lighthouse, making it lighter. For that portion of the game, the lighthouse can jump, float, and move around,” Petty says. “A breath of fresh air from being anchored to the ground. So we aim to vary the pace up in a lot of different ways.”
Storytelling Without Words
But exploring and fiddling with their environment is not the sole task bestowed upon the lighthouse and its bird; they must additionally express a story of friendship, companionship, and overcoming obstacles as a team as they journey toward a breathtaking mountain peak. To add to the challenge, they must do so without using words — and without the type of expressions and facial expressions a human character might’ve used.
While Petty confirms that players will experience greater emotion than one would expect from a lighthouse, it’s the bird, specifically, who plays a major role in expressing emotions. “When the bird is perched on the lighthouse, you actually have a whole button assigned for just expressing with the bird, and a lot of times it will mirror the mood of that location,” he states.
“For example, when you get in a somewhat unsettling or gloomier area, the bird will hunker down and coil around the top of the lighthouse. And if you hit the emote button, rather than a playful tweet or directing you, it'll kind of glance about and hide.”
Threats and Friendly Creatures
By “gloomy zone,” Petty is referring to the threat that derives from something called the “Wither,” a hostile ecosystem. As the lighthouse and Twig proceed on their journey, they’ll see increasing amounts of this purple, corrosive substance, which sometimes appear as of brambles, creepers, and bugs. “It's what Twig is escaping,” Petty clarifies.
Unlike the Wither, most creatures in Keeper are in fact friendly. When Twig emotes at one of the peculiar critters, for instance, it might emote back and possibly produce an ambient noise — without of words, sound effects and music are another tool used to narrate Keeper’s story.
Narrative Closure and Inspiration
This manner of non-verbal storytelling raises the question if Keeper’s narrative concludes in a ambiguous conclusion, but Petty reassures that there will be a middle ground. “It's not a total mystery, but since it's without dialogue, it's inherently subject to interpretation. We did intentionally want to leave some room for that because that's my most loved thing about art; the discussions that happen once people play something,” he notes, “But we do provide specific narrative arcs and closure.”
A quick look at Keeper’s snowy mountaintops, elaborate cave systems, and unusual rock formations will tell you that natural scenery served as one of the main influences for this human-less adventure. As Petty tells, the scenery isn’t just inspired by any old place: “I live in California and there's a lot of amazing mountains around here,” he says. “Close to where I live, there's an abandoned Mercury mine that was abandoned like a century ago, and it has been converted into walking paths; that's one of my major inspirations. It's nothing extraordinary, but what makes it interesting is the many hills, and as you ascend, you sometimes discover old pieces of machinery that you're not even sure what they were for.”
“They kind of look like weird monuments, just sitting within nature, with nature reclaiming the space. When I reflect at the game and the artifacts of humanity in there, I can see the clear connection to me hiking around all that stuff.”
Symbolic Meaning and Closing Reflections
While Petty humorously refers to the lighthouse protagonist
