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Usually, when a bird discovers an deserted lighthouse, it might land, relax momentarily, leave a mess, and take off. Not so in Keeper, an forthcoming third-person puzzle adventure game developed by the development studio; here, the lighthouse sprouts little legs, becomes BFFs with the bird, and embarks on an daring hike.

While a recent preview at the gaming convention clarified some questions, it also sparked a desire to discover additional details about this surreal lighthouse-meets-bird tale. Thus, we connected with Lee Petty, the visionary lead behind Keeper, to illuminate on his team's colorful creation.

A Unique Adventure Gameplay

Although fundamentally built as an exploration title, Petty explains that Keeper aims to deliver a distinctive gameplay through a combination of dreamlike visual style, enigmatic setting, approachable puzzles, and, importantly, the lack of words. He calls the game a “palate cleanser,” a short adventure different from anything gamers have experienced before.

“Keeper conveys fewer details than a typical game,” he says. “It was important for us to let the player unwind and not stress about making mistakes; just take a moment to attempt and accept the unusual aspects.”

Consequently, Keeper is not merely a series of challenges, nor is its exploration very goal-oriented. Set in a post-apocalyptic world devoid of humans, players traverse the world as a sentient lighthouse accompanied by a bird sidekick named Twig, but you can’t die, the game lacks skill trees, and there is no need to grind for items.

Gameplay Mechanics and World Integration

“When we set out to create the puzzles, we aimed to craft puzzles that felt very woven into the world and the characters there. In a typical adventure game, you may encounter a obstacle first,” Petty clarifies. “For instance, oh, I cannot enter in this door, and you usually grasp that, because there are characters there explaining so with dialogue.”

“But in our game, we aimed to truly establish this sense of an peculiar, evocative world and not tell you exactly what it's about. Our puzzles work a bit uniquely, so you often kind of stumble upon them without understanding what you're supposed to be doing.”

Artisanal Aesthetics and Limited Controls

To give the game a “crafted” atmosphere, Keeper steers clear of using numerous iterations of the identical concept. “We implement that to some extent, as it's not like each element is created exactly once and thrown away,” Petty explains, “but there is a great deal of unique setup. Every short distance away, you see something distinctly new from the remainder of the game.”

In response about sustaining player’s attention in the absence of failure and clear objectives, Petty is adamant: “I believe we captivate the player's attention through the unexpected. Players aren’t entirely sure what's going to happen around each corner.”

This thoughtfully designed method is also noticeable in Keeper’s limited set of interactions. To find your way through its dreamlike world, you don’t need more than a handful of buttons, as the lighthouse’s main way of engaging with the world is through its headlight, which has a default mode and a concentrated mode. For example, you can direct it at plants to make them flourish, beam toward a creature to make it squint, and use it to uncover secrets and solve puzzles.

Companion Dynamics and Gameplay Variety

Twig, the lighthouse’s reliable bird companion, is usually sitting on the lighthouse, from where he’ll occasionally fly off to indicate the path forward or trigger secrets. In addition to these automatic movements, the lighthouse can also command the bird to do things like lifting objects, operating levers, or — maybe the most interesting one — connecting itself to creatures.

The latter is a great illustration of how Keeper’s streamlined design to the input scheme still provides a broad range of interactive features. The various environments, items, and creatures pave the path to distinctive interactions, and especially metamorphosis.

“For example, there's a moment where a sort of rosy dust, which resembles cotton candy, gets attached to the lighthouse, making it lighter. For that segment of the game, the lighthouse can leap, hover, and navigate,” Petty explains. “A breath of fresh air from being stuck to the ground. So we aim to vary the pace up in a many various ways.”

Narrative Devoid of Words

But exploring and interacting with their environment is not the sole task bestowed upon the lighthouse and its bird; they must additionally express a story of companionship, companionship, and surmounting obstacles as a team as they travel toward a magnificent mountain peak. To add to the challenge, they must do so without using words — and without the kind of gestures and emotional cues a human character could have used.

While Petty confirms that players will get to sense more expression than might expect from a lighthouse, it’s the bird, specifically, who is instrumental in conveying emotions. “When they're riding along on the lighthouse, you actually have a whole button assigned for just emoting with the bird, and often it will mirror the mood of that location,” he states.

“For example, when you enter a kind of tense or darker area, the bird will crouch and curl around the top of the lighthouse. And if you press the expression button, instead of a cheerful tweet or directing you, it will sort of look around and duck down.”

Dangers and Friendly Creatures

By “gloomy zone,” Petty is talking about the menace that derives from something called the “Wither,” a hostile ecosystem. As the lighthouse and Twig proceed on their journey, they’ll see more and more of this purple, vitriolic substance, which may occasionally take the form of thorns, vines, and insects. “It's what Twig is escaping,” Petty explains.

Unlike the Wither, the majority of creatures in Keeper are actually amicable. When Twig expresses at one of the peculiar critters, for instance, it may respond and perhaps produce an ambient noise — in the absence of words, audio cues and music are another tool used to tell Keeper’s story.

Narrative Conclusion and Inspiration

This method of non-verbal storytelling makes me wonder if Keeper’s narrative ends in a cryptic ending, but Petty assures that there will be a middle ground. “It's not a complete mystery, but because it's without dialogue, it's naturally open to interpretation. We purposely aim to allow space for that because that's my favorite thing about art; the discussions that happen after people experience something,” he says, “But we include specific narrative arcs and closure.”

One glance at Keeper’s snowy mountaintops, elaborate cave systems, and unusual rock formations will reveal that the outdoors served as one of the main influences for this people-free tale. As Petty shares, the scenery is not only inspired by any old place: “I live in California and there's a plenty of amazing mountains in this region,” he explains. “Near where I live, there's an abandoned Mercury mine that was abandoned like a century ago, and it has been converted into hiking trails; that's one of my major inspirations. It's nothing super remarkable, but what makes it interesting is the many hills, and as you ascend, you sometimes discover old pieces of machinery that you can’t identify what they were for.”

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

Metaphorical Significance and Final Thoughts

Although Petty jokingly refers to the lighthouse main character