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Usually, when a bird stumbles upon an deserted lighthouse, it might land, rest momentarily, make a deposit, and take off. That's not the case in Keeper, an forthcoming third-person puzzle adventure game created by the development studio; here, the lighthouse sprouts tiny limbs, forms a friendship with the bird, and sets off on an ambitious hike.

While a recent sneak peek at Gamescom clarified some questions, it also ignited a desire to learn more about this absurdist lighthouse-meets-bird tale. Thus, we connected with Lee Petty, the creative director behind Keeper, to shed light on his team's colorful creation.

An Unconventional Journey Experience

While fundamentally built as an exploration title, Petty explains that Keeper aims to provide a distinctive gameplay through a blend of surreal visual style, enigmatic setting, approachable puzzles, and, most notably, the lack of words. He refers to the game a “refreshing break,” a short adventure different from any title gamers have experienced before.

“Keeper conveys fewer details than a standard game,” he says. “It was essential for us to let the player unwind and not worry about messing up; just take a moment to attempt and embrace the unusual aspects.”

As a result, Keeper is not merely a series of challenges, nor is its exploration very goal-oriented. Taking place in a post-civilization world without humans, players traverse the world as a living lighthouse accompanied by a bird companion named Twig, but you can’t die, there are no skill trees, and you’ll never have to grind for items.

Gameplay Mechanics and World Integration

“When we set out to create the puzzles, we wanted to craft puzzles that felt deeply integrated into the world and the inhabitants there. In a typical adventure game, you may find a obstacle first,” Petty clarifies. “For instance, oh, I cannot enter through this door, and you typically understand that, since there are people there telling you so with dialogue.”

“But in our game, we wanted to truly create this feeling of an peculiar, evocative world and not reveal exactly what it's about. Our puzzles function a bit uniquely, so you frequently kind of wander into them without understanding what you need to be doing.”

Handmade Aesthetics and Limited Interactions

To give the game a “handmade” feel, Keeper avoids using many variations of the identical concept. “We implement that to a degree, as it's not like each element is done only one time and thrown away,” Petty explains, “but there is a lot of distinct setup. Every short distance away, you encounter something distinctly new from the rest of the game.”

When asked about sustaining player’s attention without of failure and defined objectives, Petty stands firm: “I believe we engage the player's attention through the unexpected. You're not really sure what's going to happen around each corner.”

This thoughtfully designed approach is additionally evident in Keeper’s restricted set of interactions. To navigate through its surrealist world, you don’t need only a handful of buttons, as the lighthouse’s main 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 squint, and use it to uncover secrets and solve puzzles.

Partner Mechanics and Gameplay Variety

Twig, the lighthouse’s reliable bird friend, is usually sitting on the lighthouse, from where it will sometimes fly off to show the path forward or activate secrets. Apart from these scripted movements, the lighthouse can additionally command the bird to perform actions like lifting objects, operating levers, or — maybe the intriguing one — attaching itself to creatures.

The last example is a great example of how Keeper’s streamlined approach to the input scheme nevertheless offers a broad range of gameplay mechanics. The various environments, items, and creatures pave the path to unique interactions, and particularly metamorphosis.

“For instance, there's a segment where a type of rosy dust, which resembles cotton candy, gets attached to the lighthouse, making it lighter. For that segment of the game, the lighthouse can jump, float, and navigate,” Petty says. “A welcome change from being anchored to the ground. So we try to vary the pace up in a lot of various ways.”

Narrative Without Words

But hopping around and fiddling with their environment isn’t the only task assigned upon the lighthouse and its bird; they must also express a story of companionship, bonding, and overcoming obstacles together 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 facial expressions a person might’ve used.

Although Petty confirms that gamers will experience more expression than might 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 often it will reflect the mood of that area,” he states.

“For instance, 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 press the emote button, rather than a playful chirp or guiding you, it will sort of glance about and duck down.”

Dangers and Friendly Creatures

By “gloomy zone,” Petty is talking about the threat that derives from something called the “Wither,” a hostile ecosystem. As the lighthouse and Twig continue their journey, they’ll see increasing amounts of this purple, vitriolic substance, which may occasionally appear as of brambles, creepers, and bugs. “It's what Twig is flying away from,” Petty clarifies.

Unlike the Wither, the majority of creatures in Keeper are in fact amicable. When Twig expresses at one of the peculiar critters, for example, it might emote back and possibly create an background sound — in the absence of words, audio cues and music are another tool used to narrate Keeper’s story.

Story Conclusion and Inspiration

This method of wordless storytelling raises the question if Keeper’s narrative concludes in a ambiguous conclusion, but Petty reassures that there will be a balance. “It's not a complete mystery, but because it's without dialogue, it's naturally open to interpretation. We did intentionally aim to allow space for that because that's my most loved thing about art; the conversations that happen after people play something,” he says, “But we include defined narrative arcs and closure.”

A quick look at Keeper’s icy mountaintops, intricate cave systems, and unusual rock formations will reveal that the outdoors served as one of the main inspirations for this people-free tale. As Petty tells, the scenery isn’t just inspired by ordinary locations: “I live in California and there's a plenty of really cool mountains in this region,” he explains. “Close to where I live, there's an old Mercury mine that was abandoned like a hundred years ago, and it has been converted into walking paths; that's one of my big inspirations. It's nothing extraordinary, but what adds intrigue is the numerous hills, and as you ascend, you occasionally come across remnants of machinery that you can’t identify what they were for.”

“They kind of resemble weird monuments, just resting 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 hiking around all that stuff.”

Metaphorical Meaning and Closing Thoughts

Although Petty humorously calls the lighthouse main character