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Typically, if a bird discovers an deserted lighthouse, it might land, rest briefly, leave a mess, and fly away. Not so in Keeper, an forthcoming over-the-shoulder puzzle adventure game developed by Double Fine Productions; in this world, the lighthouse sprouts tiny limbs, forms a friendship with the bird, and embarks on an daring hike.

While a latest sneak peek at the gaming convention clarified some questions, it also sparked a desire to learn more about this absurdist lighthouse-meets-bird tale. Therefore, we connected with Lee Petty, the creative director behind Keeper, to illuminate on his team's vibrant creation.

An Unconventional Adventure Gameplay

Although fundamentally designed as an exploration title, Petty explains that Keeper aims to provide a unique gameplay through a combination of surreal graphics, world mystery, approachable puzzles, and, importantly, the lack of words. He refers to the game a “refreshing break,” a brief adventure unlike anything you’ve played before.

“Keeper communicates less than a standard game,” he says. “It was important for us to let the player unwind and not stress about making mistakes; just pause to try and accept the unusual aspects.”

As a result, Keeper is not merely a series of challenges, nor is its exploration highly objective-driven. Set in a post-apocalyptic world devoid of humans, you will explore the world as a living lighthouse joined by a bird companion named Twig, but you can’t die, the game lacks skill trees, and there is no need to farm for items.

Puzzle Design and Environmental Interaction

“When we began to design the puzzles, we wanted to develop puzzles that felt very integrated into the world and the inhabitants there. In a standard adventure game, you might find a obstacle first,” Petty clarifies. “You're like, oh, I can't get through this door, and you typically grasp that, because there are people there telling you so with dialogue.”

“But in our game, we wanted to truly establish this sense of an unusual, evocative world and not reveal exactly what it's about. Our puzzles function a bit uniquely, so you often sort of stumble upon them without knowing what you need to be doing.”

Artisanal Feel and Minimalist Interactions

To give the game a “crafted” feel, Keeper steers clear of using many iterations of the same concept. “We do that to a degree, as it's not like each element is done exactly once and discarded,” Petty elaborates, “but there is a lot of distinct setup. Every short distance away, you see something very different from the rest of the game.”

When asked about sustaining gamer’s interest without of failure and clear objectives, Petty is adamant: “I think we engage the player's attention through the surprising. Players aren’t entirely 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, players require more than a handful of buttons, as the lighthouse’s main way of interacting with the world is through its beacon, which has a standard mode and a concentrated mode. For instance, you can direct it at plants to make them grow, shine toward a creature to make it react, and use it to uncover secrets and tackle puzzles.

Partner Mechanics and Diverse Interactions

Twig, the lighthouse’s reliable bird friend, is usually sitting on the lighthouse, from where it will sometimes fly off to indicate the path forward or activate secrets. In addition to these automatic movements, the lighthouse can also command the bird to perform actions like raising objects, pulling levers, or — maybe the intriguing one — connecting itself to creatures.

The last example is a prime illustration of how Keeper’s minimalistic design to the input scheme nevertheless offers a broad range of interactive features. The various environments, items, and creatures open the way to unique interactions, and especially metamorphosis.

“For instance, there's a moment where a sort of rosy dust, which looks like cotton candy, gets stuck to the lighthouse, making it lighter. For that portion of the game, the lighthouse can leap, float, and move around,” Petty says. “A welcome change from being anchored to the ground. So we try to vary the pace up in a lot of different ways.”

Narrative Without Words

But hopping around and fiddling with their environment isn’t the only task bestowed upon the lighthouse and its bird; they must additionally convey a story of companionship, companionship, and overcoming obstacles together as they travel toward a breathtaking mountain peak. To make matters more complicated, they must accomplish this without using words — and without the kind of gestures and facial expressions a person could have relied upon.

While Petty assures that gamers will experience more expression than one would expect from a lighthouse, it’s the bird, in particular, who is instrumental in expressing emotions. “When they're riding along on the lighthouse, you actually have a whole button dedicated to just emoting with the bird, and often it will reflect the emotional tenor of that location,” he states.

“For example, when you get in a kind of unsettling or gloomier area, the bird will hunker down and curl around the top of the lighthouse. And if you hit the expression button, rather than a playful chirp or directing you, it'll sort of glance about and duck down.”

Threats and Benevolent Creatures

By “darker area,” Petty is referring to the threat that derives from something called the “Wither,” a hostile ecosystem. As the lighthouse and Twig continue their journey, they encounter more and more of this violet, corrosive substance, which sometimes appear as of thorns, creepers, and insects. “It's what Twig is escaping,” Petty clarifies.

In contrast to the Wither, most creatures in Keeper are in fact amicable. When Twig emotes at one of the peculiar critters, for instance, it might respond and possibly produce an ambient noise — without of words, sound effects and music are an additional tool used to narrate Keeper’s story.

Story Conclusion and Inspiration

This manner of non-verbal storytelling makes me wonder if Keeper’s narrative ends in a cryptic ending, but Petty assures that there will be a balance. “It's not a complete mystery, but since it's without dialogue, it's inherently subject to interpretation. We purposely aim 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 include defined narrative arcs and closure.”

A quick look at Keeper’s icy mountaintops, intricate cave systems, and odd rock formations will reveal that natural scenery served as one of the main influences for this human-less tale. As Petty tells, the scenery isn’t just inspired by any old place: “I live in California and there's a lot of really cool mountains in this region,” he says. “Close to where I live, there's an abandoned Mercury mine that was left like a hundred years ago, and it has been converted into hiking trails; that's one of my major inspirations. It's nothing super remarkable, but what adds intrigue is the many hills, and as you ascend, you occasionally discover remnants 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 direct connection to me hiking around all that stuff.”

Metaphorical Meaning and Closing Thoughts

Although Petty jokingly calls the lighthouse main character