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Typically, if a bird discovers 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 Double Fine Productions; here, the lighthouse sprouts tiny limbs, becomes BFFs with the bird, and embarks on an daring hike.

While a recent preview at Gamescom answered some questions, it also ignited a desire to learn more about this absurdist lighthouse-meets-bird story. Thus, we sat down with the creative director, the visionary lead behind Keeper, to shed light on his team's colorful creation.

An Unconventional Journey Gameplay

While at its core designed as an adventure game, Petty states that Keeper aims to provide a unique gameplay through a combination of surreal graphics, enigmatic setting, accessible puzzles, and, most notably, the lack of words. He refers to the game a “refreshing break,” a short adventure different from anything gamers have experienced before.

“Keeper communicates less than a typical game,” he says. “It was important for us to let the player relax and not stress about messing up; 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 objective-driven. Taking place in a post-apocalyptic world devoid of humans, you will explore the world as a sentient lighthouse accompanied by a bird companion named Twig, but there is no death, the game lacks skill trees, and you’ll never have to grind for items.

Puzzle Design and World Integration

“When we began to create the puzzles, we wanted to craft puzzles that felt deeply integrated into the world and the characters there. In a typical adventure game, you may encounter a problem first,” Petty clarifies. “You're like, oh, I cannot enter through this door, and you usually understand that, since there are characters there explaining so with dialogue.”

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

Artisanal Aesthetics and Limited Controls

To give the game a “crafted” atmosphere, Keeper avoids using numerous variations of the identical concept. “We implement that to some extent, as it's not like everything is created only one time and discarded,” Petty explains, “but there is a lot of unique setup. Every short distance away, you see something very different from the remainder of the game.”

In response about sustaining gamer’s attention without of failure and clear objectives, Petty stands firm: “I believe we captivate the player's attention through the surprising. You're not really sure what's will occur around each corner.”

This thoughtfully designed method is also evident in Keeper’s restricted set of interactions. To navigate through its dreamlike world, you don’t need only a few buttons, as the lighthouse’s main way of engaging with the world is through its beacon, which has a standard mode and a focused mode. For example, you can direct it at plants to make them flourish, beam 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 trusty bird companion, is usually perched on the lighthouse, from where he’ll sometimes fly off to show the path forward or trigger secrets. Apart from these scripted movements, the lighthouse can also command the bird to perform actions like raising objects, pulling 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 wide variety 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 type of pink pollen, which looks like cotton candy, gets stuck to the lighthouse, making it less heavy. For that portion of the game, the lighthouse can leap, hover, and navigate,” Petty says. “A welcome change from being stuck to the ground. So we aim to change the pace up in a lot of different ways.”

Narrative Devoid of Words

But exploring and fiddling with their surroundings isn’t the only task assigned upon the lighthouse and its bird; they must additionally express a story of friendship, companionship, and surmounting obstacles together as they travel toward a magnificent mountain peak. To make matters more complicated, they must do so without using words — and without the type of gestures and facial expressions a human character might’ve used.

Although Petty assures that gamers will experience greater emotion than might 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 dedicated button dedicated to just emoting with the bird, and a lot of times it will reflect the mood of that area,” he says.

“For example, when you enter a somewhat tense 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 cheerful tweet or directing you, it'll sort of glance about and hide.”

Dangers and Benevolent Inhabitants

By “gloomy zone,” Petty is talking about the menace that stems 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, corrosive substance, which sometimes take the form of thorns, vines, and insects. “It's what Twig is escaping,” Petty clarifies.

In contrast to the Wither, most creatures in Keeper are in fact friendly. When Twig emotes at one of the odd critters, for example, it might emote back and possibly produce an background sound — in the absence of words, sound effects and music are an additional tool used to narrate Keeper’s story.

Narrative Closure and Influences

This manner of non-verbal storytelling raises the question if Keeper’s narrative concludes in a ambiguous conclusion, but Petty assures that there will be a balance. “It's not a total mystery, but because it's without dialogue, it's naturally subject to interpretation. We did intentionally want to allow some room for that as that's my most loved thing about art; the discussions that happen once people experience something,” he says, “But we include specific narrative arcs and closure.”

One glance at Keeper’s snowy mountaintops, intricate cave systems, and odd rock formations will reveal that natural scenery served as one of the primary inspirations for this people-free tale. As Petty tells, the scenery isn’t just based on ordinary locations: “I live in California and there's a lot of amazing mountains around here,” 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 nothing super remarkable, but what makes it interesting is the many hills, and as you ascend, you occasionally come across old pieces of machinery that you can’t identify what they were for.”

“They kind of resemble strange monuments, just sitting within nature, with nature taking back the space. When I reflect at the game and the artifacts of humanity in there, I can see the direct connection to me trekking around all that stuff.”

Symbolic Meaning and Final Thoughts

Although Petty humorously refers to the lighthouse protagonist