Keeper Is A Salvador Dali-Inspired Surrealist Adventure With No Dialogue, No Combat, And A Walking Lighthouse

[ad_1] It is not usually I am thrown when previewing a online game. However thrown is precisely what I used to be once I stepped into the unassuming Xbox Room #10 in Xbox's enterprise corridor sales space throughout Day 1 of Gamescom 2025. There have been six seats, a small desk, and a tv showcasing Keeper, the upcoming journey sport from Psychonauts developer Double Effective Productions centered round a strolling lighthouse and a fowl. Oh, and the studio's CEO and video games business legend, Tim Schafer.

No person instructed me the particular person showcasing Keeper can be Schafer, and it is kinda wild to stroll right into a room and be surprise-greeted by a developer you massively respect. After all, Schafer is a real gentleman, variety, and genuinely hilarious, so the nerves rapidly disappear as he walks me by way of three beforehand recorded gameplay segments of Keeper.

I promise I will discuss these segments, however the whole lot Schafer instructed me beforehand was simply as fascinating (presumably extra). First off, it is his first time doing press since 2021 with Psychonauts 2, so Schafer explains that he is nervous – ahhh, even floor – and his first time at Gamescom in 16 years! Although he was right here in particular person to speak about Keeper, he largely speaks about Lee Petty, the sport's director (and Brutal Legend and Damaged Age artwork director) and the particular person behind the wild concept that's Keeper.

Schafer says Keeper would not exist with out Double Effective turning into an Xbox studio. "Across the time we had simply joined the Xbox household, we had been questioning what we should always make subsequent," Schafer says. "We've help; we now have cash; and we do not have to fret about going out of enterprise on daily basis, and we do not have to pitch to publishers, 'Please make our sport, it's extremely business.'"

On the similar time, Petty was busy fascinated by his time in the course of the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic. He was locked in his house like the remainder of us, however he discovered solace in nature hikes amongst the hills round San Francisco. He could not get an concept out of his head: what if humanity did not survive this, however nature did and took over in our place? It is right here that Schafer explains Petty is a "bizarre dude who loves unusual pictures, and grew up loving Darkish Crystal and Salvador Dali."

The results of all that pondering is Keeper – bizarre and chill, like Petty and his pursuits, Schafer says. He then describes the sport as an journey sport with puzzles – gentle puzzles, although, as a result of Keeper is concerning the "environment and vibes and companionship between these two." The 2 he is speaking about are Twig, a sea fowl, and an unnamed lighthouse. After a violent sea storm isolates Twig from her flock, she perches on a lighthouse. For some cause, this awakens the lighthouse, it ideas over, and within the ensuing crash, it grows legs. Typical lighthouse habits.

Woke up and the brand new proprietor of legs, this lighthouse feels instantly known as to a large mountain peak atop the island it is on. So, it begins heading that method, with Twig in tow. Controlling the lighthouse consists of shifting by way of surrealist and fantastical landscapes and shining your beam on issues. You possibly can shine your beam on crops and typically they're going to develop; you'll be able to shine your beam on gears and typically Twig will fly to them and rotate them to unlock gates; you'll be able to shine your beam on unusual pot creatures that crash to the ground beneath them, typically revealing objects for Twig to work together with.

Your main methodology of interacting with this world is your beam, and second to that's Twig. This may simply be a me factor as somebody who lives a pair hours away from Disney World and has a passion for the know-how of animatronics, however Keeper most jogs my memory of a Disney darkish trip. Should you're unfamiliar with that time period, darkish rides embody Pirates of the Caribbean and The Haunted Mansion. It is much less about thrills and extra about experiencing the issues round you, watching animatronics transfer to inform a narrative, and soaking within the vibes. That is Keeper.

I like that shining your gentle on objects causes them to emote or come to life with animation. It may not have an effect on your journey ahead or be a part of a puzzle each time, however that is okay – it is concerning the vibes! It is about watching the animatronics of this world, because it had been, do issues that make the encircling space really feel actual, prefer it has its personal story to inform.

The puzzles I see appear easy and fast, however I am unable to assist maintaining a tally of the issues outdoors the first focus of those gameplay movies. I see sunflowers dance as gentle grazes over them, carrots come to life and dive bomb into the soil beneath, and extra. It actually looks like a Double Effective darkish trip in essentially the most complimentary method.

After all, I see another issues that catch my eye. At one level, Twig turns into a large egg atop the lighthouse for some cause. I see a village of tiny lil guys which might be rusty watches. I see the lighthouse prance by way of pink pollen that offers it a lightweight, low-gravity impact when it jumps. The whole lot I see appears to be like vastly completely different from what I witness moments earlier than, but it surely's all oozing with Double Effective and surrealist Salvador Dali-inspired attraction.

Some areas are extra linear, designed round puzzles, Schafer says. Different areas are extra open, prime for exploration. No matter the place you might be within the lighthouse's journey to the mountain peak, Schafer says Keeper is finally about change; how nature modifications, how Twig modifications, how the lighthouse modifications. Each character, together with Twig and the Lighthouse, has a narrative arc, he provides.

Once I ask Schafer why Petty determined to have gamers management a lighthouse, Schafer laughs – he would not truly know. He says the lighthouse was one of many sport's facet characters, however when he noticed it strolling with legs, he instructed Petty that must be the sport. "It was compelling," Schafer says. "It actually regarded like one thing from a surrealist portray."

Schafer ends my presentation additional explaining Double Effective's love of nonsense and the weird, the kind of work administrators David Lynch and David Cronenberg are occupied with making, he says. I see the imaginative and prescient.

Keeper is a bizarre sport, but it surely has that simple Double Effective attraction. I am unable to wait to really play it when it launches on October 17 on Xbox Collection X/S and PC.