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

It is not usually I am thrown when previewing a online game. However thrown is precisely what I used to be after 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 High quality Productions centered round a strolling lighthouse and a chicken. Oh, and the studio’s CEO and video games business legend, Tim Schafer. 

No person informed me the particular person showcasing Keeper could 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, form, 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 every thing Schafer informed 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 principally 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 High quality changing into an Xbox studio. “Across the time we had simply joined the Xbox household, we have been questioning what we must always make subsequent,” Schafer says. “We’ve help; we have now cash; and we do not have to fret about going out of enterprise every single day, and we do not have to pitch to publishers, ‘Please make our sport, it’s extremely business.'” 

On the identical time, Petty was busy enthusiastic about his time in the course of the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic. He was locked in his dwelling 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 photographs, 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 “ambiance and vibes and companionship between these two.” The 2 he is speaking about are Twig, a sea chicken, and an unnamed lighthouse. After a violent sea storm isolates Twig from her flock, she perches on a lighthouse. For some motive, this awakens the lighthouse, it suggestions over, and within the ensuing crash, it grows legs. Typical lighthouse conduct. 

Woke up and the brand new proprietor of legs, this lighthouse feels instantly known as to an enormous mountain peak atop the island it is on. So, it begins heading that means, with Twig in tow. Controlling the lighthouse consists of transferring by way of surrealist and fantastical landscapes and shining your beam on issues. You may shine your beam on crops and typically they will 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 technique of interacting with this world is your beam, and second to that’s Twig. This would possibly 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 experience. When 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 really like that shining your gentle on objects causes them to emote or come to life with animation. It won’t 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 have 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 exterior 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 under, and extra. It actually looks like a Double High quality darkish experience in probably the most complimentary means. 

After all, I see another issues that catch my eye. At one level, Twig turns into an enormous egg atop the lighthouse for some motive. I see a village of tiny lil guys which are rusty watches. I see the lighthouse prance by way of pink pollen that provides it a light-weight, low-gravity impact when it jumps. All the pieces I see seems to be vastly totally different from what I witness moments earlier than, however it’s all oozing with Double High quality and surrealist Salvador Dali-inspired allure. 

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 in the end about change; how nature adjustments, how Twig adjustments, how the lighthouse adjustments. 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 does not truly know. He says the lighthouse was one of many sport’s aspect characters, however when he noticed it strolling with legs, he informed 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 High quality’s love of nonsense and the weird, the kind of work administrators David Lynch and David Cronenberg are all in favour of making, he says. I see the imaginative and prescient. 

Keeper is a bizarre sport, however it has that simple Double High quality allure. I am unable to wait to really play it when it launches on October 17 on Xbox Collection X/S and PC.