Some of us absolutely love to push ourselves when it comes to games, and believe the harder the better. Overcoming such challenges can offer an immense thrill and sense of achievement, after all. There are even some among us who won’t reduce the difficulty level in a game if we are struggling, and would actually rather stop playing altogether.
On the flip side (and let it be known, I really don’t think there is a right or wrong way to enjoy a game as long as the player is happy and not being unkind to others), there are also those of us who want an experience that is less about an onslaught of rock-hard enemies that relentlessly grind us into the ground, or puzzles that require a Mensa membership to decipher. Many of us take pleasure in games that offer up an easy-going, stress-free escape for a couple of hours at the end of a long day. This flexible approach is something that is also important for Psychonauts and Brütal Legend developer Double Fine.
The studio’s most recent title – Psychonauts 2 – featured a range of accessibility options, including an invincibility mode, on release. This meant that those that wanted to could dial up the difficulty to max, while others could make their way through the game without any fear of ‘failing’. This accessible approach will remain for Double Fine’s next release, which is known as Keeper and follows the story of a sentient lighthouse and its bird companion.
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Speaking to Eurogamer at Gamescom, studio head Tim Schafer said accessibility is a “big thing” for Double Fine, and something Microsoft – which acquired the developer in 2019 – has supported. “[Microsoft] has a lot of testing that you can do for all sorts of levels of accessibility, and Keeper is a very accessible game that is very easy to control – there’s not a lot of buttons to get used to,” Schafer said, before adding:
“Something we always emphasise with our games is accessibility, and for all different types of players, because I always believe you don’t want to tell someone how to play your game. If they want to turn the difficulty down, they can do that.
“Some people just like the character design, and the world. We don’t want to lock them out.”
When asked if Keeper has any peril, the studio founder said you “can’t fail and you can’t die” during the game’s run time, which is roughly six to eight hours. “It’s more about the flow, and wandering through the atmosphere,” Schafer explained.
Image credit: Double Fine
As I’ve said, Keeper will chronicle the adventures of a lighthouse which quite unexpectedly comes alive, complete with tendril-like legs that allow it to walk around a mysterious island along with its bird companion, Twig. Think that all sounds a little bit odd? Well, good. That’s exactly what Double Fine is going for. “[Creative lead Lee Petty] was like ‘I want to get really weird’,” Schafer said of Keeper. “We wanted to make something we probably couldn’t have gotten signed with a publisher [when Double Fine was independent]. It’s really artistic, and it doesn’t make sense at first, but it is really engrossing.”
In terms of gameplay, Keeper will boast a mixture of exploration, puzzle solving and in the words of Schafer, plenty to surprise and perhaps even shock players. During the Keeper presentation, which showed off sections earlier in the game, I watched the lighthouse use its beam to manipulate the world around it, opening up pathways not previously seen. Meanwhile, Twig could perch on switches or place items that were beyond the lighthouse’s reach to allow the twosome to progress.
Purely from a more aesthetic point of view, inspirations for Keeper include surrealist painters such as Salvador Dali and Max Ernst, as well as films like The Dark Crystal. It all marries together to make for a striking and already oh-so-charming combination of colour and creativity.
Image credit: Double Fine
Something Keeper won’t have though, is any dialogue, with the game described as “a story told without words”. During an additional group Q&A about the game, I asked Schafer what it was like for the studio to create a narrative without using any actual voices.
“It’s interesting, because I am not even on the team or it would have tons of dialogue, like the lighthouse would say ‘I’m too old for this shit’,” he joked, before adding that Keeper’s development was all about working to the strengths of those involved. This includes Petty, who Schafer said is a wonder when it comes to telling stories through visuals. Along with work on Keeper, Petty has also served as art director for Brütal Legend, and acted as creative lead on numerous other projects at Double Fine including the matryoshka doll-themed puzzler Stacking, sci-fi side-scroller Headlander and post-post-apocalyptic roguelike RAD.
“He’s an artist, and the animators are used to an aesthetic where they’re trying to tell a story even if you have the volume off,” Double Fine’s chief said. “The bird, Twig, he’s very expressive. You can tell how Twig feels about everything, you can how the lighthouse feels. The lighthouse seems to have facial expressions. It’s still an emotional storyline. The characters still have character arcs, they have feelings, they have a bond, they have a companionship.”
“We approach these creative topics with the tools that we have,” Schafer closed. “I’m a writer, so that’s where I start. Lee and his team started from a different place, and that’s one of the strengths of the studio.”
Keeper – Official Announce Trailer. Watch on YouTube
Alas, I did not get to go hands-on with Keeper during Double Fine’s Gamescom presentation, but even so, this is easily one of my most anticipated games coming out this year. I honestly never expected to become emotionally invested in a lighthouse, but even from just a few short snippets of gameplay and trailers, I am already deeply invested in the wellbeing of Keeper’s lighthouse, with its characterful beam illuminating and affecting the surreal but beautiful world it has found itself in. Oh yes, Keeper is definitely one I will be keeping a very close eye on.
Keeper is set to release later this year, on 17th October, across Xbox Series X/S, PC, and Game Pass.