"Art is hard. People universally say they like art, or think art is a good thing. But getting something artistic in front of a big audience is exceedingly rare these days. You can point to budgets or social media or venture capitalists as the cause for much of this milquetoast media, but the silver lining is that cool art still happens. And, in the case of the latest Day One indie sensation on Game Pass, it can still find a following."
"To call Double Fine's latest release Keeper an indie is a semantic stretch. Obviously anything backed by the conglomerate cash pile that is Microsoft isn't exactly in hardscrabble bootstraps territory; however, it's clearly indie in spirit. You play as a lighthouse that walks around and shines a light on stuff to solve puzzles. Not much of an elevator pitch, but the execution is what makes that oddball premise so successful."
"Keeper lands as a beautifully strange and singular experience that feels like the kind of game big publishers used to avoid. Most games' heroes are human, human‐adjacent, or humanoid. Keeper breaks that mold in dramatic fashion. You assume the role of a living lighthouse that has sentience, legs, and a purpose. The lighthouse awakens on a remote island in a long-lost sea, in the shadow of a mountain,"
Artistic games remain rare despite broad public approval for art, yet standout projects can still reach audiences through platforms like Game Pass. Keeper, developed by Double Fine and backed by Microsoft, embodies an independent spirit while benefiting from major funding. The player controls a sentient, bipedal lighthouse that illuminates and interacts with the world to solve puzzles. A rescued seabird named Twig accompanies the lighthouse through a ruined, expressive landscape. The experience emphasizes mood, aesthetics, and emotional resonance, drawing a comparison to Journey. Soon after gaining bipedal sentience the lighthouse sees a mystical vision on a distant mountaintop.
Read at Inverse
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