The Keeper

About The Keeper

The Keeper was made by Comp-3 Interactive for the Haunted PS1 Summer of Shivers 2021 game jam and released on itch.io for Windows, Mac and Linux in August 2021. It is built in Unity with low-poly models and coarse, blocky textures, and its maker tags it with Resident Evil and Silent Hill as touchstones. The voices are by Matt Lowe and Kuzzikski and the music is by DS Productions.

You wake on your fishing boat after a night at sea and decide it is time to head home, but the journey back is not what it seems. You come ashore on a small, empty island where the only building of note is a lighthouse, with a wooden jetty, a cabin and a storeroom around it under a heavy night sky. The way off is not obvious, and finding it means piecing together what happened in this place.

You explore in first person, pick up and focus on objects, keep what you find in an inventory and use it to move on. The fear is quiet and atmospheric: darkness, the sea all around, an island that should not be empty, and a story that comes out piece by piece. Players who have left comments on the page often mention that the story is a sad one, and some mention a scare along the way.

It suits players who want a short, story-led PS1-style horror game to finish in one sitting, and anyone drawn to lighthouse and island stories.

How to play The Keeper

1. Download The Keeper from its itch.io page for Windows, Mac or Linux (name your own price, 0 is accepted) and unzip it.
2. Move with WASD, jump with Space and crouch with C.
3. Look around the island and click with the left mouse button to interact with what you find.
4. Hold the right mouse button to focus on something, and press I to check your inventory.
5. Follow the island's story to its end to find your way off.

Tips

• Play it in one sitting: it takes about half an hour.
• Turn the sound up; the game is voiced and the story is told partly through what you hear.
• Check your inventory when you are stuck; what you picked up is usually the way forward.
• If you stream or record it, the maker notes that the music can trigger a YouTube copyright claim, which may be disputed because it is licensed for videos.

Questions