Keeper

From Lee Petty and Double Fine Productions, Keeper is an atmospheric puzzle adventure in which a long-forgotten lighthouse is awakened and, joined by a spirited seabird, it embarks upon a heartening tale of unlikely companionship, and an unexpected journey into realms beyond understanding.

I was Creative and Art Director on Keeper, a video game released for PC and Xbox on October 2025. I also contributed to the UI, level design, lighting, and concept art for the game.

I created this concept early in development, when we were still exploring our style. Several qualities of Keeper’s final visual direction are present here — rich, saturated color, a sense of decay, gestural forms in the environment, and a strong atmospheric presence. This concept was used to develop an area known as the “Skull Bridge” in the first level of the game, where the space opens up after a dense interior and affords the player a moment to drink in the beauty of the world.

This concept shows a portal that has opened up in a large interior known as the Brim Mausoleum. The portal features the mountain peak and life being restored and is in contrast the the haunting and lifeless interior. 

Concept painting for the opening shot of the game. The lonely lighthouse sits upon a ruined beach, painterly sun shimmering in the distance, when the tired sea bird crashes into its roof, setting the game's events in motion.

Concept for the root cellar, a compressed underground space at the start of the second level of the game. The roots and vines of the Many Eyed Tree are intertwined with industrial pipes and other inorganic structures.

The above sequence explores what a "morph door" might look like in the root cellar area of the game. The lighthouse's light can be used to active special objects which cause the surrounding area to twist and form something in new. In the above concept, a clockwork-like door forms after focused light has triggered it.

Callout design for one of the "gear columns", which are made of rock and old metal bits. Elements of clockwork are introduced in the morphing labyrinth before the player reaches the clockwork town of Solstice, foreshadowing the time-based gameplay there.

An early concept before the design of the lighthouse was finalized. This concept was used as the basis for the "lighthouse graveyard" in the second level of the game, where the lighthouse journeys through a psychological space of self-doubt and isolation before emerging into the sunlight and rejoining its bird friend.

The images above show a lost monument, before and after the lighthouse has restored it with its light. Monuments are hidden though out the game and offer a bit of lore and backstory.

Character design for the Clapperclaw -- a crab like critter found with a penchant for scavenging. Like many of the characters in Keeper, it is a hybrid creature, comprised of both organic and inorganic elements.

Very early concepts for living rock / sun dial creatures that would eventually split into two different species in the final game -- the Rocklings and the Horologue.

Some concepts for the base form of the Wither (also called the Bramble through a lot of  development). The Wither is a non-native invasive species of growth that has slowly made its way onto and throughout the island. It is an eroding, consuming presence, and identifiable by its dark, purplish color and twisted, spiky forms.
The concepts above show the progression of the Wither Nucleus, a giant manifestation of the Wither that the player character must encounter later in the game. The boss is slowly weakened as the level progresses, losing its protective armor, until it is vulnerable to the PC's powerful light. Eventually, just the top of the nucleus survives by removing itself from the lower sleeve and fleeing up a giant waterfall. 
The images above show early designs for the Many-Eyed Tree. This large creature is the focus of a puzzle chain where the lighthouse must find, retrieve, and install its missing eyes. As the player restores eyes the tree lifts its limbs to reveal new paths and, once it has all three of its eyes returned, lifts its entire mass up to reveal the tunnel to the next level.

I did a lot of lighting in the game, including helping develop a custom Lumen based lighting approach so we could achieve the painterly look we were after. The image above shows an example of a puzzle area which I lit in four different way that transition in real time as the player switches between eras. Model and textures by the Pagan Idol art team.

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