Writing the keepers' journals
Five keepers. Five journals. One of them is a liar. We finally sat down and wrote them, and they almost killed us.
We said we were scared of the journals. We were right to be. We've been working on them for three weeks and they're the hardest writing we've ever done — harder than the rest of the game combined. Here's where we are.
Five voices, in order
Each chapter is narrated by the keeper who was on the island before you. They left a journal. You read it between puzzle rooms. By the end of the game you've read five journals, and you've started to piece together what actually happened on the island.
The voices had to be different enough that you can tell them apart at three sentences, and similar enough that you believe they all worked the same job in the same small lighthouse. We did voice tests by writing the same scene — the first morning after arrival — five times in five voices. The one who described the stove is our oldest keeper. The one who didn't mention the stove at all is the liar.
How they change
Each journal also shifts register over its chapter. Opening entries are practical — wind direction, wick maintenance, a grocery list. Late entries drift. One keeper starts making lists of things she hasn't said to her sister. Another starts leaving blank pages.
What we're not doing
We are not making the journals optional. They load during the puzzle room you'd otherwise be staring at blankly, they're short, and the light mechanics of each chapter are tuned to the keeper's mood. Skip them and the puzzles still solve, but the island doesn't make sense.
What's left
Three of five voices are in. Two to go. One of them is going to be the hardest — she's the keeper whose replacement you're playing, and the last thing she wrote is addressed directly to you.
See you in August.