FireKeeper

FireKeeper is a cozy yet eerie survival game set in a desolate frozen forest. During the day, the player works to gather resources, nourish their hearth to make it grow, and prepare for the long, cold night with the help of the friendly ghosts that are wandering around in the forest. By night, they must defend the fire from those same ghosts that are restless and torn between helping the player survive and succumbing to their desperate need for warmth. 

The game combines elements of resource management, strategic defense and environmental storytelling. The player’s main challenge is to survive as many days and nights as possible, balancing preparation and protection while unraveling the mysteries of the ghosts and their connection to the hearth.

• Left Click:
  • Move your character around the snowy forest.
    
  • Pick up and throw snowballs to fend off ghosts.
  • Chop wood from nearby trees to gather resources.
  • Add wood to the hearth to keep the fire burning strong.

1. Protect the Hearth:
   • Ghosts will sneak up and try to steal warmth from your hearth. Use snowballs or quick movements to scare them away!
2. Manage Your Temperature:
   • Stay close to the hearth to keep yourself warm. Straying too far into the freezing wilderness will lower your temperature and put you at risk of freezing.
3. Fuel the Fire:
   • Chop wood and add it to the hearth to keep the fire alive. If the fire goes out, you’ll freeze and lose the game!

• Stay on the Move: Keep gathering resources while keeping an eye on your hearth’s warmth.
• Ghost Behavior: Ghosts will run from you but sneak back to drain your fire’s heat. Be quick and don’t let them linger!
• Balance Your Focus: Manage your own warmth and your hearth’s fire level at the same time. Both are crucial to survival.

The game takes place in a cold, snowy wilderness trapped in an endless winter at night. The world feels quiet and lonely. In this harsh environment, the only source of warmth and life is the heath. The setting is characterized by - snowy forests, frozen rivers and lakes, abandoned shelters, ghostly presence.

The environment feels with a lot of duality, during the day, faint light breaks through heavy clouds, glowy embers. During the night, the land transforms, the air grows colder, frost creeps in and the world becomes more hostile as the shadow of the dead grow restless and aggressive. 

The ghosts are the lingering souls of those who were lost to the cold and died seeking warmth. During the day their humanity is still intact, and they try to help you to survive, guiding you to resources and offering small acts of support. They see in you a chance to avoid their tragic fate and remain tethered to the warmth they desperately craved in life.

However, as the night falls and the cold deepens, their memories of their deaths resurface. The desperation and fear that consumed them in their final moments takes over, transforming their once kind presence into an overwhelming need to steal the warmth of your hearth for themselves and to stay warm. Their dual nature, helpful by day, hostile by night, embodies the fragile balance between hope and despair in the frozen wilderness. 

Fire Keeper began as a game jam project, built in the span of a weekend by a team of cozy-game friends. While we couldn’t bring every feature to life in time, we focused on creating a survival experience that captures the tension of holding onto hope in an unrelenting world, hopefully we can bring this project fully to life in the future!