Lightkeeper

Introduction

Lightkeeper, from developer thedannos, puts you in charge of a lone lighthouse on a rocky cape and asks you to bring ships through seven nights of bad weather. The ships cannot find their own way: they can only plot a route across water your beam has touched. Keep the light on a vessel long enough and it will work out a safe line to the harbour; lose it too early and the ship is left to sail blind. The beam changes shape with distance, broad and shallow close to the lamp and long and thin farther out, so where you point matters as much as when. One light has to serve a whole fleet, which turns each night into a juggling act. You aim with a mouse or a finger, or with the keyboard by turning and adjusting reach. A flash can illuminate the entire sea for a moment at the cost of oil, and a purchasable fog siren can halt every ship for a few seconds. Three wrecks end the night, though only that night has to be replayed, and progress is kept in the browser. The nights keep adding complications, from fog banks and lightning to currents, wind, rain, a kraken that comes for neglected ships, oil-carrying supply vessels and smugglers who flee the first time they are lit. The final night brings a flagship and something larger. Between nights, letters arrive from people you saved, and the harbour offers upgrades such as a faster mechanism, a larger oil tank, a Fresnel lens, a double lens, a rescue boat and the fog siren. Sessions run around half an hour, and the game is played in English.

Games like Lightkeeper

• Mini Metro: Juggling several moving vessels at once with limited tools and short arcade runs.
• FTL: Faster Than Light: Managing multiple ship crises in real time while resources run low.
• Sunless Sea: Stormy, dark-sea sailing where visibility and safe routes drive the tension.

Similar picks are based on the public description and tags, not playtesting.

Who it is for

Good fit if you are:

• Arcade score chasers
• Storm and lighthouse fans
• Short-session players

May not suit:

• Players wanting long campaigns
• Non-English speakers

Highlights

• Guide ships by lighting the water they can cross
• Beam is wide up close and narrow at range
• Flash the whole sea at the cost of oil
• Seven nights, each adding new hazards
• Three wrecks lose the night; progress saves in the browser

Questions about Lightkeeper