We often hold onto a object that has ties to a person to remember them. Keepsake is a digital collection of those things, having us build digital shrines to those we love.
Keepsake gives you an array of different objects you can choose to hold onto, depending on the meanings you’ve assigned to them and the people they remind you of. You then take these objects, be they vacation items or food or a symbol of a hobby, steadily building a collection of memories that are brought on by each object. As you put them all together, you will soon shape a place carved out by your memories and pleasant experiences with someone, living or lost.
The game is a touching look at grief and loss, looking at how we can draw memories and small bits of joy from the things we held dear with that person. It looks into the raw power the most innocuous object can have – especially an object that the person couldn’t have possibly made contact with. Many keepsakes have ties to the person from using it, but this game looks at the object itself as a means of representing those memories. Is it the connection with an object the person touched and treasured that’s important, or is it simply the object, and what it represents, that makes it something worth holding onto as a memory trigger?
Keepsake brought up some painful memories as I built my own place for someone I’d long lost, but also made me happy to recall them through the things they loved, reminding me of the joy they’d brought to my life.
Keepsake is available now on itch.io.