The Lighthouse Keeper

The story

Greyfin Point has been automated for thirty years, but the old keeper's office was never cleared out. You arrive by water taxi on a November afternoon to inventory the place before it is boarded up. The last ferry back is at 5:10 p.m. Pacific. The fog rolls in at 4:20.

On the desk is a bundle of black envelopes, each one sealed with wax, each addressed to someone who never collected it. The first breaks open easily. The rest are locked in ways that make no sense until you start reading.

Across nine puzzles you piece together what the keeper was watching for, why the logbook skips a week in 1987, and what the lamp is trying to tell the boats that still pass. The ending is quiet and, we think, a little moving. Play groups have asked for tissues more than once, which we did not expect from an escape game.

What the puzzles are like

Expect a mix of ciphers, tide-table logic, a Morse sequence you decode by watching the lamp, and two spatial puzzles where you drag pieces into place. Nothing needs outside research. Everything you need is in the room, and the room is drawn in a soft, hand-inked style rather than photo-real gloom.

• Puzzles 1 to 3: orientation. You learn how the letters, the logbook and the lamp connect.
• Puzzles 4 to 6: the middle stretch, where most groups use a hint or two. The tide puzzle is the famous one.
• Puzzles 7 to 9: the story pays off. The last puzzle asks you to do one thing the keeper could not.

Hints and timing

Each puzzle has three hints. The first is a nudge ("look at the dates again"), the second narrows it down, and the third all but hands you the answer. Hints are free and unlimited in the sense that nothing stops you, but the finish screen records how many you used, and groups get competitive about that.

Forty-five minutes is the median from our test groups of three. A sharp pair might finish in 35; a careful solo player might take an hour. There is a pause button for kettle breaks.

Playing over a video call

One player shares the tab. Others read the letters aloud, keep the logbook notes, and argue about the tides. We put text large enough to read on a shared screen, and every clue is also available as plain text under a "read this to the group" button, so the person who cannot see the screen well still gets to solve.

What you need

• A laptop, tablet or large phone with a modern browser. No download, no account.
• Paper and a pen for the logbook puzzle. A notes app also works.
• Optional: headphones or a speaker. The lamp puzzle has sound, but a visual version is built in.

The full game opens on this site in autumn 2026. If you want a note when it does, send us a message with "Lighthouse" in the subject and we will write once, no newsletter.