PLAYTESTv0.13.1 · BUILD 101f3c0 2026-10-27

KEEP THE LIGHT.

A Game Boy Advance–style story game. Twenty days alone on a rock in the Gulf of Maine, 1984, with a lamp to keep and a radio for company.

PLAY THE PLAYTEST

Free, in your browser, on a computer or a phone. It saves every morning, so you can stop whenever you like.

HARROW ROCK LIGHT · GULF OF MAINE · 1984

Gordon Hale has kept Harrow Rock Light for twenty-two years. Nine miles out, alone, with a radio.

Douse the lamp at dawn. Wind the clockwork, wipe the salt off the lens, log the weather. Then the radio: Lou on the Dorothy B. with the forecast, Bev at the depot taking your order, Danny on Little Fisher, who wants a game of checkers. And on Fridays, Marion. Whatever else happens, the light goes on at dusk.

PEOPLE OR THE LIGHT

Daylight is short, and nearly everything worth doing costs an hour of it.

  1. 1THE RADIO

    EVERY CALL COSTS AN HOUR

    Lou's forecast, Bev's catalog, Danny's next move. Take the call and an hour of light goes with it. Skip it and they'll bring it up tomorrow.

  2. 2DUSK

    THE LAMP GOES ON AT DUSK

    When the light starts to go, you have a little over a minute to climb the tower and light the lamp. It's the one time the clock runs for real.

  3. 3THE DISTRICT

    THREE DARK NIGHTS

    Lou will mention the first. Ray will warn you about the second. After the third, you're relieved of duty.

  4. 4THE LOGBOOK

    THE LOG REMEMBERS

    Every night the logbook writes up the day in Gordon's own words, from what you actually did. Including the parts you'd rather it didn't.

A DAY ON THE ROCK

Every day has a few hours of light and a list in the logbook. What you do with the rest is up to you.

  1. The logbook's Today page for Monday, May 14, 1984: douse the lamp, wind the clockwork, clean the lens, log the weather, with the rail, the brass, the roses and a cracked pane as extras.
    DAWN · THE TODAY PAGE

    The duties, the extras and whatever broke in the night. A pane cracked in the lantern room. It'll cost glass.

  2. The marine radio tuned to channel 68. Lou: Glass is high, wind's light, and I hauled a lobster yesterday the size of a Buick.
    MORNING · CHANNEL 68

    Turn the dial and hold the signal. Lou has the forecast and, usually, a lobster story.

  3. The lantern room at dusk: the big glass lens, the clockwork cabinet, the hatch down to the watch room, and Gordon at the lamp. A: light the lamp.
    DUSK · THE LANTERN ROOM

    Climb the tower before the light goes and light the lamp. A dark night goes in the log, and the District reads the log.

  4. Sundown from the chair by the cabin in July: the sun low over the water and the mainland. Long light in July. The good hour, Mare called it.
    THE LAST HOUR · THE CHAIR

    Or sit a while first. There's a chair by the cabin that looks west.

ON THE AIR

The island is quiet. The radio isn't.

RADIO LOGHARBORCOM 88

  • CH 22
    RAY · THE DISTRICT

    Coast Guard, on the mainland. Gale warnings, tenders and the paperwork.

  • CH 68
    LOU · THE DOROTHY B.

    A lobsterman with the forecast, and an opinion on it.

  • CH 22
    BEV · THE DEPOT

    Runs the store on Merrow. Takes your order and calls you dear.

  • CH 72
    DANNY · LITTLE FISHER

    The boy on the next island over, learning the radio. He'd like a game of checkers.

  • CH 26
    MARION · FRIDAYS

    His wife, on the mainland. Friday nights, on the radiotelephone.

Between the channels, late at night, the far-off stations come in.

Channel 72 at night. Danny: Harrow Rock, Harrow Rock, this is, um, Little Fisher. Over.
Night from the lookout: a light on Little Fisher, blinking. Four short. Two short. A: flash back.
The fog run on channel 16: a chart of the approach with the safe channel, the bell, the ledge and Harrow Rock. Lou's boat is off to the west and the horn's rings spread from the rock. Lou: Hearing your horn. No, starboard.

CH 16TUESDAY · FOG

TALK HIM IN

Tuesday the fog comes in thick as wool, and Lou is out in it, turned around somewhere off the ledge. He can't see a thing, and neither can you.

Sound the horn and listen for where he hears it. Port, starboard, hold, stop. Every blast burns fuel the lamp will want tonight.

THE KEEPER'S LOG

One keeper's first week, in the game's own words.

KEEPER'S LOGHARROW ROCK · MAY 1984

  1. MON MAY 14

    Clear, wind southwest, light. Gannets back on the north cliffs. Lou's lobster has grown to a Buick. A boy on Little Fisher beat me at checkers. I'll let him think so.

  2. TUE MAY 15

    Fog all day. Horn on. Brought Lou in past the ledge.

  3. WED MAY 16

    Rain all day, wind southwest. Thirty-five years today. Mare played our record down the line. I stood in the watch room like a fool. Low tide tomorrow. Things wash up.

  4. THU MAY 17

    Clear, wind rising southwest. Gale warning for Saturday. Tender came. Danny drew me a lighthouse. Beam's going the wrong way.

  5. FRI MAY 18

    Clear. The gale went out to sea. Mare asked me to come home when they take the light. I said maybe.

Yours will read differently. Leave the lamp dark on Wednesday and the log says so: Lamp out. On our anniversary.

FOUR SEASONS · ONE WEEK EACH

Twenty days on the rock, Monday to Friday, from May to December. The light stays the same. The days get shorter.

Spring: the red and white lighthouse and the keeper's house on green grass, Gordon by the steps.
SPRINGMAY 14 · SEVEN HOURS OF LIGHT
Summer: the same view in bright July green.
SUMMERJULY 9 · THE LONG LIGHT
Autumn: the same view in October rain, the grass gone gold, Gordon in a yellow oilskin.
AUTUMNOCTOBER 15 · GALES
Winter: the same view at night under snow, the lamp lit and its beam sweeping across.
WINTERDECEMBER 17 · FOUR HOURS OF LIGHT
The chart in the logbook: Harrow Rock with the cabin, the Hollow, the cliff path, the storeroom, the boathouse, the tide pools, the fog signal and the lighthouse. Merrow Island is nine miles west; Little Fisher three miles north.

TODAYMON MAY 14

WALK THE ROCK

The island is yours to walk: the cabin, the Hollow, the tide pools and the cliffs. Some of it rewards a second look.

PLAY THE PLAYTEST Twenty days. It saves every morning, so play a few at a time.

READ MEPLAYTEST

THIS IS A PLAYTEST

So far it's been played by me and by AI agents. You'd be one of the first people to play it.

The playtest copy keeps an anonymous record of each game: how far it got, how long each day took, and how it ended. No names, no cookies, no ads. It comes to me, and I use it only to tune the game.

CONTENT NOTE · THIS GAME DEALS WITH GRIEF, ALCOHOLISM, THE DEATH OF A CHILD, AND SUICIDE.

HOW TO PLAY

MOVEArrow keys, or the pad on a phone
AZ or Space: look, talk, use, hold the signal
BX or Shift: back
LOGBOOKEnter, or START on a phone

Sound on, if you can. CONTINUE on the title screen picks up at your last morning, in this browser.

LETTERSTO JACK

TELL ME HOW IT'S GOING

ABOUTTHE KEEPER OF THIS ONE

WHO MADE THIS

Jack Casady as a pixel portrait from his last game: swept-up dark hair, a full beard, a wide grin and a navy blazer.

I'm Jack Casady, a marketer who can't really code.

I designed I Am the Light: the story, the island and every voice on the radio, in a design doc. Claude built it from the doc, every pixel and every sound in code. I played every build and sent back notes, mostly between nap times.

JACK ON LINKEDIN

ALSOBY JACK

BEFORE THIS DECADE IS OUT

Before This Decade Is Out: amber title lettering over a full Moon and the launch pad at night.

Run America's space program from Sputnik to the Moon, 1957 to 1969. Four endings, and one way to get fired before you get there. Free in your browser.

PLAY IT

MONDAY, MAY 14, 1984 · DAWN

LAMP TO DOUSE. CLOCKWORK TO WIND. SALT ON THE LENS. THEN THE RADIO.

PLAY THE PLAYTEST Free in your browser. It saves every morning.