Inspiration for video games can sprout from anywhere. A slice of pizza turned into “Pac-Man.” Trouble driving up a hill in the snow inspired a key mechanic in director Hidetaka Miyazaki’s “Souls” series. When it comes to “Keeper,” the latest game from Double Fine Productions, creative director Lee Petty took inspiration from the Bay Area outdoors.

“I’ve been a longtime hiker and backpacker,” he said. “I live in Almaden Valley. There’s a quicksilver mine. There are a lot of hiking trails and machinery.”

He said being out in nature helps him process and think, and in that South Bay environment during the pandemic, he picked out details along the trails. The machinery from the mines and the unpleasant quiet. That hike and others trips led to a project, in which players control a walking lig

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