Gone Home

Gameplay

The player takes the role of Kaitlin in the first-person view, who can view objects in the game using the mouse and move using the keyboard. There are no set goals in the game; however, the game encourages and rewards the player when they explore new areas of the house and search for new messages. Much of the interactivity rests upon looking at objects within the house. The player finds objects which open other areas of the house that contain additional objects to be looked at.

Plot

On June 7, 1995, 21-year-old Kaitlin Greenbriar returns home from overseas to her family in Oregon: her father, Terry, a failed writer who makes a living reviewing home electronics; her mother, Janice, a wildlife conservationist who recently got promoted to director; and her 18-year-old sister Samantha. Upon arriving, she finds the house deserted, with a note on the door from Sam imploring Kaitlin not to investigate what happened.

Searching the house, Kaitlin begins to piece together what happened during her absence: After moving in, Samantha found it difficult to adjust to her new high school, but eventually made friends with another girl, Yolanda "Lonnie" DeSoto, a JROTC-cadet. The two bonded over Street Fighter, punk rock, grunge and the burgeoning riot grrrl movement, and after sneaking off to a concert, the two became romantically involved. After various incidents at school, Sam's parents found out about her relationship, and forbid them from seeing each other and are in denial that their daughter is a lesbian. As Lonnie was set to eventually ship out to begin her service, Sam was left distraught.

Two days after her farewell show, which coincides with the day of Kaitlin's homecoming, and the week when Sam's parents are going on vacation (which is revealed to actually be a counseling trip instead of being a camping trip, like they told others) Lonnie departs to her station, but eventually calls Sam from a payphone to tell her that she got off the bus in Salem and she wants them to be together. Sam's final journal entry to Kaitlin explains that she packed up her things and took her car to find Lonnie, hoping to start a new life with her outside of Oregon.

Optionally, Kaitlin can find various other clues that provide information on additional events that happened during the time: it is implied that Janice was beginning to have romantic feelings towards a subordinate, and that in his teens, Terry was abused by Oscar Masan, his uncle and former owner of the house.

Development

Fullbright was founded in Portland by Steve Gaynor, Karla Zimonja, and Johnnemann Nordhagen as "The Fullbright Company". The three had previously worked together at 2K Games on BioShock 2: Minerva's Den. To reduce costs, the team moved into a house together and set up the office in the basement. Gone Home was Fullbright's first game, and taking into account their skills and financial constraints, the team decided upon a game with "no other people, no other characters, [just] you in a single environment". Fullbright set the game in 1995 because they considered it the latest year in which technology had not made the majority of communication digital in nature. The game was originally prototyped in Amnesia: The Dark Descent's HPL Engine 2 and the final game was made with the Unity game engine.

The game features music from the riot grrrl bands Heavens to Betsy and Bratmobile. After showing the game at Grrrl Front Fest, a Portland riot grrrl music festival, it attracted the attention of a local band, The Youngins, who went on to provide the music for Girlscout, the fictional band in the game.

The game is accompanied by an original musical score composed by Chris Remo, featuring over 30 minutes of music that accompany the game's main exploration gameplay, with unique music also scored to each of the game's audio logs.

A developer commentary mode was added to the game in October 2013. On 4 March 2015, it was announced that the console version of the game had been canceled in the midst of its publisher's financial troubles.

Withdrawal from PAX

In June 2013, Fullbright announced that they would not be showing Gone Home at the Indie MEGABOOTH showcase at PAX Prime, citing remarks from their convention organizers regarding LGBT issues and sexism.

Console Edition

A console version of the game was in development by Midnight City; however, this was later canceled following Midnight City's closure in March 2015.

On 7 December 2015 it was revealed that the long-forgotten console port had been scheduled for a release on 12 January 2016 for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, co-developed by Majesco. Holding the title Gone Home: Console Edition, it features enhanced graphics and audio, and was ported from Unity 4 to Unity 5 for maximum performance and look. Additionally, the Console Edition has been given enhanced controls especially for controller use, as the original PC version was created for keyboard, and not as well playable with a gamepad.

The game was made one of the selected PlayStation Plus games for the month of June in 2016. The game was made free from June 7 until July 5 for all subscribers to the service, available to keep as long as the subscriber has an active subscription.

Reception

Gone Home has received generally positive reviews from game journalists and mixed reviews from consumers. At Metacritic, as of 25 October 2013, the game holds an 86/100 score based on 56 critic reviews and a user score is 5.4/10 (average or mixed) based on 1979 ratings. At GameRankings, it maintains an 87.39% based on 33 critic reviews.

Emily Morganti for Adventure Gamers commented that Gone Home had a "realistic, engrossing story that's beautifully told through environmental clues and audio narration" and that "many people read books for the opportunity to see life through someone else’s eyes, but it’s rare for a game to do it as well as this one does." The Financial Post's Matthew Braga also noted that "This is a game that some will hold up as forward-thinking evidence in the ongoing debate of games-as-art", adding that the game was made to "plumb the depths of experience outside of gaming's typically targeted white, male, youthful core." However, Eurogamer editor Oli Welsh stated "The Fullbright Company has built a fine house for intimate storytelling in games, but it hasn't found the story to live in it yet."

On 11 September 2013, The Fullbright Company announced that the game had sold more than 50,000 copies. On 7 February 2014, it was announced that the game has sold 250,000 copies.

After Polygon's perfect 10/10 review of the game, they gave it their Game of the Year 2013 award.

The game won the 2013 British Academy Games Awards for best "Debut Game" while nominated for "Best Story".