Eric Terui

Gone Home

Differences Gone Home is a first person exploratory game. The story

progresses as you search the house and examine various objects. The objects tell the story of what happened to the rest of your family when they moved to this mysterious house and you were across the world.

In this way, each person who plays Gone Home has a different experience depending on the order in which they discovered clues.

Gone home is also different in that it is entirely possible to get stuck in the game or miss parts of the story. For instance, if you are unable to find certain clues, such as the combination for Oscar’s lock, you may miss part of the story. I personally never unlocked the filing cabinet in Terrence’s office, so I may have interpreted the story differently from someone who did unlock it.

Comparing Gone Home’s Narrative Structure with Traditional Forms

Similarities The creators formatted the game to tell you family’s

story by giving information on their backstory closer to the entrance of the house. For the most part, as you progress into deeper parts of the house or discover the newer secret passageways, the story comes closer to present day.

This also follows the form of having a beginning, middle, and end, with rising action as you explore the house, climax as you’re discovering what happens between Sam and Lonnie, and a resolution as you find out that everything works out in the end.

Comparing Gone Home’s Narrative Structure with Traditional Forms

In traditional narratives, the setting is generally described (novels) or displayed (movies). As each new scene progress, the setting of each new scene is described.

In Gone Home, the entire experience takes place in the new house. The interactive quality of the setting tells the story. To explore the house, you must turn on the lights in each room

and interact with the objects lying around the house to experience the story.

The creators used the setting (such as thunder, the creaking floorboards, and the darkness as you enter each new room) in order to introduce a feeling of constant suspense.

The Setting

In Gone Home, the characters are developed partially through Sam. Her voiceovers describe the development of her relationship with

Lonnie and her parents. For instance, after you discover one of the key slips of paper, Sam’s voice describes when her parents find out about her relationship with Lonnie

The setting of the house is the other primary channel for character development in the game. For example, the numerous bibles found in rooms around the house

foreshadow the parents’ reaction to finding out about Sam’s sexuality.

Additionally, one simple glance at the radioactive “Stay out” posters on Sam’s door coupled with her music taste describe her as a rebellious teenager.

Finally, there are clues about the struggles of the parents’ relationship through the “Couples’ Retreat” brochure, the mother’s mild interest in Ranger Rick, and the father’s failures as a writer.

Characters

In traditional narratives, the reader or viewer experiences everything that happens to the characters as they perform their actions.

In Gone Home, the actions that you (as Katie) take as you explore the house tell the story of what happened to the rest of the family in the past. Your actions don’t change what actually happens in the story.

Rather, they influence what you experience, and what parts of the story you discover.

Action

In Gone Home, there are multiple storylines that you explore. You discover what happens between Sam and Lonnie, how your

parents’ relationship develops, and you also discover who Oscar Mason was. You also find out where you (Katie) were while all of this was happening

One may argue that the main story is the one between Sam and Lonnie, since that story is fully told when you complete the game. In contrast, Oscar’s story is one that you can explore by

examining newspapers and opening his safe, but it isn’t required in any way to complete the game.

Story Time

It is important to reiterate that the story is told such that certain parts must be discovered before other parts. The creators placed the latter part of the story after you

unlocked some of the locked or secret passages.

Story Time

The whole narrative requires player participation. In traditional narratives, the user participation mostly consists of interpretation of certain events and storylines.

In Gone Home, the player must physically interact with each object that is core to the story. This ranges from simply turning on the lights to entering in Sam’s locker combination.

At the same time, however, the user participation never changes what actually happens in the story.

Player Participation

While I have been referring to Gone Home as a game, I find that it is actually a narrative that is developed through this game type of interface. There is absolutely no way to lose in Gone Home. If the player

simply interacts with every single object in every single room, he or she will definitely complete the narrative.

It has game-like aspects in that you have full control of Katie, and may take her to whichever part of the house that you think will progress the narrative.

Is it a Game or a Story?

Gone Home presents a very interesting way of telling a story. The interactivity puts you in the body of Katie as she is making

all of these discoveries. The medium is able to take advantage of the best qualities

of visual and text-based narratives. Gone Home features suspenseful sounds and lighting that you

can only get in a visual experience, but it also incorporates text-based descriptions and Sam’s voiceover accounts to describe what each character is thinking during certain events.

The Storytelling Experience

The aspect of locking certain doors is commonly used in games such as Zelda. However, I really enjoyed how Home Again took advantage of

the locked doors and progressed the story as you unlocked them.

I also found Home Again to be highly embodied. For instance, the clues oftentimes don’t explicitly state what

happens to the characters, but instead tell the story by juxtaposing certain objects

One example of this is leaving one of the father’s failed books and a note from a publisher in a cabinet with some alcohol, suggesting that his father may have become an alcoholic.

The player also knows that light switches are oftentimes right next to the door, or hanging from a string above if it’s in a small closet.

My Reactions to the Interactive Experience

To reiterate on a point I have already made many times, Gone Home successfully tells this story through leaving more recent developments behind locked doors.

It also employs traditional narrative techniques through Sam’s voiceovers, which do a great job of conveying her experiences through both the content of what she says as well as the emotion in which she is speaking.

In general, the exploratory aspect allows the player to discover the depth of the story, and the more detailed parts of some of the substories, while the traditional aspect of the game covers the core story of Sam through her voiceovers.

Synergy Between Traditional and Exploratory Narrative

The controls are pretty simple, and explained to some degree. They did leave some controls for the user to discover as well, such as crouching with the “c” key.

All of the rooms are very dark with no lights on, but it seems as though most rooms have light switches beside the door.

I found this (screenshot above) to be extremely funny, as the creators knew that all users would leave the lights on in the house to easily retrace their steps.

Journal

I really enjoy Katie’s reactions to finding certain objects such as the condom in her parents’ bedroom and Sam’s/her father’s magazines.

I saw the lockers that require combinations, and originally being somewhat paranoid that I would have to memorize all of the 4 number dates/sequences that appear in the house. It eventually becomes clear that the most core one to the story is easiest to find, while the two substory lockers belonging to Oscar and Terrence are somewhat more difficult to discover the combination to.

It is pretty easy to find which room to search if you haven’t found a new secret passageway yet by simply viewing the map.

I felt a pretty distinct feeling of dread that I would find Sam hanging from a rope as I searched the attic after Lonnie departs.

The story fails user expectations by building up all of this suspense and resolving everything cleanly/happily.

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