The types of fun intended by the game are likely narrative and discovery. The game reveals pieces of the narrative to the player at a time, keeping players interested.
The game also gives fairly few explicit directions to the player and allows to explore the map in mostly any order they want (barring some obstacles that must be done in order). This allows players to discover both the secrets hidden in the map, but also how different game mechanics work and how they contribute to the narrative.
The main interaction loops in this game are how the players learn to interact with objects in the game world as they aim to uncover the narrative. Players see an object, and can decide to take an action by interacting with it. They can pick it up to inspect it, crouch down to get a closer look, or even throw objects. After taking action, the user receives feedback which they can use to update their mental model about how the game works and which objects are important to the narrative. Some objects will trigger audio journals (typically pieces of paper), other objects will give context on the characters in the game and their relationships with each other, some things will change states in the the game (ex doors open, drawers open/close, lights turn on/off), and some objects will do absolutely nothing (like the duck on the porch). One loop in particular is learning how to interact with hidden panels: the first hidden panel is hinted at when the user sees a ‘?’ when facing a wall. After clicking on the panel (action), the door opens to reveal a hidden passage (feedback), which updates the players’ mental model that there could be more hidden doors in the game.
There are also several arcs present in the game– picking up with certain objects (typically objects associated with the main character’s sister) will trigger audio journals revealing more about the main character’s younger sister. This sequence of arcs allows the user to learn more about the narrative and why she’s no longer in the house. However, they don’t especially lean themselves to replayability the way the loops above do, as once you know the secret of which object to interact with, you can’t do it again.
The mystery (of why no one is in the house) is greatly linked to the narrative of what happened once the main character left on her trip to Europe. As players uncover clues around the house, the narrative starts to become more clear. For example, the eulogy of Oscar Mann reveals clues as to why the main character’s family ended up living in the “psycho house.” In particular, the audio journals uncovered by interacting with certain objects reveal bits and pieces of why the younger sister decided to run away. Band memorabilia and notes to Lonnie scattered around the house reveal the story of Samantha’s growing relationship and sub. The game does enforce a certain amount of linear progression as some areas of the map are behind locked doors that can only be unlocked with clues found in previous areas (for example, the basement key is found in Samantha’s locker, which can only be opened by finding her lock code in the hidden wall panels, which is only found by accessing the hidden passageway in the closet), but this helps players get a better sense of the narrative as they are forced to interact with certain clues and audio journals in a specific order. However, there are several other clues that reveal additional information about the family and their relationships that aren’t necessarily in the path needed to complete the game, so players can also take their time exploring to find all the easter eggs if that’s their preferred play style.
One moment of particular failure for me was that I got stuck in the beginning area of the game (the porch) for about 30 minutes. The door to the house was locked and I knew I needed to find a key. I knew it was likely hidden under something like a doormat or cabinet, but I couldn’t find it even after searching through every single interact-able object in that area of the house. It turns out that my screen brightness was just too low to be able to notice the small key in the cupboard, even though I had already gone through the cupboard.
As a result, one improvement to the game might be to give players the option to ask for hints or directions when they get stuck. Although the game is fairly open ended and there isn’t really a defined order in which to discover clues in the game, giving players the option to ask for more direction when they’re feeling lost might help players feel more encouraged to uncover new parts of the story.
