Gone Home is a “walking simulator” developed by The Fullbright Company. I played it on PC, and the target audience is likely players age 14 and up. In Gone Home, there is little gameplay outside of uncovering pieces of a narrative, and the story itself is inextricably linked to the setting of the game. As a result, I argue that the game does a tremendous job at weaving narrative into the mystery through its mechanics, and in incorporating the architecture of the game’s setting into its story.
As a walking simulator, Gone Home has everything players might expect; the ability to walk around, pick up objects, and inspect them. There is little else to do, but thankfully, the developers have made sure players won’t be looking for anything else. There are so many unique interactable objects to examine, so many drawers and cabinets to open and close, and oh so many pieces of paper. Every type of printed information is represented in Gone Home — postcards, show posters, magazines, school report cards, school assignments, pamphlets and brochures, typed and handwritten letters, post it notes, crumpled up manuscripts, books, messages passed back and forth in class…if you can think of a type of paper that has words on it, chances are, it’s in this game. This is precisely why Gone Home succeeds in weaving its narrative into the mystery through its mechanics. There are no mechanics to speak of other than examining pieces of paper and reading what’s on them, but it doesn’t need anything else because of just how fully it uses that lone mechanic. Every piece of paper is packed with narrative; the written text often gives us clues as to the characters and their lives, of course, but so too does all of the incidental information. Each scrap of paper has its contents, but also an author, an intended recipient, often a date, maybe notes written on the front or back, or maybe signs that it’s been used for something else. Much of this information may be present on a given piece of paper the player examines, but it’s no guarantee. The certain texture and appearance of a paper tells us about its age, and where and how we encounter it tells us about how it’s regarded; is it a book tucked away in a box in a closet, or perhaps a letter stored underneath a false bottom in a desk drawer? Everything has been crafted with meticulous attention to detail; every detail reveals things to us, if we only pay attention. It is exactly as Henry Jenkins describes embedded narrative in “Game Design as Narrative Architecture”: “we read letters and diaries, snoop around in bedroom drawers and closets, in search of secrets which might shed light on the relationships between characters” (684). Every word of that is baked into the core of Gone Home, and its commitment to that central thesis binds the mystery, narrative, and mechanics together inextricably.
Some of the many types of paper you can encounter.
The architecture’s relationship to the story is much the same as the narrative’s relationship to the mechanics. By being so singularly and literally connected, there is an immensely strong bond throughout the game. The first moment of the game creates the potential for this bond; you begin just outside of a house, and your first task is to figure out how to get inside. Just as you enter the interior of the house, which is the setting of the rest of the game, you likewise enter the game itself and become enthralled in its story. The central mystery oozes from the house itself, from every false panel and locked door. As you explore the rooms of the house, you are also learning more about the characters who live in them. As you turn on the many lamps and string lights, illuminating each room, you also shed light on the papers which, in examining their contents, will shed light on the story. The house contains the ways you learn the story, but the story itself is just that of the house and its history.
The map tracks your location and progress throughout the house.
Gone Home has numerous accessibility features available for players, in areas including controls, audio, visuals, and the gameplay mechanics themselves. This includes (but is not limited to) full mouse, keyboard, and controller support, customizable keys, no required quick, repeated, or held presses, and full subtitles for all of the voice acting. While most of the gameplay naturally lends itself to being accessible (for instance, lacking enemies, a time limit, or any way to fail), there are a few accessibility features that are particularly helpful given the primary mechanics of the game involve reading. Much of the text in the game appears as handwriting on notes, but there is an option to “overlay all text” which presents it in a cleaner, typed format. Additionally, you can progress through the game without needing to read the text; anything especially important is repeated via the dialogue (which is fully subtitled). Based on the work of experts Steve Gaynor and Andrew Robertson of familygamingdatabase.com, Gone Home has numerous accessibility features which many other games lack. However, I would have liked there to be an option to speak any of the on-screen text from things like notes; while it is not essential to gameplay or progression, I think players should have the option to experience all of the flavor text the game has to offer even if they experience difficulties reading it.
