Game: Gone Home
Target Audience: casual gamers, narrative lovers, probably geared more towards women and queer people
Creator: The Fullbright Company, Annapurna Interactive
Platform: Desktop, iOS, Steam, Xbox, Nintendo, Playstation
I played Gone Home, a walking simulator that describes the experience of Katie who returns home from a year abroad to an empty house. No one is home, and as she explores rooms in the house, she finds various clues about her family: her father’s disappointing career as a writer, her mother’s burgeoning relationship with someone she works with, and her younger sister Sam’s growing romance with another girl named Lonnie (horrible name). During the game, journal entries written by her younger sister are read aloud, shedding light on the history of her relationship with Lonnie. There is also a supernatural element to the game as the house the family lives in is said to be “cursed” in some way (the inhabitants “go crazy”).
Figure 1: Exploring cabinets in the house
Figure 2: More exploring
The game unfolds through these environmental clues, and the mechanics involve only walking around and interacting with objects. The narrative is non linear as we pass back and forth between the current timeline and the one illustrated by Sam’s journal entries or various notes/receipts/invoices found throughout the house.
Figure 3: Clues
Figure 4: Environmental storytelling
In an incredibly obvious way, this game lends itself well to the feminist lens. The storyline follows two sisters, one of which is queer, thus quickly casting off a typical heteromasculine game play. The game is slow based, focused on interpersonal discovery which is quite unusual from what we typically think of a video game. There is no game mechanic other than walking and clicking to uncover a narrative.
Though I did not finish the game, it immediately presented itself as queer to me before I reached the reveal that Sam is indeed queer. She likes games like Street Fighter (typically seen as masculine), she’s into the riot grrrl scene, she has an intensely close friendship with a girl named Lonnie which she reflects on with nothing other than love. So, when this “reveal” comes, it’s not so much a reveal as it is confirming the obvious. Thus, the game is heavy-handed in its “breaking the mold”.
Just as feminist theory looks to expand spheres typically dominated by heteromasculinity, Gone Home expands what the definition of a game is. Yes, this game is a walking simulator, but it is so straight forward as to almost not even be a game because there is very little player interaction. In this way, the game reflects the exact theory that it embodies.
I do think the heavy-handedness of feminist and queer themes might actually work against the goals that the author sets out in the reading. She wants gamers to embrace feminism and for feminism to embrace gaming. Yet, the game is so obviously queer that it could immediately turn away gamers who don’t feel aligned with its messaging. I wonder if this could be ameliorated by having more emergent narrative throughout rather than wearing the game’s themes on its sleeves.
The slow and leisurely pace of the game, however, perfectly fits into the feminist mold that Chess outlines in her book. She comments on how leisure time is “abused” in many games catered for a female audience (i.e. Diner Dash). Here, leisure is reclaimed as you can move throughout the house as slowly as you please, choosing to notice clues at your own pace.
