mikemariano

Gone Home from The Fullbright Company

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I absolutely loved this game. Sam felt like such a real person to me, and her struggle is something that I think most people will find relatable. Everything about Sam, her relationship with her parents, her parents' relationship with each other, felt so honest and believable. During the game, I'd frequently find myself dipping into my own memories of coming back from college and feeling like an alien in my own home, because I'd been absent while the lives of my younger sister and parents went on without me.

 

This game gave me everything that I wanted and more, and I'm so happy that it exists and that people are responding to it positively. Great job by everyone at Fullbright.

 

(I also loved that any time you played a tape, the music volume would decrease the further away from the tape player you got. It's a small thing, but it made me so happy that it was there.)

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Actually, from what I've heard from various outlets, Catherine reputedly has a very moving story about emerging into adulthood from a lifestyle-prolonged adolescence and a character's reluctance to enter the "real world" when their time to do so has arrived. This is, of course, under all the sexy anime ladies. Patrick Klepek's enthusiasm for the game was enough to motivate me to buy it when it was super cheap on PSN+ at the end of last year. Still haven't played it, but it's on my radar.

 

Anyway: Gone Home. How's the multiplayer?

 

I actually know nothing about Catherine apart from wacky block pushing in your underwear bits.  So my statement was half in jest, half an actual question.

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All of the soda cans are two servings?

 

Who saves soda for a second serving?

I saw that too and laughed. I think my -favorite- little find like that though was the Twin Peaks reference on Sam's locker

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There are some really good Idle Thumbs references in this game! I kinda feel bad for non-podcast listeners who play this, they are missing out on some of the best moments!

 

The writing for Gone Home is very effective.

 

The game design for this is weird though. I was looking at a piece of writing Steve did on Idle Thumbs many years ago about the over reliance of amnesiacs in games, and how that is lazy writing (which is true). Gone Home's solution to having an amnesiac protagonist is to have an intense voyeur come back home to a conveniently empty house where it is easy enough to discover pieces of writing that reveal secretive aspects of each family member's life. It is a very specific contrivance to avoid the amnesiac cliche, and the way you comb through the house is just as crazy as Booker Dewitt eating all sorts of cotton candy and hot dogs out of trash cans if you think about it. I'm not trying to knock the game, which I very much enjoyed, but I'm just noting that it is such a common argument these days to say we need more non-violent video games, but I think the unusual qualities of Gone Home's design underscore why it is a really difficult design challenge.

 

Props to Fullbright & co for releasing this game with a cool vibe.

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So I beat it on hardcore difficulty, permadeath mode in less than 3 hours. total baby gaem.

 

(KIDDING. It's great/amazing/highest recommendation. No joke, my GOTY 2013)

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The ghosts were the best part.

 

Couple complaints, mostly-gameplay-only, as the writing really got me (I'm spoilering anyway cause I reference some things that could be considered as such):

1) WHY AM I SO SHORT? 12 year old dad was almost as tall as Katie. I mean, I know dudes are generally taller than dudettes, but dudettes also get taller faster, and at 12, most dudes aren't at their peak, yet! I know first-person games typically have short protagonists, but everything in this house just felt gigantic.

2) I kinda agree with sclpls. It was really awkward to just be digging through these people's home. It might've helped considerably if Katie just spoke. She already did it on the answering machine! Vocal protagonists are all the rage these days! Okay, I can understand why it might be hard to write someone talking to themselves or reacting to things with no other humans around, but it would've felt a lot more real to me. I mean I talk to myself all the time when I'm alone! I'm normal! Everyone does it! Don't lie! Like for example when Katie started reading the note about Sam waking up with Lonnie kissing her and then immediately went "nope" (which was a great moment), it would've really just felt better to me if Katie had actually said it. She took control there, she's a real character, she should show some of it! And I know Sam is the real main character of this story, so I can understand the reluctance for that reason, too, but, ehhh, but, ehhhhhhh. Rambling OVER.

 

I loved this game and I'm very happy it exists. I did play it in two sessions, and after finishing the first session I was worried I wasn't going to like it. But then I dug right back in and it paid off in spades. Yay!

 

Also I kind of wish the controls weren't so... traditional, because I'd love to show this game to my mom and have her be able to play it. I don't think she could in its current state. I struggle to think of how else it could be done other than the somewhat typical seek 'n' find games where you're just clicking on a bunch of static scenes. Taking it anywhere in that direction would ruin much of what makes the game so good.

 

One thing I didn't get/find, which I don't know if it even is gettable/findable:

Uncle Oscar! Why was he a psycho? What happened with his sister? I feel like I missed something huge (I mean, huge outside the context of the core story). D:

 

OH AND I FORGOT ALL ABOUT IT IMMEDIATELY AFTER FINISHING BUT REMEMBERED THE MORE I THOUGHT ABOUT IT:

It sorta bothers me that the game was so tense and creepy. Yeah, a big empty house is usually like that anyway, but it sorta tore me out of the world sometimes, rolling my eyes at a light flickering off or thunder crashing. ):

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I just started playing, and it's really not supposed to be an extremely dim unlit mess at the beginning is it?

 

I started off thinking there was something wrong with my drivers, everything was pitch black except the trees outside the entry room. I updated my drivers, and started again, still nothing. I turned up the brightness until I could see that there was at least SOMETHING to see, and I turned on a lamp to find it produced, nothing. No light.

 

I'm playing on an Intel HD 4000. Steve if you're reading this get a patch out, or something, I want to play!

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Re: Twig's question about the uncle:

There are a lot of things pointing to something going wrong between him and Terr(y/ence) in 1963; dad's obsessed with this year now, and the size measurements end in this year. In the letter in the safe Oswald asks Terry's mother to forgive him one last time for his transgression. There's also a letter in a secret compartment in dad's writing desk from Oswald saying that he's glad Terry is getting married and grew up OK. This points to some form of child abuse to me, which is a major bummer considering the overall upbeat nature of the game.

Oswald clearly felt great remorse, and developed a valium habit, possibly culminating in suicide. He also apparently became such a recluse that he developed a reputation as a psycho in the community.

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Haven't picked it up yet, but I'm curious if there's a "best place" to do so. I was going to buy directly from Fullbright, but I saw someone mention that it might be worth buying on Steam as it would give them visibility there.

 

Recommendations?

 

i don't know if anyone else pointed this out already, but
http://www.gonehomegame.com/ghost/

 

Right as the dude is raising his hand there's a couple of flashes of light on the desk to his left.

 

Ghost: Confirmed.

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Re: Twig's question about the uncle:

There are a lot of things pointing to something going wrong between him and Terr(y/ence) in 1963; dad's obsessed with this year now, and the size measurements end in this year. In the letter in the safe Oswald asks Terry's mother to forgive him one last time for his transgression. There's also a letter in a secret compartment in dad's writing desk from Oswald saying that he's glad Terry is getting married and grew up OK. This points to some form of child abuse to me, which is a major bummer considering the overall upbeat nature of the game.

Oswald clearly felt great remorse, and developed a valium habit, possibly culminating in suicide. He also apparently became such a recluse that he developed a reputation as a psycho in the community.

 

That was my understanding of the Oscar (not Oswald, I think) story as well. The little clues that you could find about him and the insight they gave into Sam's dad and the reaction he has to Sam's 

decision to come out

really worked for me as a method of storytelling.

 

As far as the criticism of Katie rummaging through her family's belongings as the main mechanic of delivering the story -- it didn't really bother me. Sam's notes are technically addressed to you, whether or not you were ever intended to read them 

I think the ending of the game shows that Sam did want you to read them

.

 

Personally, if I was away from home for months, and suddenly came home to an empty house with a cryptic note written by my younger sister, I would immediately start looking for hints as to what happened. So Katie's actions didn't really bother me the way it seems to have bothered others.

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Regarding the Uncle:

If you enter the room near the safe you find it to be very dark and filled with spider webs, and I am pretty sure it contains the only light bulb in the house that doesn't work.  This makes it difficult to spot the two items that you can actually find in the room.  One seems to be related to the prohibition but I don't think it makes any clear references to Oscar (other then being found in his home).  The other is a wooden toy horse.  Perhaps I am reading into this a bit much, but this is what I take away from the discoveries.  The horse was Terrence's toy he had brought over for Thanksgiving dinner, 1963, because he is a kid and, whatever, that's what kids do.  Shortly after getting his measurement recorded by Oscar he was taken into this back room and abused, he also lost his toy at this time.  This left scars on both Oscar and Terrence so the room was never tended to which explains the poor shape we find it in in the present day and the reason the toy was never found before now.  Even the room before it, where we find some of Sam's items is in poor shape with a loose sink and a cabinet that wont close.  I may be off because we find Oscar's safe in the hallway connecting the two rooms which is an odd place for someone to store their possessions if they appear to want to ignore that part of the house, but maybe that was the best place to put the safe from a game design standpoint.

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I just started playing, and it's really not supposed to be an extremely dim unlit mess at the beginning is it?

 

I started off thinking there was something wrong with my drivers, everything was pitch black except the trees outside the entry room. I updated my drivers, and started again, still nothing. I turned up the brightness until I could see that there was at least SOMETHING to see, and I turned on a lamp to find it produced, nothing. No light.

 

I'm playing on an Intel HD 4000. Steve if you're reading this get a patch out, or something, I want to play!

 

I had this issue when I started the game. I couldn't see a thing. It turns out the default brightness setting was all the way to the left of the slider at the darkest setting. Super annoying! Even after I adjusted it to something reasonable where I could see stuff the lighting in the game definitely felt off, but I think that is more of a Unity issue than anything else...

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It ran ok on an Intel HD 4000 for me. (MB Air)

Great, great game. Amazing how they got all the details right, even with such a small team.

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Haven't picked it up yet, but I'm curious if there's a "best place" to do so. I was going to buy directly from Fullbright, but I saw someone mention that it might be worth buying on Steam as it would give them visibility there.

 

Recommendations?

 

 

Right as the dude is raising his hand there's a couple of flashes of light on the desk to his left.

 

Ghost: Confirmed.

ghostgame.jpg

 

:hah:

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when Katie started reading the note about Sam waking up with Lonnie kissing her and then immediately went "nope"

oh man, I missed this. it sounds like something I ought to have heard.

 

Also though: this is maybe my favourite game ever.

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Hmm, I'm interested in the environmental storytelling (and, to a lesser extent, interested in examples of "scattered journal pages done well"). I think I would also enjoy all the 90's references even though I'm a few years younger than the characters and the overlap of 90's experiences is probably very small, and all of the pointlessly interactable items seem very exciting (i.e. that excellent fridge!). I think I would even appreciate (with a chuckle) the inclusion of things like irrelevant thunderstorms.

 

But as feared, Danielle's review mentions that the story is about

the secrets that we keep when we're young, fear of alienation and desire for acceptance, complicated relationships with family.

 

...which isn't really my jam and tends to set my eyes rolling, unless used as an artful backdrop to creating sarcastic and genre-savvy child protagonists ala E. L. Konigsburg or Diana Wynne Jones. =P

 

So knowing my narrative preferences, I may regretfully give this one a miss after all, but Congrats, Mr. Fullbright! on making a game that people like and selling it for money!

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Oh man, I just remembered that the text is all moddable in the game so that it can be easily translated.

 

Does anyone know if other things are moddable too? Sound files, textures, etc?

 

Probably not, because it's danged old Unity, but it would be nifty if those were moddable so that people could commandeer the spooky house and change the story into something about (say,) badgers.

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I loved the note that said

"Sam: Stop leaving every damn light in the house on! You're as bad as your sister!"

because that is exactly what I was doing as I went through the house. The story and the environment are so well integrated with one another and everything seems to align just right with the player's motivations.
 

It's just such a sweet, touching game. I'm really glad to have played it.

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I loved the note that said...

 

Ha! If my family had been as note-happy as the Gone Home family, there would have been a lot of notes expressing that particular thing. =P

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But as feared, Danielle's review mentions that the story is about

the secrets that we keep when we're young, fear of alienation and desire for acceptance, complicated relationships with family.

 

...which isn't really my jam and tends to set my eyes rolling, unless used as an artful backdrop to creating sarcastic and genre-savvy child protagonists ala E. L. Konigsburg or Diana Wynne Jones. =P

 

So knowing my narrative preferences, I may regretfully give this one a miss

I think you've got the wrong idea from that review to some extent. At least I am 100% comfortable in saying that Mrs. Wynne-Jones would love this game. There's a lot of wit, and charm.

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Who stole all of the VCRs?

Screw the VCRs, where's the SNES?

 

 

Just finished it, I think it was rather short. There are so many unfinished stories in the house. Maybe I missed it, but wtf was going on with the dead guy?

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