mikemariano

Gone Home from The Fullbright Company

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I played Gone Home in a single sitting over the Holidays, and absolutely loved it! I think I am pretty much the target market though, since I am a big fan of adventure and mystery, and am of a similar age to the protagonist. I poked around pretty much everywhere I could, learning as much as possible about each person in the family from the clues dotted about. I also wallowed in nostalgia for the 90s: X-files on VHS, but also band tapes and zines. It was long enough to do everything it wanted (and boy did it succeed for me), but it never got tired. One of my favourite games of 2013 :)

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if it goes on sale again this year or gets featured in some Humble Bundles, I imagine it will get pushed up to 300 000 by year end.

 

My guess is actually probably 500k units by the end of the year between additional Steam seasonal sales and if we go into a Humble bundle-- the bundles especially do crazy volume. This will push our average price per unit way, way down obviously, but we won't be complaining.
 
Yes, we're all very happy with these numbers. They certainly put us in a good position going forward!

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Woah that's awesome! Congrats to Steve and company on the well deserved success!

Definitely one of my GOTYs.

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My guess is actually probably 500k units by the end of the year between additional Steam seasonal sales and if we go into a Humble bundle-- the bundles especially do crazy volume. This will push our average price per unit way, way down obviously, but we won't be complaining.

 
Yes, we're all very happy with these numbers. They certainly put us in a good position going forward!

 

That's awesome, I'm glad to hear it! Can't wait to see what you guys do next. I hope that the sales of Gone Home give you as much freedom as possible to do what you want with your next game.

 

Speaking of sales, I have a question, which you can feel free not to answer if you'd rather not: did you explicitly think about sales when pricing the game? As in, did you set Gone Home's initially price at $20 rather than, say, $15, because you knew it would be featured in sales and wanted that "75% off!" to lower it $5 rather than $3.75?

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Speaking of sales, I have a question, which you can feel free not to answer if you'd rather not: did you explicitly think about sales when pricing the game? As in, did you set Gone Home's initially price at $20 rather than, say, $15, because you knew it would be featured in sales and wanted that "75% off!" to lower it $5 rather than $3.75?

 

Short answer: yes, definitely.

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So where does the other side of that teleporter gate on the DICE stage come out?

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I look forward to seeing Gone Home in the next Humble Audiobook Bundle! Haha sick burn.

 

So Gone Home is now featured on this new section of Steam.

 

The best worst part: Browsing Not a game Games

 

I find this very amusing.

 

rObFv4D.png

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Also add the tags: 90s, X-Files, Binders, A lot of binders, Electric cables, Christmas duck, Locked front door, Windows, Staircase, Books, Stole game console, Toilet

 

 

Yes, I enjoy the tag system

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Whenever I see Steve's posts now, his new avatar makes me read them in a Keanu Reeves whisper voice.

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I'm really glad Gone Home has done so well despite the hate. It's one of a only a few games non-gaming friends have approached me wanting to talk about.

 

 

Best:

 

Steve's DICE Talk about Gone Home and it's place in the changing indie landscape

 

 

Thanks for posting the Dice talk, AsianMan.

 

 

Shh, don't give away his secret!

 

 

I KNEW IT!

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Famitsu did a write-up of Gone Home

 

http://www.famitsu.com/serial/indie_game/201402/17048108.html

 

Here's an English translation (excuse wall of text)

 

"An adolscence-themed game without NPC!? The impression of Gone Home, an adventure game set in the 90s" by Shin Imai

"A strong favorite to win this year's GDC!?"
"Narrative" has been a key word in the gaming industry these days. Gone Home is also a game that has been critically-acclaimed for its great narrative and being nominated for the Best Narrative category in this year's GDC. 

The game was developed by an indie game developer called The Fullbright Company in Portland, Oregon. The Fullbright Company was founded by 3 creators who had created the BioSchock2 DLC "Minerva's Den". Gone Home is The Fullbright Company's first game and you can buy it on its official website or Steam for $19.99.

"Where did all the family members go?"
The game starts at the point when the protagonist Katie came back from her trip around Europe. And exploring the house to find the reason of her family's dissaperance is the main objective of this game.

The control scheme is a standard FPS-style.

There's no NPC in this game and that makes this game very unique. Instead you will find a lot of objects such as books, video tapes, photos, magazines etc in the house and gradually understand about Greenbriar family.

Finding awkward stuff that belong to one of the family members is an experience that you can't get in any other games. The main story is told through Sam's diary but I'd rather not to spoil the detail here.

If I describe this game with three words, it would be "Adolescence, Punk, Girls"

"The messages in Riot Grrrl"
You can find the names of the real bands or the artists in the game such as Kurt Cobain, Dinosaur Jr or even Guided by Voices. It was a real treat for a man like me who grew up listening to the 90s rock music.

This game features a movement called "Riot Grrrl". Riot Grrrl was a movement created by female punk rock musicians. It might not be well known in Japan but it was a very important movement over there. Those girls organized shows and festivals by themselves and made a new wave in the punk rock scene that was a relatively male-centered world at the time. A lot of famous bands such as Bikini Kill or Sleater-Kinney emerged from that movement. I can't explain the detail here because of the space limitation of this colum but if I describe "Riot Grrrl" with simple words, it would be "solidarity among girls" and that is also a theme of this game. A girl meets a girl, exchanging cassette tapes, going to see shows together, making zines...the philosophy of Riot Grrrl is behind all these activities in the game.

You can beat the game in about 3 hours so some people might feel $19.99 a litte expensive. But the experience this game provides is not something you can get from movies or novels so personaly I think the price is pretty adequate.

"About the Japanese localization"
I understand a lot of Japanese gamers are hesitant to play this game in English but fortunately The Fullbright Compay is very open-minded for localizing their game to other languages. I've also heard two Japanese professional translators Yosei Muto and Ryu Ito have been working on the localization of this game. I was curious to know what made them want to do the work voluntarily so I made contact with them and asked some questions.

Yosei Muto: I like old-style point & click adventure games and a lot of those games are made by indie developers these days. There are really good games such as Gemini Rue or To the Moon and I think Gone Home is also one of them. I think the way they have included the horror aspects into the adolescence-themed story was very clever and I was moved by Sam's decision at the end of the game. The handwritings in this game have a very important roll and we're kind of struggling to reproduce the same feelings in the Japanese version but we're doing our best to get the best result as possible.

Ryu Ito: I love games with good stories and atmospheres such as Syberia, The Longest Journey and Dreamfall. And I had a feeling that Gone Home also would provide me a good story and atmosphere. So I bought it during this new year holidays and was really moved by it. I'm about the same age as Sam and I liked the bands like Nirvana and The Breeders so playing this game was a very emotinal experience. I wanted to tell the creators about what I felt so I wrote a message on their website then Steve-san kindly replied me and encouraged our localization. He gave us this great oppotunity so I feel like I can't betray his kindness and want to do our best to not to disgrace the beauty of this game. I'm also thinking to make a Japanese Gone Home fun page so we can introduce the game to Japanese gamers.

I'd like to conclude this article with a message that I fortunately could receive from Mr. Steve Gaynor who is the designer and the writer of the game!

"One thing I love about video games is their ability to transport me completely to a place that feels simultaneously foreign and familiar. So one of my favorite games is Shenmue. The feeling of being in a totally believable Japanese home and town in the '80s was like a portal to another life. 
I hope that Gone Home feels similarly transportative for Japanese gamers, a window into all the mundanity and intrigue of an American home, as Shenmue did for me."

Steve Gaynor

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