mikemariano

Gone Home from The Fullbright Company

Recommended Posts

Does anybody know how to make Doom.wad files? Because I'm pretty sure we could make Gun Home a reality with relative ease this way.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

(the only one I've experienced that I can think of off the top of my head is an obscure adorable lesbian manga).

 

Long shot, but is it the one where she kisses a bald girl and her parents turn out to be gay too? Those are the only details I remember about it but if so then yeah that manga is the best.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Long shot, but is it the one where she kisses a bald girl and her parents turn out to be gay too? Those are the only details I remember about it but if so then yeah that manga is the best.

 

I'm not familiar with that one. I was thinking of Rica 'tte Kanji, which you can read legally for free here!

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I have felt frustration in the past that there aren't more stories about happy gay relationships (the only one I've experienced that I can think of off the top of my head is an obscure adorable lesbian manga).

 

The canonical example seems to be the Beebo Brinker chronicles? Ann Bannon is pretty neat. There's a bunch of interviews with her here.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I've mentioned before that Gone Home really hit close to home for me for having been in a really similar situation (right down to abandoning a beloved plush dinosaur), but I have felt frustration in the past that there aren't more stories about happy gay relationships (the only one I've experienced that I can think of off the top of my head is an obscure adorable lesbian manga). Think of it as being like the debate that always comes up around art games when someone says that games have to be fun. The production of one thing isn't exactly taking away from the production of the other. I just want to see more of both.

 

That being said, that commenter's being really insensitive. People cope in different ways. It's not her place to judge others for not being able to cope at the same rate or in the same way as themselves.

 

Is Gone Home not about a happy gay relationship? Yes, there are some difficulties, but that's true of all relationships ever. Sam and Lonnie are completely in love and the ending is quite positive (within the context of the game, at least). What's not happy about that?

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I think the game is really great, but I'm going to bring up a few nitpicky points that bothered me just because I haven't seen them mentioned before.

 

Mainly there were a few things which made the house have the feel of being a 'game level' rather than a real-world architectural space. For one thing, the first floor is partitioned off into two completely separate wings. This in itself is not entirely beyond belief considering some the weird architectural choices I've seen in real-life older houses which have been added on to, but I was a little bit bothered by the fact that one of those wings was inexplicably locked off at the beginning of the game. I can't think of a reason why Sam would have locked off the kitchen. Maybe this is explained in a note somewhere but it still feels artificial when you consider that most of the notes in that side of the house seem to concern events that take place chronologically later than the notes in the other side. Same thing goes for the basement.

 

Also, I was really bothered by the fact that the second floor is not actually positioned over any part of the first floor, but is seemingly hanging over nothing. Coupled with the fact that there are wide gaps of negative space in between rooms all over the house, it's fun to think of the Escherian monstrosity that the house would look like from the outside.

 

For me, part of the game's appeal was in the way it tried to create a believable and inhabitable space, and in most counts it succeeded really well in doing that. But the architectural weirdness definitely took me out of the experience and made me pretty aware that I was in a 'level' rather than a house. And as for the gating, I understand the reasons for it being there, but I think I would have rather had the option of finding the narrative out of order and piecing it together on my own. Things like the attic or the locker could stay gated off to keep the larger revelations from being discovered up-front.

 

Anyway, just a few thoughts. It seems like I'm pretty unique in being affected by this stuff as I haven't heard any other mentions of it, but there you go. Great game though!

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I noticed all those things, but ultimately the game moved fast enough and maintained my suspension of disbelief well enough for me to just overlook them.  I can see how they would bother someone though. 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Steve, WHY DIDNT GONE HOME HAVE CATS?!!

 

Listening to a Tone Control interview with Randy Smith, and just heard Steve say that they seriously considered making a Catlateral Damage style DLC pack with a magical reading cat.

 

Please...pretty please?

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Listening to a Tone Control interview with Randy Smith, and just heard Steve say that they seriously considered making a Catlateral Damage style DLC pack with a magical reading cat.

 

Please...pretty please?

 

I think the dilemma was making the text unreadable, since you would be a cat? There are two obvious options, of course: either put a blur filter over all the text, or replace it with "meow" for each word.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Okay, if you aren't listening to Tone Control:

 

1.  You should be....

 

2.  ...because, Steve dropped the most amazing story about having linked the worlds of System Shock, Bioshock and Gone Home through his work on Minerva's Den and some easter eggs in GH. 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I'm pretty sure there's a man and a lighthouse ergo it's the Bioshock universe

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Yes. Good examination.

Thanks for sharing.

 

Edit: Oh, by the way-- :) explosions in the sky

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Gaynor revealed that GH has sold around 250K copies since release. 

 

I'm really happy it has done so well, surely that blows away any expectations they had.  That's better than a lot of retail games do. 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I guess it all depends on how much the game cost to make, but 250k sounds kinda low to me.

 

For a game made by a team of like 4 people that isn't Minecraft, 250k is very impressive!

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

250K copies sounds amazing to me for a first time game from a new indie dev, a $20 pricetag for 2-5 hours of content and exploring themes that are considered niche and controversial for video games.  If it averaged around $8 a game figuring in fees, Valve's cut and sale prices, that's pushing $2 million in revenue for a 4 person team in their first full year of business.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I imagine a large portion of that 250 000 was not at full price, but that's a pretty impressive figure for four people with no publishing contract. I have to imagine they're pretty happy with that number, especially 6 months in. I doubt Gone Home will sell a ton more than that, but 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.

 

That's got to at least give them some wiggle room. And it means there are 250 000 people who know who they are and might be interested in their next game. Congratulations, Fullbright!

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

The game was built in Unity by people living in Portland (Portland has a very reasonable cost of living because it has traditionally had very high unemployment). A big expense I suppose was the licensed music, but I imagine even that wasn't exorbitant -- the Kill Rock Stars folks don't strike me as the type that are interested in ripping people off. Voice acting was done locally... Obviously a ton of work went into the game, but I also don't see any evidence that suggests that it was more expensive to produce than a typical game.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

As an example, Don't Starve sold about one million copies last year.  It released earlier, is a lower price, has a wider audience, went through a paid beta/EA stage that built up a community for it, has had a series of free content updates, has a robust modding community and has gone on deep sales a few times.  Klei considers it to be a huge success.

 

Gone Home selling a quarter the copies of Don't Starve, given the advantages that Don't Starve has, seems quite good. 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now