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 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IVE-__EWB0M What is Gone Home? It's 1995. You come home from a year in Japan to find your family's house seemingly abandoned. A note taped to the front door, from your younger sister, tells you not to poke around trying to find out what's going on. Obviously, you go inside and try to figure out what happened. That's the game.  So It's a Horror Game? A Monster Ate Everyone? No, it's just a game about exploring and about piecing together a narrative by looking at the sorts of items that people use to live their lives. You can pick up items, look at them, put them back down, move them around the house, and so on. The game is not full of puzzles or linear sections - you go wherever you want in the house and find (or fail to find) whatever parts of the story that you end up finding. The game ends when you leave the house. There aren't multiple endings, but there are multiple middles, because there's so much stuff that no player will find everything on their first playthrough. What happened? Why? What kinds of people are your family members? What kind of person are you? You'll learn more (or less) about this depending on what you find and what conclusions you draw.  What Kind of Wacky People are Making This Game? It Doesn't Have Any Guns, For God's Sake! Gone Home is a product from the Fullbright Company, a game development studio started by Steve Gaynor, Johnnemann Nordhagen, and Karla Zimonja. They worked on BioShock 2 and were also responsible for Minerva's Den, the pretty fantastic BioShock 2 DLC. Here's a really interesting stream where Steve Gaynor plays through Minerva's Den and talks about it.  Additional Information
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| # ? Nov 22, 2012 20:33 |
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| # ? May 23, 2013 17:21 |
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I want this thing. Give me this thing. Why is this thing not in my computer yet? Seriously, it's uncommon that just a sentence or two about a game concept will grab my attention, especially one as simple as this, but this did it. I love incidental details in games and this looks like it's built around them. Since they only seem to mention it in one line between pics on their home page, this is scheduled for release 'sometime' in 2013.
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| # ? Nov 23, 2012 00:15 |
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Their facebook page says second half of '13.
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| # ? Nov 23, 2012 01:02 |
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I'm guessing the protagonist is female, otherwise he would be mysteriously absent from that portrait. Or you're Caspar, the friendly ghostbro.
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| # ? Nov 23, 2012 01:09 |
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The protagonist's name is "Katie" so that is another crucial clue.
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| # ? Nov 23, 2012 01:16 |
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I actually did spend a year in Japan, thankfully my family was still there when I got back! This game looks really interesting, I love games where you have to discover the background of the story yourself. There's a real sense of mystery/unknown that intrigues me. Any idea what the release price will be?
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| # ? Nov 23, 2012 01:23 |
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TychoCelchuuu posted:The protagonist's name is "Katie" so that is another crucial clue.  What could it mean? edit: ha maybe I should watch the trailer next time
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| # ? Nov 23, 2012 01:35 |
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So wait. You're telling me that there's a game that sounds a LOT like the best part of Shenmue, wandering through the Hazuki dojo and house and picking up random poo poo? I want this game. Give me this game.
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| # ? Nov 23, 2012 01:41 |
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EasternBronze posted:I actually did spend a year in Japan, thankfully my family was still there when I got back!
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| # ? Nov 23, 2012 02:24 |
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Sounds like a more open-ended Dear Esther than anything else.
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| # ? Nov 23, 2012 04:29 |
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Periodiko posted:Sounds like a more open-ended Dear Esther than anything else. This seems a lot more player driven though, telling a story using a video game as a medium in a way other forms of media can't. I find this really cool on that concept alone, can't wait to get my hands on it.
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| # ? Nov 23, 2012 06:47 |
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In today's episode of "encouraging headlines about this video game," Gone Home devs on player agency: “We all appreciate games that trust us as players.”
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| # ? Nov 27, 2012 02:52 |
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Goddamn this game looks fantastic and I want it now. I'm a sucker for exploration and I'm loving this setting. Also wasn't Minerva's Den the only good thing about Bioshock 2?
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| # ? Nov 27, 2012 03:00 |
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PonchAxis posted:Goddamn this game looks fantastic and I want it now. I'm a sucker for exploration and I'm loving this setting. Also wasn't Minerva's Den the only good thing about Bioshock 2? That and the drill moves but mainly just Minerva's Den. Also as evidenced by Idle Thumbs Steve Gaynor is a really smart dude who knows a thing or two about what makes a video game sweet or rad.
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| # ? Nov 27, 2012 03:02 |
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Oh wow, this is awesome. As much as I love art/experimental indie games that play with narrative, more traditional games that tell narrative better the usual method are great. I could totally use a version of Facade with picking stuff up instead of talking.
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| # ? Nov 27, 2012 22:29 |
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A 1up preview that is pretty positive.
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| # ? Nov 28, 2012 02:36 |
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I just read the eurogamer review and I thought it brought up a good point - it seems like the audio diaries really would remove the immersion and take away from actually exploring. I know it would be hard to flesh out the story otherwise, but I also know from previous games that it's totally going to take me out of the experience.
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| # ? Nov 28, 2012 21:37 |
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It's a goddamn shame that this game isn't an entire genre. The promise of 3D was that we would be able to actually interact intuitively with real worlds and it took until 2012 to start making good on that.
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| # ? Nov 28, 2012 21:41 |
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the black husserl posted:It's a goddamn shame that this game isn't an entire genre. The promise of 3D was that we would be able to actually interact intuitively with real worlds and it took until 2012 to start making good on that. Ever since Dear Ester became popular it kind of has become it's own genre. There much be a dozen games like this on Steam Greenlight at the moment. e: and so some extent the Penumbra/Amnesia games with the nice environmental interactivity bomblol posted:I just read the eurogamer review and I thought it brought up a good point - it seems like the audio diaries really would remove the immersion and take away from actually exploring. I know it would be hard to flesh out the story otherwise, but I also know from previous games that it's totally going to take me out of the experience. Well at least they're not actual audio diaries on tapes or some poo poo. Eurogamer posted:They're not explicitly called that, nor are they scattered around as tapes with exposition dumps, but early on the player finds Sam's diary in which we hear her read aloud that she misses her older sister and will record her memories as if she's talking to her Yodzilla fucked around with this message at Nov 28, 2012 around 21:49 |
| # ? Nov 28, 2012 21:46 |
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Someone should make a version of The Last Express without the point and click.
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| # ? Nov 28, 2012 21:48 |
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Yodzilla posted:Ever since Dear Ester became popular it kind of has become it's own genre. There much be a dozen games like this on Steam Greenlight at the moment. One released game (which is basically a tech demo for the idea) and a dozen muddy sketches on Greenlight do not make for a "genre". It's like people complaining about there being too many "atmospheric platformers" because Limbo and Journey were both released in the past year. Two games is not exactly an oversaturated market.
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| # ? Nov 28, 2012 21:49 |
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Who was complaining? You said it was a shame it wasn't a genre and I said there are other games like this that could be coming out on Greenlight, one of which just did.
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| # ? Nov 28, 2012 21:52 |
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It would be nice if most of them weren't horror games.
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| # ? Nov 28, 2012 22:04 |
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the black husserl posted:It's a goddamn shame that this game isn't an entire genre. The promise of 3D was that we would be able to actually interact intuitively with real worlds and it took until 2012 to start making good on that. I don't think good designers know there's that much of a demand. Making one on the coding and modeling side of things is still an undertaking, but with the advent of Unity, it is easier to create this specific kind of game than ever. However, to make it good takes a lot of thought and careful design, something many games these days lack.
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| # ? Nov 28, 2012 22:09 |
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Dear Esteban was pretty cool.
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| # ? Nov 28, 2012 22:30 |
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bomblol posted:I just read the eurogamer review and I thought it brought up a good point - it seems like the audio diaries really would remove the immersion and take away from actually exploring. I know it would be hard to flesh out the story otherwise, but I also know from previous games that it's totally going to take me out of the experience. They've mentioned in interviews that there are going to be modifiers that you can turn on/off, including the audio diaries, I think. Seems like that aspect is only kind of half-formed at the moment.
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| # ? Nov 28, 2012 23:29 |
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Something about the preview for this game really grabbed me and now I'm looking forward to playing it. I'm in love with the concept. Has anything been said of how long it would take to get through the entire house, assuming you're a completionist and want to explore everything? Will there be any value to starting a new game, randomized artifacts/events or anything like that?
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| # ? Nov 29, 2012 10:48 |
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Steve Gaynor (lead developer of this) just got 5,000 twitter followers so he posted this screengrab of what he's working on:
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| # ? Dec 8, 2012 21:52 |
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IGF awards are up, and Gone Home is a finalist in the Narrative category with Honorable Mentions for the Audio and Grand Prize categories.
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| # ? Jan 7, 2013 17:21 |
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How can it be a finalist for any category if the game is six months out from release? Oh well, not going to complain, I just hope it's released soon.  Not since Shenmue has my desire to pick up oranges and thoroughly examine them been met.
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| # ? Jan 11, 2013 14:53 |
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Monaco won the IGF back in 2010. It's coming out this April.
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| # ? Jan 11, 2013 16:40 |
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Looks super interesting, but how can you have different middle sections of the game? How can you fail to find everything in the house assuming you have all the time in the world? Do things disappear? Time limit?Kunzelman posted:Dear Esteban was pretty cool. rizuhbull fucked around with this message at Jan 11, 2013 around 16:52 |
| # ? Jan 11, 2013 16:49 |
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I think there's just a lot of stuff. Dear Esteban is not a Spanish mod for Dear Esther.
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| # ? Jan 11, 2013 16:54 |
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Latest dev blog about some family history one of the designers turned up while looking around her family's house for inspiration.
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| # ? Jan 18, 2013 20:52 |
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The game's artist working on some extremely '90s stuff:
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| # ? Jan 24, 2013 04:49 |
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I simultaneously want to play this game and never want to play this game, in the same way you might want to see something like Black Swan but after you see it you feel like somebody kicked you in the gut and you wonder just what made you want to see it in the first place.
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| # ? Jan 24, 2013 05:26 |
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VanSandman posted:I simultaneously want to play this game and never want to play this game, in the same way you might want to see something like Black Swan but after you see it you feel like somebody kicked you in the gut and you wonder just what made you want to see it in the first place. No, I'm pretty sure I wanted to see Black Swan and I enjoyed it, just like I want to play this game and I feel like I will enjoy this game. What the gently caress are you talking about?
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| # ? Jan 25, 2013 23:34 |
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New screenshot up for Screenshot Saturday.
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| # ? Feb 10, 2013 00:56 |
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Blog entry on their input system.
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| # ? Feb 15, 2013 17:15 |
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| # ? May 23, 2013 17:21 |
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Important development update
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| # ? Feb 16, 2013 06:10 |
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