History VideoGame / GoneHome

''Gone Home'' is a 2013 EnvironmentalNarrativeGame developed by Fullbright (known as the Fullbright Company at the time of release). You play as Kaitlin "Katie" Greenbriar, a college student. On June 7th 1995, she returns to the States after traveling abroad for a year, during which time her family has moved to a new house. Katie took the midnight flight home, because it was the cheapest, and took the shuttle home so her mother wouldn't have to pick her up. But everything isn't like she expects. She arrives home to a locked door, an empty house, and has to figure out where everyone went and why they're gone.

** Sam's story, ''Heaven at the Edge of the World'', thematically resembles Sleater-Kinney's song "The End of You", with its WoodenShipsAndIronMen metaphor for relationships. Sleater-Kinney is, of course, the band that Heavens to Betsy eventually became.

* ShownTheirWork

** Reed College, the school that [[spoiler:Sam gets a writing scholarship to]], is a real, highly regarded liberal arts college in Portland, OR.

** In keeping with the period-appropriate setting, the game features references from everything from ''Series/TwinPeaks'' to ''Series/TheXFiles''. Simply looking at the TV Guide in the living room and seeing what shows were on the air on Fridays in 1995 is its own trip down memory lane all by itself, from cherished classics like ''Series/HomicideLifeOnTheStreet'' and ''Series/BoyMeetsWorld'' to long forgotten stuff like ''Series/HanginWithMrCooper''.

* BigNo: Drawn by Lonnie[[note]]at the prospect of living with her mother, TheFundamentalist, in Florida[[/note]], complete with a dead face on the O, knives flying overhead, and gravestones in the background.

* TheNineties: The game begins at 1:15 AM on June 7th 1995 as Katie arrives at the house her family moved into while she was away. Throughout the house you can find plenty of stuff that reminds you that the game is set in this decade, such as VHS recorded movies and cassette tapes. This also provides explanation as to why Katie was LockedOutOfTheLoop for a year while she was away travelling in Europe, and her parent's reaction to [[spoiler: Sam's homosexuality.]]

* TheNineties: The story is set in 1995, partially to avoid having to play the CellPhonesAreUseless games, partially to let players revel in a PeriodPiece full of homemade RiotGrrrl cassettes, underground zines, electric typewriters, and recordings of ''Series/TheXFiles'' on VHS.

* NonPOVProtagonist: Katie is the PlayerCharacter, but the story is mostly focussed on Sam.

* MinimalistCast: The game has only two credited voice actors:

* RuleAbidingRebel: In-universe in a journal entry, Sam is quick to point out that, for all of Lonnie's anti-authoritarian attitudes and shenanigans, she's still precise and obedient when it comes to her military training. [[spoiler:Especially so considering she doesn't even kicking up a fuss about their "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy, which Sam finds obnoxious. Subverted when she absconds from basic training in favour of being with Sam.]]

* NestedStoryReveal: Picture this. A girl comes home, [[ItWasADarkAndStormyNight on a dark and stormy night]], to find her house empty, panicy messages on her answering machine, and the bathtub is full of what looks like blood. You're probably thinking this girl walked right into a horror movie right? [[spoiler:Nope. The story is still a scary one, but it's more a metaphorical kind of scary. It's really about a girl who comes home and finds that NothingIsTheSameAnymore but [[HappilyEverAfter everyone is actually okay.]] The {{horror}} setting there to set the tone for [[AnAesop the aesop]] in stead of the genre of the game itself.]]

* ItWasADarkAndStormyNight: You arrive at your house your family had just moved in while you were gone, and no one was there.

* DVDCommentary: A commentary mode was added to the game through a patch. It features the developers as well as the lead singer of Heaven to Betsy, one of the bands in the game.

** Sam's story, ''Heaven at the Edge of the World'', thematically resembles Sleater-Kinney's song "The End of You", with it's WoodenShipsAndIronMen metaphor for relationships. Sleater-Kinney is, of course, the band that Heavens to Betsy eventually became.
** A bottle of salad dressing in the pantry directly homages ''VideoGame/BioshockInfinite'', specifically it's box cover.

* GenreShift: Invoked intentionally. You'd be forgiven for thinking the story is a psychological horror, given the dead of night, extreme weather, and the frantic messages left on the telephone, [[spoiler:but you'd be wrong. It's actually a very uplifting story, about a girl who come home and find that her family's been really shook up since she's been away, but as scary as it all is everything's going to be just fine.]]

** It's possible to [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5g3trvkAFQw complete the game]] in about [[spoiler:two minutes. It's possible for a thorough player get close to that time, as the (hidden) door leading to the penultimate note is neither locked nor uninteractable.]] [[YouShouldntKnowThisAlready This seems to have been patched out of the game as [[spoiler:you can no longer interact with the secret door until you actually read the note telling you about it]].]]

* AdultFear: Arriving home at a stormy night with no one around? That's strange... Sounds inside the house that might be the ghost of your dead uncle? Might just be wind and pouring rain... Your sister ran away [[spoiler: with her girlfriend]] without her parents knowing? This is getting uncomfortable... Realizing that your family has a rocky relationship? Getting warmer... Finding a condom in your mother's drawer? Oh barf. Looking at your father's [[PornStash confidential literature]] beneath all those [[WhoShotJFK Kennedy conspiracies]]? Gosh, Dad.

* BigScrewedUpFamily: The bulk of the game consists of finding out just how much of one the Greenbriars are. [[spoiler: The story is actually about them getting less screwed up.]]

** When Katie finds a diary entry from Sam that starts discussing her sex life, the note auto-closes after a few seconds and refuses to open again. Because what older sister wants to read about ''that?''

* ChekhovsGun: Inverted: something ''missing'' that ''should'' be there turns out to be important later. [[spoiler: Namely, the Panasonic Laserdisc player that Terry is in the middle of writing a review for. The box for the player is in the den next to the TV. But there's no laserdisc player anywhere in the house. Why? Well, because turns out that Sam stole it along with all manner of other things she could hock to help finance her life with Lonnie.]]

* EasterEgg: There's a Nerf basketball hoop on the back of Sam's bedroom door. In the garage, on the rafter near the door, there's a small purple Nerf basketball. You know you can throw things, right?

* GenreShift: Invoked intentionally. You'd be forgiven for thinking the story is a psychological horror, given the dead of night, extreme weather, and the frantic messages left on the telephone, [[spoiler: but you'd be wrong. It's actually a very uplifting story, about a girl who come home and find that her family's been really shook up since she's been away, but as scary as it all is everything's going to be just fine.]]

* NestedStoryReveal: Picture this. A girl comes home, [[ItWasADarkAndStormyNight on a dark and stormy night]], to find her house empty, panicy messages on her answering machine, and the bathtub is full of what looks like blood. You're probably thinking this girl walked right into a horror movie right? [[spoiler: Nope. The story is still a scary one, but it's more a metaphorical kind of scary. It's really about a girl who comes home and finds that NothingIsTheSameAnymore but [[HappilyEverAfter everyone is actually okay.]] The {{Horror}} setting there to set the tone for [[AnAesop the Aesop]] in stead of the genre of the game itself.]]

* NoAntagonist: After previous games like ''Slender'' or ''Amnesia'', you'd expect to run into a few jump scares from a horrifying monster or something. You are, after all, exploring a dark house all by yourself in a thunderstorm... ''Nah'', there is nothing trying to kill you at all.

** A natural choice, considering this game originally started as a mod for ''VideoGame/AmnesiaTheDarkDescent''. After all, there's something very suspenseful about an empty house, on a dark and stormy night, after midnight, with nothing to keep you company but the sound of rain, thunder, and the creaking floorboards of an old house. It does keep you on your toes, especially when [[spoiler: you find a bathtub full of "blood" (actually red hair dye), or when the only lightbulb in a secret hallway burns out right as you pick up a creepy crucifix]].

* RealityIsUnrealistic: It's perfectly conceivable that all the events of the game would have happened the way they do. The house on the hill, the stormy night, the sister's (rather common) fascination with the supernatural, are all plausible, normal, boring coincidences, yet many players complain that they are {{Red Herring}}s or at worst, disappointingly averted {{Chekhovs Gun}}s. But RealLife is like that.

** [[spoiler:Jan's a naturalized US citizen, having been born in Canada. This isn't brought up before or after being briefly mentioned in the basement. Dev commentary reveals this was a becuase the person doing the hand writing for Jan was Canadian and rather then have them re-write everything to account for American spellings, they just made mom Canadian just to "Bug fix" it ]]
** [[spoiler: There's no significance to Terry's father and Jan's colleague both being named Richard.]]

** It's possible to [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5g3trvkAFQw complete the game]] in about [[spoiler: two minutes. It's possible for a thorough player get close to that time, as the (hidden) door leading to the penultimate note is not locked.]] This seems to have been patched out of the game as [[spoiler: you can no longer interact with the secret door until you actually read the note telling you about it]].
** One of the achievements/trophies in the console edition lampshades this heavily, by requiring you complete the game in less than ONE MINUTE without any cheats. [[spoiler: If you know where the door and attic keys are, you can skip straight to the attic and 'complete' the game in next to no time at all.]]
* ShoutOut:

* YouBastard: Katie's refusal to re-open Sam's diary entry describing [[spoiler:having sex with Lonnie]] no matter how many times you try has shades of this, considering the two kinds of people most likely to be playing the game are geeky teenage boys who think it's going to be a trashy horror story or [[spoiler:lesbians who've already heard about it]].

* DysfunctionJunction: Katie seems to be the only one without any skeletons in her closet.

** [[spoiler:Jan's a naturalized US citizen, having been born in Canada. This isn't brought up before or after being briefly mentioned in the basement.]]

** The first code of the game (for the filing cabinet in Terry's office) is 0451. This is a reference to codes and door numbers including the sequence "451" in games such as [[VideoGame/SystemShock System Shock, System Shock 2]], [[{{VideoGame/Bioshock1}} Bioshock]], [[{{VideoGame/Bioshock2}} Bioshock 2]], [[VideoGame/BioshockInfinite Bioshock Infinite]], [[VideoGame/DeusEx Deus Ex]], and [[{{VideoGame/Dishonored}} Dishonored]]

** One of the SNES game cartridges you can find in Sam's room is ''Super Spitfire'', which references a minigame called ''Spitfire'' in ''[[VideoGame/{{BioShock2 BioShock 2: Minerva's Den]]'', which the developers of ''Gone Home'' previously worked on.

** One of the SNES game cartridges you can find in Sam's room is ''Super Spitfire'', which references a minigame called ''Spitfire'' in ''[[VideoGame/{{Bioshock 2}} Bioshock 2: Minerva's Den]]'', which the developers of ''Gone Home'' previously worked on.

* BigScrewedUpFamily: The bulk of the game consists of finding out just how much of one the Greenbriars are.

* GenreShift: Invoked intentionally. You'd be forgiven for thinking the story is a psychological horror, given the dead of night, extreme weather, and the frantic messages left on the telephone, [[spoiler:but it's actually a love/coming-out story]].

* LetsPlay: Done by DiploRaptor twice in fact, once on his channel with JibSniv, and the other as a stream for/with his girlfriend as she needed to play the game for a class both times the co-host is left in tears and Diplo convinces them that Sam is dead in the attic

%% ZeroContextExample entries are not allowed on wiki pages.

* LipstickLesbian: [[spoiler:Sam, the player character's sister, does not fit into any particular stereotype with regards to her sexuality.]]