Gone Home
Gone Home masquerades as a haunted house genre romp, where you explore a narratively rich mysteriously creepy abandoned house in a remote area. But instead of the supernatural, this space reveals itself to be a deep and attentive exploration of history—of the age of Riot Grrl, the power of DIY culture, family trauma, and, ultimately, coming to terms with queer sexual identity. Gone Home gets its emotional change from the conflict between the explicitly “normal” subject position of the player’s character, and the increasing awareness of their subject position’s limitation to access the rest of the both physically and metaphorically inaccessible cast. Part of the game’s strength lays in its resistance to reductively portraying a culturally loaded place and time: the heyday of ‘90s grunge in the Pacific Northwest. All the while, Gone Home subtly constructs an intellectual argument showcasing how the ethos of feminism and DIY punk rock can empower members of fandom to embrace an active role in culture beyond simplistic top-down hero-worship and consumption.
Creator: The Fulbright Company
Link: https://gonehome.game/
Connections:
Bikini Kill - Revolution Girl Style Now!
Alien She at the Miller Gallery at Carnegie Melon University
Alison Bechdel - Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic