Sunscreen: always forget putting on sunscreen before going outside, so I put one in my bag
Lipsticks: to make me look less pale
This is the bag that I usually use when I go to the library. Therefore, I do not agree that these items inside my bag could fully represent myself or my personality since I carry these things mainly because I need to use them in the library.
It was not hard for me to take this picture. I started with taking out everything that was inside the bag. Then, I put these on the floor and grouped items together based on categories. For me, this should be considered as writing since there was truly a message that I wanted to share in these paragraphs.
While writing the player narrative what I felt, I was happy and nostalgic when thinking about this. But I think sometimes I questioned myself as to what I’m writing, is it right or wrong. Maybe cricket is a game only, I thought sometimes that should I write about a game which more people could relate to such as monopoly or a more common game. In the end I decided I should write about cricket, so that everyone can know that it’s not just a game. Moreover, writing for it was nostalgic as I played for my school team for 5 years, and it has been a very big part of my life.
This week, you’ll be playing one of these two games together in groups of 3-5 via Roll20. I’ll be sending you invitations to join games on the platform. After you play, you’ll write up a reflection about the game.
In class on Tuesday, you’ll get a chance to begin setting up your characters and the games.
We’ll also spend some time in class finalizing details on the podcast series.
I mentioned in class on Tuesday that Gone Home is one of the originators of the genre: walking simulators, a term that was originally intended to be derisive because it wasn’t violent enough to be a game, but that it has since been embraced with a bunch of games that can all be designated as walking simulators. We’ll be playing a few other games this semester within the genre this semester.
Which reminded me of the video below, which is a Polygon video that ranks some of the examples from the genre according to how accurately they simulate the actual walking within the game.
Note that one game that makes a couple of cameos in the video, even though it is not ranked, is Night in the Woods, which was included in the itch.io Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality. We won’t be playing that one together as a class, but if you want to play the game for a podcast episode, you might begin by asking whether it qualifies as a walking simulator. In the game you play as College dropout Mae Borowski when she returns home to the crumbling former mining town of Possum Springs seeking to resume her aimless former life and reconnect with the friends she left behind. But things aren’t the same. Home seems different now and her friends have grown and changed. Leaves are falling and the wind is growing colder. Strange things are happening as the light fades. And there’s something in the woods.
(Pre-game): The phone call is very intriguing to players. And looking back right now, I find the phone call from Katie to her Mom offers a smooth and attractive introduction to the game. Also it is covers the main background story effectively and without procrastination. The three beeps right after the end of the call are really loud, or should I say, they are meant to be loud in order to foreshadow some alerting signs. So far so good, great transition to the actual game. Loving it…
(At the front door): It is 1:15 am. I’m at the front door of my house. Now the game has established its setting; it’s done in a quick fashion. Visually it is dark around me. Outside the door, the light is so dim that I could barely see. In fact, weak light makes me anxious. The sound effect corresponds to the gloomy feeling as well, with the extra disturbing rain and thunderstorm…I hear heavy footsteps by myself, which makes me even more nervous. I don’t quite know what I’m supposed to do at first. I checked the front door and then some corners. I opened the doors of the cupboard, and I found a key. This should lead me to the main entrance of the building…I like the design of this game. A first person narrative always makes me feel more closely connected to the character. It also gives a better look of the computer screen than the third person narrative. Players’ visions are cleaner and larger. It gives me a feeling that I’m in a detecting/searching game, something like a breakout room but definitely some horror breakout room. Will I see some bodies or some crimes? I have no idea. Let’s get inside and search the house…
This game has very intuitive control systems. I used WASD to move and right-click to pick up and inspect any object, and it was easy for me to get started. The first thing I noticed was the overall vibe of the surroundings. It was a stormy night and there is nobody at home to welcome the returning protagonist. The first thing I did was to turn on all the desk lamps and lights to make the surroundings easier to explore.
5:56
I noticed the music was not horrifying. Instead it gives off a warm yet sad vibe with strings instruments. From this I can conclude that this will not be a horror game but instead a mystery game about the protagonist’s family, likely her sibling, who left a note on the front porch about trying not to find her.
6:09
I found Sam’s backpack and her voice journal started playing as she wrote to the protagonist, her older sister about her first day in school and being identified as “the psycho house girl”. It certainly seemed like she did not enjoy her new high school experience.
6:19
I went into the protagonist’s father’s study as well as his library. It seems as if he is mostly concerned in three things: his work, the assassination of JFK, and, his daughter Sam. There were many journals and books in his rooms that showed his obsession about JFK. Above his work desk, there was a note saying, “check up with Sam” as well as a book on the library shelves about “Understanding Teenagers”.
The game opens up with a message the main character sent to his/her mom. The main character tells the mom that he/she got the ticket home from Europe. The main character also says that the arrival date is June 6th, that the flight is late, and that he/she will shuttle from the airport. The game then officially starts with, I am assuming, the main character on the porch about to enter his/her home. It is currently June 7th, 1995.
Porch:
I am in a dark area right outside the front door to the house. My travel bag is on the ground. I try to enter through the front door but it is locked. I notice some sort of letter hanging on a wooden door. It’s a letter dedicated to me (my name is Katie) and the letter is telling me to not search for the missing writer of the message, Sam. Sam initially wrote that he doesn’t want Mom and Dad to know that he is not home, but it appears that Sam erased “Mom and Dad” and replaced it with “anyone”. I am getting the sense that this ominous letter might be a suicide letter because Sam wants to keep his disappearance so hidden. I then find the key to the front door in a wooden cabinet. I open the door to the lobby of the house. So far, I am feeling uneasy, as the entire interior of the house is barely illuminated and looks like it’s from the setting of a horror movie. To make it even creepier, the rain outside and frequent thunder makes me feel like I am about to enter a haunted house. As a side note, the items in my current inventory are my passport, my boarding pass, and obviously, the key.
Lobby:
When I was about to open the front door, I had the preconception that I was low to middle class because I purchased the cheapest available flight; however, the main lobby of the house was of grandeur. The first thing I see is the wide main staircase and just the immensity of my house. I then head left and see the bathroom. Just then, I hear a voice. It appears to be my narration of Sam’s journal. Sam says so much has changed. He says that I have been gone for a year. It appears that Sam had a difficult experience going through so many changes, like moving to this new house and moving to a new school. This probabilize my grim guess that Sam killed himself possibly from depression. I then turn the lights around the house including the closet and a nearby lamp. I find my family picture towards the left wing of the house. I also turn on this recording of a girl calling out for Sam; I’m not exactly sure if the girl calling for Sam is me. As I am walking through my house, I am raising a suspicion that I am the only person in the house.
Hallway (left wing):
I walk down the hallway. I open things here and there. Nothing particularly eye-catching. As I proceed down the hallway, I go into a room on the right. It looks like an office space. On a chair I pick up an interesting book regarding the killing of JFK. There is another room connected to that room I was just in. The new room seems like the house library. On a table, I inspect a magazine and I get frightened from the magazine cover of a person staring right into me. I go back to the hallway and I go further down it. I am walking down the hallway, about to turn the corner on the right when I hear a man’s voice. There is a room on the far left of the hallway. The TV on the room is on. It is the source of the male voice. Upon inspecting the TV, I read that there is or was a severe weather warning. I then realize the disorderly state of the room and make the connection that possibly my family were scuffling around the house to get their most important things and fled due to the weather, which explains my family’s absence. However, this doesn’t connect to Sam’s beginning message. I am confused. I walk to the end of the left wing to see that the door at the end of the hallway is locked. I walk back to the main lobby.
2nd floor:
I decide to walk up the staircase to the 2nd floor. I turn left and go down another hallway. There is a room with a sign that says radiation hazard on the door. I go into the room and wander around what seems to be a kid’s room. I am guessing this is Sam’s room. In the room is another TV that is essentially out of service. I think the bad weather conditions cut out cable. I then go into a bathroom right next to the room I was just in and listen to another segment from Sam’s journal. The narrator’s voice says Sam was dyeing his friend’s hair, Lonnie (she), and Sam and Lonnie felt a moment of intimacy. I then assume that the narrator of the journal is Sam and that she is a girl. I then enter my parents’ room and find a postcard sent by me. The back of the postcard is the picture of Big Ben. I think I stayed in London for an entire year. At the end of the hallway of the 2nd floor, the entire end of the hallway is illuminated by a red light. I immediately run away.
I continue to wander around the house but don’t find anything noteworthy. My guess of the entire situation is that Sam fell into depression after being unable to adjust to her new living environment and ran away or committed suicide, after which the parents searched for Sam all over and outside the house which was why the interior of the house was so disorderly. However, I am pretty uncertain that is the case. I feel like something a lot more sinister occurred within the household.
When I saw the family picture, I knew that the smiling faces of the presumably happy family didn’t capture the more dark, inconspicuous reality of the family.
Here I am to begin the exploration in the game, gone home. Coming first to a player’s mind is a story line that illustrates the daughter, Katie, in a family was traveling back from Europe at the airport and calling her mom. The opening of the story gives little clue but leaves enough space for players to imagine what would happen afterwards. Then, a few minutes later, the screen switched from the airport scene to a house, leaving a dark room for player to freely explore. I firstly noticed that at a rainy night, the house without any people present looked fairly scary and mysterious. The weird atmosphere made me wonder where are the other family members. Turning around and searching for more clues, I noticed that there was a note left by Sam on the door and the door was locked. I read through the note, learning that Sam intended to make me not worried under the current situation. Then I moved around and found that there was a key hidden inside a drawer under an item. That moment marked my excitement and progression for the storyline.
Then I utilized the key and opened the door, coming to another room with access of different rooms. I looked at all the available items left in the house, and gradually explored the layout of the house. There was a sound coming from Sam at some moments and recalling her experience. The depressing music accompanying with the game as it went on intensifies the mysterious effect the designer wanted to display. With all the clues I discovered by myself, I was afraid that the sequence of the story I randomly followed would disrupt my understanding of the entire story. However, it is one of the most interesting features of this game. It gives players enough space to explore freely, no matter what sequence they follow. It is similar to finding out the missing pieces of a puzzle and putting them together gradually to look at the whole picture. The design and freedom the game contains are definitely the highlights for this product.
As I went on the story and unlocked different rooms inside the house, I eventually learned that the sister of Katie, was falling in love with her classmate, Lonnie, and her life was changed dramatically. As for their mom, whose husband was trapped in his depression, she met a nice ranger, Rick, who showed interest in her. Meanwhile, their dad and mom had a talk afterwards and wanted to give their marriage another try by joining a camp. All the mysteries were gradually revealed. The story line is interesting and full of surprise.
This product gives me a totally new angle to look at games in general. A good game is never only produced for entertainment, but also for space learning, detection, and any other sorts of challenges. A game, such as Gone Home, could be filled with emotions and lives if it is well designed. Good game is definitely also a form of literature that is worth appreciating.
Addition:
This is one of the scenes in the game. It is worth mentioning that all the details in the game, including visual and auditory effects, all intensify the main scary theme of the story. The details in the game is pretty delicate and worth appreciating.
I’ve started live blogging while playing through Gone Home! I have just gotten past the opening of the game and found the key to unlocking the house. Here’s the assignment page.
The game starts off with a dark screen and an audio message the protagonist leaves for her family, saying that she is returning from her trip and will arrive late. The character then starts the game in the front porch, along with the tutorial for different actions, you find out that the protagonist went on a trip to Europe when you open up the backpack and find a passport and flight ticket. The first “stage/scene” is the dark porch with no lights and in the background, with a somewhat creepy mood as you hear heavy rain pouring down. The door is initially locked, and you find a note from Sam saying something about not being able to meet her until someday, which first sets up for the mystery the game will be based around.
I have come to a stop after completely exploring the left wing of house on the first floor (other than the locked basement at the end of the hallway). Through this process, the protagonist finds notes from her younger sister telling her about how her situation at the new high school. Through looking over documents found on the floor and the father’s cabinet, we also learn that this house was inherited from the father’s uncle, and it seems like he has gone crazy before dying and passing his possessions to the father, which is why the student at school call Sam the girl who lives in the psycho house. The father is a writer of books and reviews but through letters from editors we know that his books are not selling, and reviews aren’t liked by the editor, overall in quite a slump. Also, through listening to the recording of the telephone, we learn that Sam seems to have gone missing before our voice message of arriving late to home. Some notes Sam leaves for us about keeping secret what we find in the attic also sets up for upcoming content of the game while giving us a goal of where we might want to look next. The creators so far have been setting up tension for the players with the empty house, continue rain with occasional thunder, as well notes from the sister.
I have now completed the game. The play through took a lot longer than I have expected. There were a lot of things to look for while playing and I had to look up guides at several points while progressing through the game. Instead of the horror I have thought this game might incorporate, it simply told a love story of Sam and her girlfriend Lonnie as I looked searched through the house and found notes and journals left by Sam. There were a lot of clues I had to look out for and even look online sometimes when I have gotten stuck. While playing this game, I realized that you are free to search around areas you have unlocked but there are always “story locked” areas that you will not be able to access. This means that even if you know where certain secret passages are, you cannot access them prior to having found certain story related items. This makes sure that players are getting the full story in proper order but at the same time I found it sometimes frustrating when I have somehow either gone ahead or missed something in certain rooms and need to return and look for clues/items again.
I thought this was a pretty well-made game overall. There were a lot of details relating to the family and the story players find while exploring the house and going through the objects. This way of storytelling through interaction with objects require the players to actively look for clues and think about how they might relate to the main plot as the explore the game.
As the main character, me, walks onto the porch of this house, I immediately start to get chills up my back. It feels as though the neighbor from Hello neighbor decided to become an architect in American foursquare style housing. Who the heck is Sam? The sisters’ letters give great insight to us as we get some background that they just moved in and everyone in the nearby school refers to her sister as the scary house girl. The father is seen to have some job issues at the magazine company, maybe his lack of performance is correlated to the stress of the ominous house. The TV guide circled the show title X-files as probably a reference to their mysterious disappearance. The everlasting weather report also has to do with the mayhem. There are so many books littered around the house trying to help the younger sister fit in.
The older senior Lonnie is cool, I am going to guess that she gets together with the younger sister.
OMG, they do get together. Unsurprisingly the mom was a gold digger and started having an affair once the dad couldn’t pay the bills. That’s why they are living here in the first place because Oscar is a family friend. The parents are so up their own a**es that they do not approve of their homosexual daughter, figures. OH!!!!!!, Sam is the sister and runs away to be with Lonnie.
I just got in the basement and I understand that the dad has been here as a kid since he got the house from Oscar, but is Oscar a pedophile? Unfortunately, I think I was right with his own sister though.
The themes expressed throughout this game aren’t jump scare worthy but so realistic that I am freaking out mentally from just some thoughts projected on a screen. This was truly an exciting game, but creepy nonetheless.
The Eeriest Basement Ever!!
I have a attached a photo of the most obvious, look in me type of safes. It did not disappoint either, we found Oscar’s stash among other things. It showed us why something such as a house could have such a bad reputation. Its not the property’s lot, but the souls and lives that get shredded and torn through. This safe is a truth that needed to be uncovered, this hidden secret is not something to take lightly.
