The Cutprice Guignol

So, what with it being Pride Month and all (hey – if you can, consider donating to akt, a charity working to end homelessness in LGBTQ youth), I’ve been giving some thought to my favourite pieces of LGBTQ media. And one story that came to mind – one that I think makes unique use of the medium it was created for to tell a very distinct story about coming-of-age as an LGBTQ person. And that is Gone Home.

Developed by the Fullbright company, 2013’s Gone Home is, simply, a little indie masterpiece of the horror gaming world. Set in 1995, it follows Katie, a twenty-something returning to her family who have just moved in to a new home in a fictional town in Oregon, only to find that her family are missing; the only communication she has on the matter comes in the form of a note on the front door from her younger sister Samantha: “please, please don’t go digging around trying to find out where I am….We’ll see each other again some day. Don’t be worried.”

Which, of course, Katie cheerfully ignores before proceeding to root through her family’s new home in the hopes of finding out what has driven them so abruptly out of their humble abode. Exploring this empty, eerie place makes up pretty much the entirety of Gone Home’s gameplay, and, while on paper, that might sound a little flat, the brilliant stories that are pieced together elevate it into something utterly compelling. There’s a whole lot going on here, even beyond what Samantha is so keen to hide; growing tensions in their parents’ marriage and the lingering memory (whether supernatural or otherwise) of the house’s previous owners haunt the home as much as the family’s absence does.

But at the heart of Gone Home is a sapphic love story – a story about coming to terms with who you are and who you love, told through the lens of Samantha’s connection with another student at her new high school, Lonnie. The actual construction of this romance is still one of my favourite depictions of young lesbian love out there, the way the game taps into music and particularly the riot grrl movement to ground this relationship in something that feels distinctly real; the nostalgia of Street Fighter and Heavens to Betsy scratches an itch that the nineties child in me is permanently trying to scratch. I think the analogue nature of a lot of the nineties media featured in Gone Home – the VHS, the mixtapes, the letters and diaries and journals – lend themselves well to the format of the game, offering an organic sense of exploration that isn’t limited to tapping around on devices looking for clues.

And it’s this particular format that makes the story of Samantha work as beautifully as it does for me. Though we never directly meet her, we trace both her romance with Lonnie, her realizations about her own sexuality, and how she navigates that against the backdrop of the dismissive denial and homophobia her family meets the revelation with in a non-linear fashion as Katie explores the house. The way my playthrough unfolded, it felt so true to my own experiences of figuring out my sexuality as a teenager – the way those moments of grief, guilt, and doubt interlock with joy, excitement, and possibility, the confusing way that all of this unravels when you hit the big rainbow button, and the way it all comes to you in such a non-linear, scattered fashion. You come back to the same places in your life and in yourself and find something new. Gone Home’s loose, looping narrative structure and investigative nature reminded me so much of what that felt like, plucking evidence from the mundane and piecing it together until you have come to a conclusion that can fundamentally shift how you feel about yourself and how you interact with the world.

Gone Home is a gorgeous game – a queer horror that finds its way to a pretty happy ending, all things considered, without dropping the ball on atmosphere, story, or character. At more than a decade old now, I’m sure plenty of you have played it, so I’d love to hear your takes on the game below, or recommendations for stuff that you feel hits a comparable tone in a similarly effective way. Hit the comments and let me know!

If you enjoyed this article, check out my other gaming articles here or my writing on film here! If you’d like to support my blog, please consider supporting me by buying my books or dropping me a tip via my Support page.

(header image via XBOX)