GONE HOMERaisa Chowdhury

THE NARRATIVE STRUCTURE

• In a traditional narrative, the story goes from beginning to end through a generally linear timeline, with each new event taking place after the previous ones. There are also certain “classic” elements in a traditional narrative, such as the exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution.

• Gone Home is different from traditional forms of narrative in that the events of the story do not unfold linearly.

• While experiencing Gone Home, the user uncovers the events of the past year as they explore the house.

• These events can be found completely out of order, depending on what areas are explored first and through context clues, the player must piece the events together as they happened in a linear timeline.

• Gone Home is also similar to traditional narratives in that it contains the “classic” elements in a traditional narrative.

• Through Sam’s journal, we discover an exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution,

• However, certain elements can easily be found out of order, such as the rising action and introduction.

SETTING

• In traditional narratives, the player explores different settings as the plot progresses and the characters are exposed to different events in different locations.

• In Gone Home, there is only one setting the player is in during the entirety of the game: the mansion.

• The player learns of different settings through Sam’s journal, but unlike in a traditional narrative, the player never gets to experience those locations.

• During Gone Home, the player can only experience different settings through spoken flashbacks, without ever getting to actually be in any setting other than the mansion.

SETTING

The player has a set number of rooms he or she can explore, such as Sam’s room (pictured). He or she also cannot leave the house.

CHARACTERS

• During a traditional narrative, characters are introduced as the narrative progresses. The characters also interact with one another during the narrative.

• In Gone Home, there is only one character that the player is truly introduced, real-time, to: Katie, the character they are playing as.

• Any other characters that are introduced during Gone Home are done so through old papers, clues, and Sam’s journal.

• The player/character, Katie, does not interact with anyone during the course of the game, unlike in traditional narratives.

• The lack of introduction of characters and the assumption that the player/Katie already knows who they are makes the narrative experience seem more immersive and less like a traditional story.

CHARACTERS

The characters are never seen during the narrative experience. Instead, their faces can only be seen in family portraits and pictures around the house.

ACTION

• Most actions take place in the present with a traditional narrative. The player experiences everything as they happen to the characters in real-time. The traditional narrative is told through the actions of the characters.

• However, with Gone Home, all of the actions that have a direct influence on the narrative have already happened in the past.

• The player must uncover and learn about the actions as they are told through scraps of clues and journal entries, but do not experience any of the actions taking place.

• Furthermore, the player/character, Katie, does not do any actions that affect the narrative in any way.

• She is a third-party observer of what has already happened.

• With traditional narratives, this is completely different, for the main character/player is usually the one creating actions that directly influence the narrative.

STORY TIME

• The timeline of a story is generally linear during a traditional narrative. There may be some flashforwards or flashbacks, but the events generally take place in a linear fashion.

• In Gone Home, the entire timeline of the story has already taken place before the narrative experience has even begun and the player must go through the house to uncover the story.

• Depending on which rooms are explored first and which clues are picked up when, the timeline of Gone Home is unfolded in a completely non-linear way.

• Clues and events from the middle of Sam’s story can be uncovered long before the introduction of the story ever is.

• Furthermore ,there can be nothing in the story that takes place in real-time, unlike in traditional narratives, where at least some events happen during the narrative experience.

USER PARTICIPATION

• In a traditional narrative, such as with stories, the user is a third-party observer of the events, discovering the story with the characters but unable to influence their actions in any way.

• With Gone Home, the player experiences everything through the eyes of Katie, who is trying to figure out what has happened just as the player is.

• The user choses everything for Katie, including what objects to look at, which rooms to search first, and which clues to uncover in which order.

• There is a much higher level of user participation during Gone Home, since the story cannot unfold unless the player figures out the clues.

USER PARTICIPATION

The user can pick up almost everything in the house and examine it through rotating it 360 degrees, just like in real life. This makes the exploration seem more realistic, for the

player does not know what is important and what is not, but is rather left to explore whatever he or she wants, such as this bag of potato chips.

NARRATIVE, GAME, OR STORY?

• Gone Home seems to be, in most aspects, a narrative.

• A narrative is an account of events and experiences that tie together to create a story. It can be told through past experiences that are revealed to the player.

• A story, conversely, is a telling of a person’s life, or a section of their life. It is generally told in present-time as the events a person’s life happens.

• A game, finally, generally tends to have goals and a set of rules that must be followed in order to win.

• Gone Home is experienced entirely through past events.

• There is no point to the events and experiences uncovered; some are completely erroneous pieces of information.

• There is also no way to “win,” nor are there any rules or goals. It exists as an experience for the players to have as they try to uncover why Sam is missing and what is going on inside the house.

THE STORYTELLING EXPERIENCE

• Gone Home is definitely a “cool” storytelling experience because it does not tell a story in a traditional form at all.

• It lets the player uncover whatever he or she wants to, whether it is erroneous or not, without telling the player what is supposed to be happening or what the story they are trying to learn is.

• There is also no “set” story the player is trying to uncover. Depending on the player, he or she could be trying to piece together completely different stories from the clues left around the house, whether it is what happened to Katie’s dad at work, Sam’s journal, where her parents are, or what is going on in the house.

• The lack of instructions for how the story should be told, along with the different stories that could be told, makes Gone Home a unique and extremely interesting storytelling experience.

EFFECTS

• The highly interactive aspect of the experience (everything that happens during Gone Home must be done by the player) makes the game extremely immersive.

• I felt as though I truly was Katie, trying to figure out why the house is empty and where my family is.

• Furthermore, I felt a heightened sense of emotions, especially fear, as I explored dark basements and strange passageways. I also felt more shock than I normally do during stories as new pieces of information was uncovered, most likely because I was no longer a third-party observer to the unfolding of events through clues, but rather the reason the clues were found.

EFFECTS

Certain situations, such as the red-lit attic made the house truly seem haunted and terrifying. Not knowing what was happening and being left to explore it all on

my own just made the experience seem all that more realistic.

TRADITIONAL AND EXPLORATORY NARRATIVE

• A traditional narrative is generally seen as one that tells a story through a linear timeline, where the events occur in order and the story is told through a beginning middle, and end, in that order.

• An exploratory narrative is one that allows the player to experience the narrative as they explore a location and uncover pieces of the narrative, without trying to tell a set story.

• Gone Home mixes the two types of narratives successfully, for it allows the player to uncover whatever he or she wants and piece together whatever available information is found, but also sets up a traditional story through Sam’s journal that the player can try to piece together into a linear fashion if he or she wants.