Environments - Video Game: Storytelling - page 178

player to interactively explore the story of a single suburban family in
transition.
Alone in a large house at night, with no time limit or imminent threat,
the player can examine scores if not hundreds of items lying around; listen
to audio diaries, answering machine messages, and cassette mix tapes;
read journals, bills, postcards, and letters, all along the way to getting to
know the four members of the family—the player's own avatar in-
cluded—and ultimately unraveling a minor mystery regarding the player
character's missing sister, Sam.
This all happens without the player ever directly seeing or interacting
with another character.
Turn to the next page for an excellent example of an item from the
game that the player can pick up: a note that was obviously passed back
and forth at school, between Sam and another child.
Notice that the note actually contains its own, self-contained micro-
story with a surprisingly strong emotional punch to it. And even the fact
that the note has been ripped in half helps complete the story.
Is Gone Home truly a game? The debate raged at the time of its release
and beyond, but regardless, this successful title stands as a testament that
environmental storytelling all by itself can offer a compelling narrative ex-
perience.
Abandoned areas—like the empty house in Gone Home —are exceed-
ingly common in video games, much more so than in other visual media.
The reasons for this are varied, but much of the pattern can be attributed
to game design goals and scope limitations.