The Gothic Genre in Gone home: an analysis in the light of intertextuality

Abstract

Videogames offer an ideal field for advancements in the way we tell stories. An electronic game, for example, consists of visual, sound and interactive elements, contributing to the development of increasingly complex and imaginative narratives. This multimedia structure of the medium allows the presence, in a single game, of a range of texts. This is the case of the game Gone home, developed by The Fullbright Company in 2013. In the game’s narrative, the player explores a seemingly haunted house full of horror movie clichés. The main inspiration for the story seems to be the structure of the literary works of the gothic genre produced in England in the 18th and 19th centuries. This article aims to analyze the game Gone home in the light of the gothic genre and the studies about intertextuality.