"Gone Home" has become famous for being one of the most highly rated adventure games on PC released by an indie studio, Fullbright. The game was recently offered for free on itch.io, but gamers were prompted to give what they thought was fair for the title.
Fullbright co-founder Steve Gaynor made the announcement on Twitter, stating "For people that need something about hope and love right now: We've made 'Gone Home' free this weekend on itchio."
Unfortunately, the free promo only lasted until this past Monday, Nov. 14. It is possible that the developers will offer it for free again in the near future given how they are gearing up for the launch of their next title, "Tacoma." "Tacoma" was initially set to launch this year but has been pushed back to 2017.
As stated in a report from Gamespot, players were allowed to get the game for free but could still donate as much as the felt was right. Once the game had been downloaded the player could keep the game forever. There was no limit as to how long players could keep it and they would never be prompted to pay in the future.
The donations given during this past weekend have been confirmed to go to Lambda Legal, a foundation that aids members of the LGBTQ community suffering from HIV and AIDS. Given that the free promo just ended Fullbright has not yet announced a final tally of the donations they have received.
"Gone Home" focuses on the character Kaitlin, which the player takes direct control of in a first-person view. When the character comes home they discover that their parents and sister Samantha are not present and the game turns into an investigative adventure to find out where they have gone.
It was critically praised for how it allowed players to unravel the mysteries without requiring to fire a single weapon or to go through traditional platforming segments or to solve convoluted puzzles. The gaming community, on the other hand, has turned against it with many claiming that it should not be called a "game" due to its lack of interactive mechanics.
