Last week we announced the existence of The Fullbright Company, simply as an organization: who we are and why we started this enterprise. We’ve been blown away by the outpouring of support and interest from gamers, journalists and other developers. It’s been a good week.

But we’ve only talked about the company thus far, when what we really want to show people is the game we’ve been working on for the last few months. So today we’re going to do a little of that.

We’re calling it Gone Home, and it’s in an early pre-alpha (very unfinished) state.

Here are a few in-game screens:

An in-editor screenshot of the space we’ve built out so far:

Click to enlarge

And here’s some work-in-progress video captured from early in the game, demonstrating our core exploration and investigation mechanics:

Error This video doesn’t exist

Also available on YouTube

Hopefully the video demonstrates the basics of what Gone Home is all about: exploring a modern, residential locale, and discovering the story of what happened there by investigating a deeply interactive gameworld. We’re really interested in pushing toward simulation, both in the sense of the physics system but also in allowing the player to open any door or drawer they’d logically be able to and examine what’s inside, down to small details. If we do it right, these interactive and simulation elements will work together to make you that much more invested in discovering the story woven into the environment.

To answer some questions about what we’re showing:

How much game do you actually have? Currently we’re concentrating on the first half of the game, to build out and learn from before moving ahead. Our core gameplay and UI features are in. The playable space and critical path and story elements for the first half of the game are in. About 5% of the art and sound are in. But we can play through a representative, lower fidelity segment of the game and see if we’re on the right track. And so far, we’re excited by what we’ve got.

Currently we’re concentrating on the first half of the game, to build out and learn from before moving ahead. Our core gameplay and UI features are in. The playable space and critical path and story elements for the first half of the game are in. About 5% of the art and sound are in. But we can play through a representative, lower fidelity segment of the game and see if we’re on the right track. And so far, we’re excited by what we’ve got. Are you using a gamepad in the video? Yes, for video capture purposes. Gone Home is PC native with mouse-and-keyboard as the default, but gamepad will also be supported.

Yes, for video capture purposes. Gone Home is PC native with mouse-and-keyboard as the default, but gamepad will also be supported. What engine are you using? We are using Unity.

We are using Unity. Are you planning to do a Kickstarter? No, we are not.

No, we are not. Where does Gone Home take place? WHEN does it take place? I thought I noticed… We’ll be showing more about the specifics of the game’s setting and other details in the coming months.

So what’s next? This is the biggest chunk of Gone Home that we’re going to show until we do a full trailer and reveal, probably later this year. But in the meantime we’ll be showing bits and pieces in blogposts here to demonstrate our process and our progress: how we’re developing the story and tone and detailing out the playable space; how Johnnemann is coding all sorts of functionality in Unity; how Karla is developing the visual look, and working with talented friends of ours to bring in music, sound and environment art.

Thanks for checking out what we’ve got so far. We can’t wait to show you more of Gone Home!