Gone Home getting an in-game commentary mode

The Fullbright Company has announced it is producing a free "commentary mode" DLC for its debut title, Gone Home. In an interview with Rock, Paper, Shotgun, Fullbright co-founder Steve Gaynor said the studio -- whose core team consists of just four people -- was eager to put some distance between itself and the game, but not before giving it a proper send-off. "We can keep supporting Gone Home in certain ways as we're trying to get in the headspace of what our actual next game will be," said Gaynor, who explained the commentary track would come as a free update on Steam. "We don't have a date for it yet, but it'll be relatively soon. We're aiming for the short-term, and we've already recorded most of it." The commentary mode will work similarly to those seen in Valve's Portal franchise, with icons that can be activated to play out audio remarks from members of the development team as well as "some easter-egg-y stuff."

A Way of Letting Go

One such "easter egg" is poised to be commentary from musician Corin Tucker, whose bands Heavens to Betsy and Sleater-Kinney appear as diegetic audio in the game. "I got to get her on the tape talking about her experiences at the beginning of the riot grrrl scene," said Gaynor. "So you've got the four of us [the development team] talking day-to-day, but you also have people who contributed their own presence and identity through their voice or music." Audio commentary modes in games are a small but burgeoning feature some developers have chosen to include in their work, as a way to enhance the experience for fans. As highlighted above, Valve has notably included audio commentary features for its key franchises. Additionally, thatgamecompany's disc-based collector's edition for Journey included audio commentary for that title as well as its previous games flOw and Flower -- as a way to sweeten the deal for players who already owned the games through PSN. For the Fullbright Company, however, the audio commentary is a way of letting go. "We worked on Gone Home for a year and a half -- and [when you do that] you think in terms of that game for a long time after you've released it," he said. "I think that, if you go straight into another project, you're in danger of thinking of it in terms of the thing you just made."