Steve Gaynor, co-founder of The Fullbright Company that developed Gone Home, has released some information regarding his newest project Tacoma. It is going to have features reminiscent of Gone Home with one major setting difference: it takes place in a lunar transfer station.
The station is set between Earth and the Moon, the latter of which is used for the wealthy to use as a holiday destination. Gaynor says it will be similar to Gone Home in the sense that the storytelling will largely be attributed to notes and artifacts left behind from its inhabitants. This game will maintain the absence of characters first demonstrated in its predecessor.
Gaynor says he was inspired by Ridley Scott’s Alien, the writing of Margaret Atwood, and Irrational Games’ 1999 smash hit System Shock 2. Gaynor also sees correlations between his game and Bioshock. He says,that, “You enter [the station] like the passengers would, but once you get past the grand entryway, the story is what happens behind the scenes, and it’s about the people who are effectively ‘the help,’ who aren’t supposed to be seen, who passed through these gilded areas that aren’t actually for them.”
Gaynor states he wanted Tacoma to feel different than Gone Home. He still wanted to create a compelling story with distinct characters, but in such a way that it didn’t feel like a sci-fi rehash. If there is one thing you can take away from Gaynor’s statements up until now, it’s that you can expect this game to have similar elements, but don’t expect it to be a perfect clone.