Gone Home
LumiScore?Our 0–100 score for how developmentally beneficial and low-risk this game is for children. Higher is better.
Growth
42/100
Growth Value
- Reading & Language
- Problem Solving
- Spatial Awareness
Risk
LOW
Engagement Patterns
Minimal pressure to spend or play excessively.
Heads up
Parent Pro-Tip
Watch for emotional conversations after play. Gone Home tackles teen identity, same-sex relationships, and family conflict in a thoughtful way that may prompt real questions from your child.
Top Skills Developed
Development Areas
Representation?How diverse the game's characters are in gender and ethnicity. Higher = more authentic representation. Display only — does not affect time recommendation.
Bechdel Test?The Bechdel Test checks whether a game has at least two named female characters who talk to each other about something other than a man. A simple measure of representation.— Passes the test
The game centers on multiple named female characters (Katie, Sam, Jan) who interact meaningfully through notes and environmental storytelling about topics beyond men.
Parent Pro-Tip
Ask your child to explain the family's story back to you — who the characters are, what happened, and how they figured it out. This turns the game into a rich reading-comprehension and narrative-reasoning exercise that mirrors skills used in English class.
What your child develops
Gone Home is an exceptional reading-and-inference experience that places literary comprehension at its absolute core. Players piece together a rich, emotionally layered family narrative by reading handwritten notes, journal entries, and documents scattered throughout a 1990s home. This demands sustained attention, careful observation, and strong critical thinking — players must synthesise clues from multiple sources to form a coherent picture of events. The game's empathy dividend is unusually high: the central storyline of a teenager navigating identity, family tension, and first love is handled with rare sensitivity, making it a powerful vehicle for perspective-taking and emotional intelligence. Spatial memory and exploration skills are also meaningfully exercised as players build a mental map of a complex multi-room house.
Regulatory Compliance
Tap a badge for details. Grey = not yet assessed.
About this game
Portland. It's June 7, 1995.