Sam's final journal entry to Katie explains that she packed up her things and took her car to find Lonnie, hoping to start a new life with her outside of Oregon. Two days after her farewell show, which coincides with the day of Katie's homecoming, and the week of Sam's parents going on a vacation (which is revealed to actually be a counseling trip instead of a camping trip, as they told others), Lonnie departed to her station, but eventually called Sam from a payphone to tell her that she got off the bus in Salem and she wanted them to be together.

As Lonnie was set to eventually ship out to begin her service, Sam was left distraught.

After various incidents at school, Sam's parents found out about her relationship, forbade Sam to close her bedroom door while Lonnie was over, and went into denial that their daughter is a lesbian. The two bonded over Street Fighter, punk rock, grunge and the burgeoning riot grrrl movement, and after sneaking off to a concert, the two became romantically involved. After moving in, Samantha found it difficult to adjust to her new high school, but eventually made friends with another girl, Yolanda 'Lonnie' DeSoto, a JROTC cadet. Searching the house, Katie begins to piece together what happened during her absence. Upon arriving, she finds the house deserted, much of their possessions still in moving boxes, and a note on the door from Sam imploring Katie not to investigate what happened. Her family consists of her father, Terry, a failed writer who makes a living reviewing home electronics her mother, Janice, a wildlife conservationist who recently got promoted to director and her 17-year-old sister Samantha (voiced by Sarah Grayson). On 7 June 1995, 21-year-old Katie Greenbriar (voiced by Sarah Elmaleh) returns home from overseas to her family's new home in fictional Boon County, Oregon. The launch trailer sets the scene for the game Gone Home 's characters and story were praised for addressing LGBT issues with which some players could identify. However, this also raised the question of whether Gone Home should be considered a game, and led to the derogatory term ' walking simulators' to describe exploration games with little interactivity, though since then, the industry has come to embrace the term. Several outlets used the game as an example of video games as art, as its non-standard gameplay format demonstrates progression of the video game industry into more artistic forms. Gone Home was critically praised at release. The Fullbright team, having previously worked on BioShock 2: Minerva's Den, took concepts and ideas from that game to craft an exploration game to engage the player in uncovering the narration by non-linear progression by searching the house, while keeping the project manageable for their small team. Gone Home does not feature much interactivity, but instead has the player explore the house at their own pace and determine what has transpired by examining items, journals, and other items left around the various rooms. Set in the year 1995, Gone Home puts the player in the role of a young woman returning from overseas to her rural Oregon family home to find her family currently absent and the house empty, leaving her to piece together recent events.

Gone Home was first released for Microsoft Windows, OS X, and Linux computers in August 2013, followed by console releases for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in January 2016, the Nintendo Switch in September 2018, and iOS in December 2018. Gone Home is a first-person exploration video game developed and published by The Fullbright Company.

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