Ahead of the Game: Your House is an interactive journey through teenage angst, now in tappable form
Point-and-click like never before
- Unravel the mystery of what's so-called "your house"
- Point-and-click but with words
- Gorgeous art style to bring on the mysterious feels
Hello and welcome to Ahead of the Game, a series where we tell you all about an upcoming game that, despite not being out yet, is available for you to play at the time of publishing. Through this series, you can grab a chance to play games well ahead of their release date, be that through Soft Launch, Open Beta, Demos, or more.
Being a young adult is arguably one of the hardest stages to go through in life (case in point: Mean Girls), and Your House seems to know exactly how to capture that feeling of helplessness and insecurity with its upcoming visual novel. Part interactive story and part point-and-click adventure, this interesting mix of genres will take you through the mind of angsty teen Debbie as she grapples with heartbreak, betrayal, and an overall identity crisis in the midst of an abusive father and expulsion from her boarding school.
It's certainly a lot to take - but then there's that mysterious postcard you get on your birthday with a key and not much else. It all unravels from there, with a gorgeous art style that complements the moody 1990s vibe perfectly.
Gameplay is a point-and-click-esque affair, but with lots and lots of reading - it's an interactive novel, after all. You'll need to tap on the words themselves to solve puzzles and progress through chapters, with certain key items you can open and an inventory you can look back on when you're trying to figure out what to do next.
You'll need to activate your keen powers of observation here, much like my experience when I played Delete After Reading from the same dev. Let's just say that I've never encountered a Quick-Time Event pulled off completely via text before - as you'll literally have to tap the word "run" in 30 seconds, then escape a patrolling guard by tapping the word "jump" when the guard "isn't looking".
Suffice it to say that hurling a harmless bottle over on the other side of the corner won't do squat to distract any guards here.
So, how do you play Your House?
The quick 20-minute demo is available now on Steam if you want to get a taste of its quirky mix of genres, or you can have a look at Jupiter's Your House preview to get an idea of what it's like. If nothing else, this intriguing journey might just make you look back on your own tumultuous youth - fondly or otherwise.