Nobody's Home

"On █████ 10th, 197█ local youth broke into an undisclosed residence, inviting a number of guests over. What followed would be known as the greatest party ever to be thrown. There are no known survivors." —Opening Narration, Nobody's Home

Nobody's Home is a Role-Playing Survival Horror Video Game that was released on March 26, 2020. It was developed and published by oates for the PC and Mac OS.

A teenage girl known as the Party-Goer goes to a residence to have a party with her peers. This is the greatest party ever thrown, and it comes with pizza, cigarettes, alcohol and drugs. What more could anyone ask for? Sometime later, she wakes up to find herself alone and face-down on a bed that is not her own. To make matters worse, monsters are prowling the residence. Can she find out what is going on? More importantly, can she escape the residence?

If you would like to see playthroughs of Nobody's Home on YouTube, please see the following videos:

• A playthrough of the game by Alpha Beta Gamer.
• A playthrough (with commentary) of the game by ManlyBadassHero.
• A playthrough (with commentary) of the game by iwanPlays.

Tropes used in Nobody's Home include:

• Agony of the Feet: The barefoot Party-Goer has to walk through piles of broken beer bottles and cigarette ashes. Each time she does this, the game checks to see if you are sure about this, and there is a fifty-fifty chance that she will lose one hit point if you choose "Yes." Naturally, none of this is played for laughs.
• And Now for Someone Completely Different:
  • When the Party-Goer inserts the Home Video into the VCR, you will take control of a green zombie with its brain exposed called the Vessel. Starting in the bathroom, the Vessel will rampage through the residence and slaughter everybody that it comes across. Once it gets to the basement where the box is, the tape will end and you will retake control of the Party-Goer.
  • If the Party-Goer reanimates the Vessel with Trembling Essence, the Trembling Vestige in the Vessel's body will offer nicotine. If she accepts it, she will die/pass out and you will take control of the Vessel instead.
• Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence: If the Party-Goer reanimates the Vessel with Uneasy Essence and accepts the Uneasy Vestige's offer of eternity, she will be able to go to the bathroom, sit on the throne (in other words, the toilet) and achieve this.
• Bigger on the Inside: When the Party-Goer climbs into the box in the basement, she will discover an entire room with an unmoving Vessel and a door to a Horde of zombies that will consume her if she goes through it.
• Bittersweet Ending:
  • The ending in which the Party-Goer sits on the toilet qualifies. Yes, everyone is dead, including her, but she gets to take her first step towards home (in other words, the afterlife).
  • The ending in which the Party-Goer talks to the player on the phone could be this. The screen smashes to black when she ends the call, but she gets to have one last conversation before the game ends.
• Breaking the Fourth Wall: By learning the phone number "(546) 29-174" from the first four endings, the Party-Goer will be able to dial that number into the phone and speak directly to the player. She talks about wanting to feel real for a second and admits that it feels weird feeling calm about taking the player's decisions from them.
• Chekhov's Gun: Each time that the Party-Goer drinks Bottled Beer, she will get an Empty Bottle and a Peeled Label. The Empty Bottle is used to fight off enemies and the Peeled Label is used for playing a board game (1 Empty Bottle for 2 Peeled Labels).
• Crying Wolf: The teenagers made a drunken prank call to 911 during the party. As a result, the Party-Goer gets no help from 911 because they think it is just another prank call, even though she is in the middle of a real emergency.
• Curb Stomp Battle: The Vessel slaughters dozens of teenagers with ease. Justified, because said teenagers were drunk, high and zoned-out, so they were in no shape to fight back.
• Dead All Along: If the Party-Goer tries to leave the residence as herself, the ending will show her disappearing and reveal a fully-clothed, bloody corpse (Is it the corpse of the Party-Goer or the person in the shower?) some distance away from the residence as the police discover it. In addition, it is strongly implied that the person in the shower, the person in the trunk and the person in the bushes are actually dead, but do not realize it.
• Does Not Like Shoes: The Party-Goer does not wear shoes. It get deconstructed when she has to walk through piles of broken beer bottles and cigarette ashes and risk losing one hit point every time that she does this.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?: The Party-Goer is first shown lying face-down on a bed. The bedsheets are soaked, there is a camcorder aimed at her, and the chairs are arranged such that people can sit in them and watch whatever takes place on the bed without appearing on the camcorder. It is little wonder that YouTube commentators assume that at least one teenager had sex with her while she was under the influence with or without her consent. There is also the possibility that they continued to have sex with her, even after she died from an overdose.
• Double Meaning Title: The literal meaning of the title "Nobody's Home" is that the owners of the residence are not there. As for the figurative meaning, there is the phrase "The lights are on, but nobody's home," which refers to someone who is alive and functioning but out of it completely (like the zombies). Alternatively, it may refer to the fact that everyone in the house is dead and cannot go home.
• Downer Ending:
  • The ending in which the Party-Goer tries to leave the residence is probably this. After all, she disappears and it is likely that she cannot leave the residence anyway, due to her being dead.
  • The ending in which the Vessel tries to leave the residence is unambiguously this. He is standing next to a bloody corpse when the police arrive. Not only that, but it also turns out that he never turned into a zombie, and that he will have to face the consequences of killing all of those people.
  • The ending in which the Party-Goer fights the Horde of zombies in the basement is clearly this. The Horde completely consumes her in two minutes.
• Eye Scream: When the Party-Goer fights a zombie, she can destroy one of its eyes.
• Fetch Quest:
  • In the bathroom, the Party-Goer will find someone in the shower. That person is missing their clothes, so they ask her to find their clothes for them. If she gives that person the clothes, she will get the Inflatable Doll. However, if she gives the clothes to the person in the bush instead, the person in the shower will turn into a zombie and attack her in the hallway.
  • In the kitchen, the Party-Goer will find someone locked in the trunk of a car. That person will ask her to find the Car Keys and get them out. When she gets the Car Keys and opens up the trunk, no one is there, so she goes through the car to get to the other side.
  • Near the swimming pool, the Party-Goer will find someone hiding in the bushes. That person will ask her to find some clothes for them because they are naked. She will get an Inflatable Doll in exchange for the clothes. If she gives the clothes to the person in the shower instead, the person in the bushes will turn into a zombie, hide in the pool and attack her when she walks along it.
• Hard-Drinking Party Girl: The Party-Goer is strongly implied to this. After all, she did drink fourteen Bottled Beers and about a dozen Beer Cans. The secret ending reveals that she was the one who left the phone message "Get more beer," for the player. On a sadder note, it is also deconstructed because it is strongly implied that she drank too much, overdosed and died on a bed that was not even hers.
• Healing Potion: The Party-Goer can drink Bottled Beer and Beer Cans to recover one hit point at a time.
• Helping Hands: The Party-Goer will encounter two of these. They will drop from the ceiling and attack her.
• Heroic Mime: As per usual in these sorts of games, the Party-Goer never says a word. Subverted in the ending where she calls the player to have her first and last conversation.
• Hidden Eyes: The Party-Goer's eyes are never shown. It may be a hint that she is dead.
• Hopeless Boss Fight: If the Party-Goer goes through the door in the room inside the box, she will fight against a Horde of zombies. After she hits it six times, the ending will reveal that it consumed her in two minutes. Clearly, she was not supposed to win against this Horde.
• Improvised Platform: The Party-Goer will used the Inflatable Doll as a bridge to traverse the swimming pool and search the pockets of someone's floating body to get the Car Keys.
• Improvised Weapon: The teenage has to rely on Beer Bottles (Bottle Crack), Beer Cans (Can Throw), Cigarette Butts (Ignite) and Shoving (1 HP) to fight enemies.
• Kill 'Em All: The Home Video shows the Vessel doing exactly this to everyone it comes across. The endings also make it clear that everyone in the residence is as dead as a doornail.
• Kill It with Fire: The Party-Goer can use the Cigarette Butts to ignite enemies.
• Life Meter: The Party-Goer has a life meter represented as a battery with three bars.
• Locked Door: The door to the residence is locked on the inside. In order to unlock it, the girl has to open the door from the outside. Once she has done that, the door will open both ways.
• Man-Eating Plant: One room has a carnivorous plant whose barbs are tightly wrapped around a pair of Shoes. The girl must feed it Human Meat to get the Shoes. She must also do the same with other carnivorous plants to get a Dress Shirt and Jeans.
• Modesty Towel: One of the zombies looks like she just got out of the shower because she is wearing one under the shoulders to the hips and also has an additional towel around her hair.
• Mistaken for Prank Call: If the Party-Goer tries to call 911, the person on the other end will hang up, because they think that those "Drunk pieces of shit" are doing this again.
• Multiple Endings: There are five endings in this game. If you unlock the first four endings, you will get enough numbers to make the phone number necessary to unlock the fifth ending.
• Notice This: Some of the rooms have a row of circles on the floor that will light up when the Party-Goer approaches them. Those are areas where the Party-Goer can stack Party Cups (six of them) in the form of a pyramid so that she can go up them like a stepladder and reach something that is normally too high for her.
• Our Ghosts Are Different:
  • In the room behind the bedroom, the Party-Goer will find a spirit called the Trembling Vestige. This spirit craves nicotine, so she should give it four Cigarette Butts in exchange for Trembling Essence.
  • In the attic, the Party-Goer can play a board game by exchanging two Peeled Labels for one Empty Bottle. If she gives all fourteen of the Peeled Labels, a spirit called the Uneasy Vestige will fully reveal itself and give her Uneasy Essence.
• Our Zombies Are Different: Initially, the zombies seem to be Type Flesh-eating. They will completely consume the Party-Goer if they get the chance. Not only that, but their hands can also detach and attack her independently. Some of them have a normal color, while others have a bright green color. At least one ending strongly implies that they are actually Type Other. It turns out that they are not really zombies, but teenagers who had so much alcohol, cigarettes and drugs that they simply act like zombies.
• Punk in the Trunk: In the kitchen, the Party-Goer will find someone locked in the trunk of a car. That person will admit outright that there is no good reason for them to be in this position. They also explain that they have idea how long they have been stuck in there.
• Save Point: There are ashtrays in the residence that act as these. However, the Party-Goer must have a Cigarette Butt in order to use them.
• Shout-Out: There is a pizza box in the kitchen. The Party-Goer feels uneasy looking at it. This is because it is a reference to No Delivery, another game by oates that is set in the same universe.
• Sunglasses at Night: It is the middle of the night and the zombies are wearing sunglasses. It seems that those are party sunglasses.
• Technically Living Zombie: At least one ending implies that the "zombies" are actually teenagers who had so much alcohol, cigarettes and drugs that they simply act like zombies while still living.
• That's All, Folks!: The message "Thank you for playing," will appear after the credits.
• The Dead Have Eyes: When the Party-Goer knocks the sunglasses off of a zombie, its eyes will be revealed. She can knock out one of its eyes.
• Title Drop: Four out of five endings will invoke this trope. In addition, there is an alternative opening scene in which two teenagers are talking about going to the party and even invoke this trope three times.
• Wild Teen Party: The game starts off with this trope. However, it results in everyone dying. Interestingly enough, calling 911 will reveal that the teenagers previously made a drunken prank call and calling (137) 73-226 (Candybag) will reveal that the teenagers cleaned out their entire stock. By the way, when they say "stock," they mean "stock of drugs," not "stock of candy."
• You Wake Up in a Room: The game begins with the Party-Goer waking up to find herself face-down on a bed.

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It just feels like, this'll be the last time I get to talk to someone. Y'know, normally. I'd ask for a ride home, but…I won't need it. Party's gonna be over by the time I get over there, anyway. And, nobody's going to be there.