Building comparison
head to head
Gone HomevsThe Beginner's Guide
Neither is meaningfully harder - they pose close to the same test. The widest gap is variance, and it is a single point.
Gone Home
Optimization · Light / Casual
A first-person exploration about returning to an empty family home.
The Beginner's Guide
Optimization · Light / Casual
A guided tour through a developer's unfinished games that doubles as a meditation on creation.
Gone Home leans Optimization (Light / Casual); The Beginner's Guide leans Optimization (Light / Casual).
Gone HomeThe Beginner's Guide
Axis by axis
Execution0 vs 0
Same score on execution - which means the number cannot separate them. The difference is in what each one asks of you.
Gone Home
Pure walking and inspection.
The Beginner's Guide
No challenge mechanics at all.
Reads0 vs 0
Same score on reads - which means the number cannot separate them. The difference is in what each one asks of you.
Gone Home
No opponents.
The Beginner's Guide
No opponent; a narrator guides you linearly.
Variance1 vs 0
Gone Home leans a little harder on variance, though the gap is small.
Gone Home
Notes and items are fixed.
The Beginner's Guide
Entirely fixed and authored.
Optimization2 vs 1
Gone Home leans a little harder on optimization, though the gap is small.
Gone Home
Order of discovery hardly matters.
The Beginner's Guide
Nothing to optimize; it is a guided essay.
A matching score does not mean a matching test. Two games can both sit at 10 on execution and demand completely different things of you - which is why the reasoning above matters more than the number beside it.