Let ARG website Welcome Home usher you in

Posted May 23, 2023

By Sal McElhaney

Staff Reporter

With a hop, a skip, and a jump, watch as you’re ushered into the colorful, nonsensical and magical world of “Welcome Home”. Welcome home, neighbor, come on in!

“Welcome Home” is an ARG website about a puppet childrens show made in the 70s, abandoned and lost to obscurity. It made by a creator known as clownillustrations, and has been a project in the works since 2018. However, it wasnt until the year 2022 that it finally came to light amongst the public eye, and in March of the year 2023 that its popularity really began to grow. It became widely popular for not only its colorful, fun charm, but for the creepy and dark secrets that lie underneath its innocent surface.

Another thing that brought Welcome Home into the spotlight was its array of unique and outstanding characters. From the grouchy butterfly researcher Frank Frankly to the friendly and charming neighborhood painter Wally Darling, there is absolutely no limit to Clowns creativity. Thats what I grew to love about this beautifully made ARG, is the amount of creativity and effort put into it. 

Clown themself has stated that the ARG is only five percent complete, and the official website is taken down for now until new updates for Welcome Home are released. A couple of the secrets really do stand out, for example. If you happen to be on a computer, if you click on the yellow road above “Home” (the secret ninth neighbor and the house Wally lives in), it takes you to a new tab with the picture named “So Below.” It shows the viewer Wally kneeling by Homes window (or eye, since the house is alive), but the meaning behind the image was never clear. 

Another secret the fandom and myself was fond of is when you type the letters y, w, e, x, and v in a certain order, it leads you to a new tab and starts to type out “Hello there” slowly, before a pair of wide, pitch black eyes pop up in a jumpscare like fashion. It then continues to type “I can see you. Can you see me? Then stay quiet” very slowly. It definitely is one way to unsettle the viewer, giving them the sense that they’re being watched. 

So yes, while the Welcome Home website looks innocent enough on the outside, it has its ways of hiding the dark, creepy secrets within. And that is what drew me to the website in the first place. I LOVE anything that looks innocent on the outside but actually has darker secrets hidden within. Something like this concept is the game Doki Doki Literature Club, a classic when it comes the to the whole “looks innocent but is actually creepy” aspect. Not very many things can pull this off, but Welcome Home definitely knocked it out of the park. 

If anyone wants more information on the website, the link is https://www.clownillustration.com/welcomehomeyou . The website is currently down until new updates for Welcome Home are released, but once its back up, check it out! Its all the more worth it.