Literacies and the production of intimacy in a family idioculture: Shared games, shared stories, and momentous desires

This conceptual article explores the interplay between literacies, play, and intimacy in one family. It describes how two children and their father co-create intimate moments across various modalities, including multiplayer video games and oral storytelling. By examining family-specific literacies, the article contributes to understanding how such idiosyncratic literacies foster intimacy over time. These practices, which may seem nonsensical in conventional contexts, are vital for both children and adults, particularly in early childhood. The article centers on the development of “goosey stories,” improvised narratives inspired by their shared experience with the videogame Untitled Goose Game and contributes the concept of momentous desires and their relationship to family literacies, idiocultures, and joint videogameplay. It illustrates how these stories, characterized by playful antics of mischievous geese, cultivate intimacy within the family over time, emphasizing the emotional significance of everyday, shared moments of togetherness.