This project’s greatest achievement is making a complex story that’s structurally sound within the realms of a Game Jam. Going into its 20k word count, one might expect meandering scenes and confusing plot points, but the story itself is really lean and easy to follow. The writing does suffer somewhat for bouts of strange phrasing, wonky prose and unnatural dialogue, but pivotal moments tend to be unencumbered by those. There are also moments where the presentation is harmed by ill suited music, odd blocking and unclear transitions. Overall, I’m in awe of the execution of its main “gimmick” and that makes me willing to overlook some of its flaws. You Are Not Callum is a certified good time.
I give You Are Not Callum credit for the very ambitious multiple choices and endings. It was definitely interesting to navigate through.
The story features a lot of perplexing choices, like the rainbow bracelet being the source of the demonic possession (am I supposed to read into the symbolism), casual racism, straight conversion therapy... It was fun to read through, but I can see some people taking issue with the content, and again I'm not sure how much of it is intentionally supposed to read symbolically.
The biggest flaw for me, though, was the lack of narration, with the entire VN consisting of just dialogue and direct thoughts by the POV character. This hurts the VN ability to set up an atmosphere, a mood, as well as the overall pacing in general (the change from scene to scene is disorienting and there is no possibility to linger on certain moments).
Comments
This project’s greatest achievement is making a complex story that’s structurally sound within the realms of a Game Jam. Going into its 20k word count, one might expect meandering scenes and confusing plot points, but the story itself is really lean and easy to follow. The writing does suffer somewhat for bouts of strange phrasing, wonky prose and unnatural dialogue, but pivotal moments tend to be unencumbered by those. There are also moments where the presentation is harmed by ill suited music, odd blocking and unclear transitions. Overall, I’m in awe of the execution of its main “gimmick” and that makes me willing to overlook some of its flaws. You Are Not Callum is a certified good time.
*Beware spoilers*
I give You Are Not Callum credit for the very ambitious multiple choices and endings. It was definitely interesting to navigate through.
The story features a lot of perplexing choices, like the rainbow bracelet being the source of the demonic possession (am I supposed to read into the symbolism), casual racism, straight conversion therapy... It was fun to read through, but I can see some people taking issue with the content, and again I'm not sure how much of it is intentionally supposed to read symbolically.
The biggest flaw for me, though, was the lack of narration, with the entire VN consisting of just dialogue and direct thoughts by the POV character. This hurts the VN ability to set up an atmosphere, a mood, as well as the overall pacing in general (the change from scene to scene is disorienting and there is no possibility to linger on certain moments).
This was an amazing trip to stream.