I reckon I’ll have a gentle spot for bizarre summer-camp tales, if my love of Gravity Falls (technically not a camp, however hush) and Psychonauts is something to go by. Camp W positively suits the invoice, telling the story of a younger witch (gender of your selecting) spending summer time at camp amongst the much less magically inclined people. There’s some snappy writing, some genuinely charming cartoon artwork, and whereas ostensibly a visible novel, there’s a bit extra to do than simply clicking by means of the story and having fun with the journey.
At this level the time period ‘dating sim’ is synonymous with visible novels about build up relationships, however developer Alexei Bochenek described it to me as a “Friending sim”, which doesn’t roll off the tongue fairly as easily, however does describe it fairly effectively. In-between studying and watching, you’ll get to decide on what actions to do every day, who to hang around with, and sometimes use your manually solid magic spells to straight have an effect on the course of the story.
Play your playing cards proper as you magically bumble round Camp W and also you may find yourself with some BFFs. Don’t, and… who cares? You’re an almighty magic-user and will most likely flip all of them into frogs. I actually should gush a bit about Camp W’s artwork. Were it not for it being principally static, I may virtually imagine these have been photographs from some long-lost Nickelodeon TV present. It’s an absolute deal with to have a look at. While kid-friendly, it’s written with the intent of being entertaining for all ages, as all the perfect cartoons are.
While there’s been an enormous variety of visible novels touchdown on Steam over the previous yr or two, it’s thrilling that we’re seeing the style broaden like this. More artwork types, newer, wider audiences (that is about so far as you would get from EXTREME MEATPUNKS FOREVER) and a few attention-grabbing experimentation with the basics of the style. Bring on the crop of 2019, says me.
Camp W is out now on Steam for £10.29/€10.79/$12.99, and yow will discover out a bit extra over on its official site here.
