It was a tough decision for us at Out of the Blue to pick just one Steam Awards category to nominate Call of the Sea for. As a small indie studio working on our debut title, we poured our heart and soul into every aspect of the game. However, we decided on 'Outstanding Story-Rich Game', and here is why we think it's worth your vote.
The story of Call of the Sea is a peculiar one, to say the least.
It is a game based on the tales of H.P. Lovecraft but it is not a horror story. We focused on the dreamlike, the unsettling and the eerie sensations described in many of Lovecraft's stories. On the other hand, we noticed a scarcity of female characters in the Providence author's stories; that's why Call of the Sea's main character is a strong female woman in her 40's. Everything the player experiences is from her point of view. We also wanted to cover in a subtle way different social issues of the United States of the 1930s, such as women's roles in society and the blatant racism that plagued the era.
Call of the Sea takes place in 1934, in the far reaches of the South Pacific. Norah, our protagonist, has crossed the ocean following the trail of her missing husband’s expedition and finds herself on a lush island paradise - a nameless, forgotten place, dotted with the remnants of a lost civilization. What strange secrets does it hold, and what might Norah unearth in her quest for the truth?
Call of the Sea is also a story of self-acceptance and self-discovery. The journey the player takes and all the discoveries they make along the way ultimately lead to the acceptance of one's own true self.
But above all, Call of the Sea is a love story. As Norah herself points out in the game: “In real life, true love stories don't end with a wedding. They end with a funeral."