CALL ME CERA
A visual novel about making friends and navigating boundaries
Developer Toadhouse Games
Publisher Team Toadhouse
Format PC
Origin US
Release 2022
Not every visual novel is a dating sim. While some, such as Hatoful Boyfriend and Doki Doki Literature Club, subvert this expectation, it’s hard for the uninitiated not to assume the genre is predominantly romance-based – or something more explicit. It’s a stigma that Toadhouse Games founder, lead programmer and writer Alanna Linayre often finds herself having to explain: “I have a visual novel. It’s not sexual, it’s about friendship. Not that type of friendship!” But games have a tendency to reduce the bonds of friendship or romance to quid-pro-quo interactions, where giving sufficient attention or saying the right thing is enough to become best friends, or more. Linayre is also disappointed in the genre’s tendency to focus on teens, and that there aren’t games about adult friendship – or, more specifically, the common struggle to make friends as an adult.