What does something need to be considered a game? How much game do you need to be a game? Why are film majors super pretentious and always posing questions like this?
While there were a few people in my degree I liked, most of them irritated the shit out of me because they'd constantly pose questions like that, needlessly overcomplicating things but recently I've come across a situation where I feel there's nothing I can do but overcomplicate it. Some things deserve over-complication and scrutiny and discussion.
The coolest thing about the internet is how things don't go away. I was recently perusing through an old folder and found a link to a game I had saved now four years ago. Thankfully, it's still there, and I felt compelled to play it on my commute. And yeah, the game totally holds up. And yeah, you should absolutely play it.
Written, Programmed, and with art all by a dude named Nicky Case, Coming Out Simulator 2014 was made for a game-jam contest, but depicts a very chaotic night from Case's past. It's a choose your own adventure presented like a text conversation, including actual things said by Nicky, his then-boyfriend, and his parents, and according to him includes things he did, should have, and never would have said, but "it doesn't matter which is which. Not Anymore.". Current Nicky Case introduces you to himself, the game, its premise, and its intent before shuffling you along to the aforementioned night. It's pretty ominous, and in spite of a name like "Coming Out Simulator" it takes a very horror vibe, almost like Rod Serling at the beginning of Twilight Zone.
Whether that's intentional or just my take as a straight white-ish dude reading a situation I inherently can't relate to is anyone's guess. This is where I start to overcomplicate things. This is why you need to play this game.
The game's writing is sharp as hell, even all these years later. You're given three options for every dialogue choice, some are subtle-funny, some are "I've never met a gay person before and don't know how to talk to them", some are poignant, some are blunt - there's a range but they all feel right - they all seem like a real reaction a real person would have, so despite Nicky's claim that he waited until the night before the deadline to submit his game, you get a feel that the dude really put a lot of forethought into it, and crafted a perfectly-human feeling to the options.
The art style is slick as hell, I can really only describe it as the way you remember New Grounds looking all those years back. It feels very Scott McCloud derived with a unique art direction twist that borders on minimalism but doesn't feel annoying the way most minimalistic things do.
But now there's nothing left to talk about besides the things I'm not sure what's left to talk about. Is this a game? While less involved mechanically than the previously played and discussed Guardians of the Galaxy, I'd say - yeah, this is a game. It doesn't matter that it's 20 minutes, it doesn't matter that there's only three options and occasionally they can feel superfluous and unnecessary.
This game, significantly more so than any made by Telltale, does an amazing job of making it feel like it's your story. That probably has something to do with the presentation of the game itself - the images take up the the top half of the screen while the bottom is reserved for the text responses so it really does feel like you're playing this game within iMessage. Add on the fact that NIcky, is simultaneously very charming and borderline apologetic when he's your narrator/host, and innocent and naive when he isn't. You want to take care of him to the point where you're identifying with him so effectively that as I mentioned earlier - it feels like it's your story.
Coming Out Simulator is an important game, a well-made game, a thought-provoking game, and impressively - it's also a short game. There isn't a good reason you can't take 20 minutes out of your day to play it.