What is Bad Summer? Glad you asked.

Bad Summer is a horror romance visual novel that doesn’t play it safe. It’s campy, it’s fun, it’s sexy, it’s scary and it’s going to make you feel things. A lot of things. We sat down and asked ourselves, “What do we love most in a story?” Then we threw all of it in: the tension, the slow-burn romance, the bloody mysteries, the chaotic humor, the existential dread, and the kind of choices that come back to haunt you three hours later. (In the best way.) The story kicks off in 2001 with our first protagonist, Oliver Smith—a brooding young detective working for a shady little agency known as the I.S.W.A. That’s short for International Security of the Weird and Abnormal. Think FBI, but for monsters, curses, and things you really hope don’t go bump in the night.

Oliver is smart, obsessive, and not the most emotionally available person (which makes him wildly fun to write, by the way). He’s been stuck on a cold case, a murder that took place back in 1999 at a summer camp. Officially, it’s closed. But Oliver can’t let it go. Something about it doesn’t add up.

And the deeper he digs, the weirder things get.

Before he can fully investigate what happened at Camp Bear Ridge, he has to prove himself at ISWA. That means dealing with abnormals—creatures and phenomena that defy human logic. And completing a series of evaluation tasks to show he’s fit for the job.

This is where you, the player, step in.

In Oliver’s segment, you’ll take calls from people dealing with abnormals in real-time. Some of them are terrified. Some are suspiciously calm. Some might be prank calls. You’ll have to listen closely, spot inconsistencies, and decide whether the threat is real and if it is, how to help.

Do you believe the woman who confessed to murder but insists it wasn’t a man she killed? Do you trust the man who insists his wife “isn’t acting like herself”? Can you figure out what the abnormal is...before it’s too late?

These aren't just flavor choices, either. How you respond can lead to life, death, or something stranger. Oliver’s story teaches players early on: your choices matter. You’ll be judged for them. You’ll have to live with them.

Some calls are funny. Some are harrowing. All of them ask you to put yourself in Oliver’s shoes and decide what kind of person, what kind of agent you’re going to be.

But solving crimes and answering phones isn’t the only thing Oliver has to worry about.

At a certain point in the story, Oliver encounters an abnormal face-to-face and it doesn’t go well. He’s chased out of the room and ends up somewhere he absolutely shouldn’t be: The Backrooms.

Yes. Those Backrooms.

Suddenly, Oliver is trapped in a liminal, endless maze of beige walls, flickering lights, and something…lurking. With the power out and no exit in sight, all he has is a flashlight and you.

This section of the game shifts into a spot-the-anomaly challenge, inspired by games like Observation Duty. Players are given a chance to study the hallway Oliver is stuck in. Memorize it. Every object, every shadow, every light. Because starting from Level 5, the anomalies start  creeping in.

Some are subtle. Some are screamingly obvious. All are deadly.

To escape, Oliver must find the anomaly on each level and report it. Miss it, and you die. Find it, and you move forward. It's tense.

It’s nerve-wracking. It’s the kind of segment where you’ll hold your breath and second-guess everything you saw two seconds ago.

But don’t worry, if anomaly games aren’t your thing, we’ve got you. Die twice, and you’ll be given the option to skip the segment entirely.

You’ll be mocked for giving up, of course. We’re not letting you off that easy.

It’s not all death and dread, though. 

At one point, a scruffy stray cat sneaks into ISWA headquarters and makes itself at home in Oliver’s office. How it got in? No one knows. Why it chose him? Also unclear. But there it is: on his desk, refusing to leave. Now the choice is yours: Keep the cat or shoo it away.

If you decide to keep it, you even get to name it.

If you decide to get rid of it, well…let’s Just say Oliver’s coworkers will have opinions.

It’s a small moment, but it says a lot about Oliver and you. Not every decision in Bad Summer is about life or death. Sometimes, it’s about whether you make room for softness in a world full of monsters.

That's a wrap-up of devblog 1! Keep a lookout for our next one. We're going to do a deep dive into Jenny's perspective next!