Fran Bow

About Fran Bow

Fran Bow is the first game by Killmonday Games, the studio of Natalia and Isak Martinsson in Hedemora, Sweden. Natalia designed it and Isak wrote the music; it was made in GameMaker Studio after an Indiegogo campaign raised $28,000 against a $20,000 goal. It came out on PC, Mac and Linux in August 2015, on phones in 2016 and on PlayStation 4, Xbox and Switch on 28 April 2023. It is a point-and-click adventure told in a hand-drawn style that looks like a dark children's picture book.

The story begins in 1944. Fran, a ten-year-old girl struggling with a mental disorder, finds her parents dead and dismembered at home, runs into the woods with her black cat, Mr. Midnight, and wakes up in Oswald Asylum, a grim institution for children. Her cat is gone. She decides to escape, find him and go to her aunt, the only family she has left. The story runs over five chapters.

You play by clicking: you look at things, pick them up, combine them in Fran's purse and talk to more than fifty characters. The horror comes from Fran's pills. Taking one changes the room you are in: clean corridors become smeared with blood, people become corpses and things move in the dark. Many puzzles need both worlds, so you keep swallowing the pills to find what is hidden, and the line between what is real and what is in Fran's head grows thin. Three arcade-inspired mini-games in different art styles break up the chapters, and at times you play as Mr. Midnight himself. The main story takes about seven and a half hours, according to HowLongToBeat.

The store page warns of disturbing images, explicit violence, gore, self-harm, body horror, mental illness, animal cruelty, drug use and flashing images, seen through a child's eyes. PEGI rates it 16 and the PlayStation Store lists it as Mature. It suits players who like story-driven adventure games and dark fairy tales more than chases and jumpscares.

How to play Fran Bow

1. Click to move Fran and to examine people and objects in each scene.
2. Pick up items and combine them in Fran's purse to solve puzzles.
3. Take a pill from the jar to see the hidden version of the room, where other clues and objects appear.
4. Talk to the characters you meet; many give you what you need for the next step.

Tips

• When you are stuck, take a pill and look at the room again; the answer is often only in the other world.
• Read the notes and drawings on the walls; they hint at puzzle solutions.
• The store page lists self-harm, gore and animal cruelty among its themes; read it first if those matter to you.
• Take time with the mini-games between chapters; each one has its own art style and simple arcade rules.

Questions