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Games Like Fran Bow and Sally Face: Dark Hand-Drawn Adventures

Fran Bow and Sally Face are hand-drawn horror adventures that look almost like picture books and tell stories of murder, madness and ghosts. These games share that mix of a storybook look, puzzles and a dark heart, from Fran Bow's own studio to Rusty Lake and DISTRAINT.

The games

  1. Fran Bow key art: Fran holding her black cat Mr. Midnight in front of a red-eyed monster, with skeletal and masked characters on the left PsychologicalFran BowThe starting point: a girl escapes a 1944 children's asylum to find her cat, and her pills show her a hidden world of gore and creatures.
  2. Little Misfortune key art: a little girl in a red beret and green coat looks back over a golden autumn hillside, with a fox holding a crackling staff and a Missing poster on a tree PsychologicalLittle MisfortuneThe same studio's next game: an eight-year-old follows a voice only she hears into the woods, in a sweet storybook that turns darker with every choice.
  3. Sally Face screenshot: Sal, seen from behind with long blue hair, sits across from a therapist with a clipboard, his prosthetic face mask on the table PsychologicalSally FaceA boy with a prosthetic face talks to ghosts with his handheld and looks into murders in his apartment block, across five hand-drawn episodes.
  4. Creepy Tale 3 key art: Ingrid sits on the floor of a dark cell as light from an open door throws a long, horned shadow toward her 2D horrorCreepy Tale 3: Ingrid PenanceA spoiled girl falls into a hand-drawn hell of creatures that want to eat her, with puzzles and choices that decide how it ends.
  5. Children of Silentown key art: Lucy among the black silhouettes of village children before a pale moon, with red and teal trees on either side 2D horrorChildren of SilentownA girl in a village ringed by a forest of monsters looks into the disappearances, solving puzzles and learning songs.
  6. DISTRAINT: Deluxe Edition key art: Price in a shirt and tie among his bosses, a couple with teacups and an old woman with a rabbit, under a looming red elephant PsychologicalDISTRAINT: Deluxe EditionA bailiff seizes an old woman's home for a promotion, and his conscience turns the world into a 2D nightmare; short and grim.
  7. DISTRAINT 2 screenshot: Price stands in a rotting room by a glowing old TV, dark growths hanging from the ceiling and a skull-faced figure in a chair beside him PsychologicalDISTRAINT 2Price walks surreal places built from his guilt, collecting items and solving puzzles, with dread and dark humour.
  8. Whispering Willows art: Elena's face split between her glowing blue spirit form and her hooded human self, in front of a dark mansion 2D horrorWhispering WillowsA girl searches a mansion for her missing father, her spirit leaving her body to talk with the dead and solve its puzzles.
  9. Rusty Lake Paradise art: a beaked figure with insect wings hovers in a pale forest above a white rabbit PsychologicalRusty Lake ParadiseA son returns to his family's island to find it cursed by the ten plagues, in Rusty Lake's grim, surreal puzzle style.
  10. Rusty Lake Hotel: the grey gothic hotel on an island in a still green lake, with mountains behind PsychologicalRusty Lake HotelServe five animal-headed guests a week of dinners, each one solved from the puzzles in their rooms and meant to be worth dying for.
  11. Cube Escape: Paradox screenshot: a crow-headed man in a suit sits in an armchair in a green, moth-papered room under a framed painting PsychologicalCube Escape: ParadoxFree first chapter: a detective with no memory in an ominous room of surreal puzzles, from the makers of Rusty Lake.
  12. Bad Dream: Coma art: crows perch on cracked yellow paper that opens onto ink-drawn glimpses of a hospital bed, a house and a bloodstained floor PsychologicalBad Dream: ComaA sparse ink-drawn point-and-click through a disturbing dreamland where you cannot die but can suffer, and your choices decide the end.
  13. Masochisia key art: a hand-drawn gaunt head in front of flames and a dark house, with a scan-line filter PsychologicalMasochisiaCrude hand-drawn faces and a grim family home, as a troubled young man learns from his hallucinations what he will become.
  14. My Beautiful Paper Smile: a masked child with a drawn eye above his head walks between hooded guards with lanterns in a barbed-wire yard at night PsychologicalMy Beautiful Paper SmileA child taken to a facility where a mad king forces every child to smile, sneaking and solving puzzles in black and white.
  15. Lisa hiding in a bush as a dark, many-eyed monster looms over her in a red-tinged night 2D horrorBefore The NightA pet human steals flowers from a cute animal village to bring back her dead owner, and each night the villagers become monsters.
  16. Slender Threads key art: a frightened Harvey Green by a fire, hooded figures in bird masks behind him and a mustached man aiming a revolver Puzzle horrorSlender ThreadsA travelling salesman in a seaside town where horrific deaths begin, and his recurring nightmare says he is next.

Fran Bow follows a girl who escapes a children's asylum in 1944 to find her cat, and the pills she takes show her a hidden world of gore and creatures she has to use to get by. Sally Face, in five episodes, follows Sal Fisher, a boy with a prosthetic face who talks to ghosts through his handheld and looks into the murders around his apartment block. Both are drawn by hand, both are puzzle adventures, and both are much darker than they look. The games here share some of that.

Little Misfortune is the obvious next step after Fran Bow: the same studio, Killmonday Games, follows an imaginative eight-year-old into the woods after a voice only she can hear, in a storybook that grows darker with every choice. Creepy Tale 3: Ingrid Penance drops a spoiled girl into a hand-drawn hell of creatures that want to eat her, and Children of Silentown is a girl's investigation into the disappearances in a village ringed by a monster-filled forest. Before The Night turns a cute animal village into monsters every night, and My Beautiful Paper Smile is a black-and-white escape from a mad king's facility where children are made to smile.

If it was the ghosts and the mystery of Sally Face you liked, Whispering Willows sends a girl's spirit out of her body to talk with the dead of a mansion while she searches for her father, and Slender Threads puts a travelling salesman in a seaside town where horrific deaths begin and his nightmare says he is next.

If it was the guilt and the madness, DISTRAINT and DISTRAINT 2 follow a bailiff whose conscience turns the world into a nightmare after he takes an old woman's home, and Masochisia shows a troubled young man, through crude hand-drawn hallucinations, what he will grow up to become. Bad Dream: Coma is drawn in sparse ink, a dreamland where you cannot die but can suffer.

For the puzzles, Rusty Lake's games are the closest in their mix of the surreal and the gruesome: Rusty Lake Paradise curses a family's island with the ten plagues, Rusty Lake Hotel has you prepare deadly dinners for animal-headed guests, and Cube Escape: Paradox is free to start.

If you only try one, play Little Misfortune after Fran Bow, or Whispering Willows after Sally Face.

Questions

What games are like Fran Bow?

Little Misfortune, from the same studio, is the closest. Creepy Tale 3: Ingrid Penance and Children of Silentown share its hand-drawn look and dark fairy-tale stories.

What games are like Sally Face?

Whispering Willows shares its ghosts and mystery, Slender Threads its small-town deaths and visions, and Fran Bow its hand-drawn look and grim story.

Are there free games like Fran Bow?

Cube Escape: Paradox's first chapter is free; the others here are paid.

Are these games for children?

No. They look like picture books, but Fran Bow, Sally Face and most of these games have gore, murder, self-harm or other dark themes; check each game's content notes.

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