Fran Bow [official site] made me smile more than any other game I’ve played this year.That might come as a surprise if all you’ve seen of the game is a couple of screenshots feauring gore and dead kids. Fran Bow opens with a gory murder scene and then traps its young protagonist in a creepy institution for (criminally?) insane children. But that initial setting and the dark tone are just a small slice of a story that spans worlds and perfectly captures the beautiful, delightful nonsense of Alice’s Adventures, an inspiration that is imprinted on the game.

Extending Alice’s curiosity to pitch black MORBID curiosity leads to an intelligent, melancholy and eventually hopeful journey toward an acceptance and understanding of death.>

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The trailer for Killmonday Games’ first big release Fran Bow [official site] is a doozy – think The Shining> by way of Emily The Strange, stylistically creepy with a sort of ’90s scarygirl twang. The story goes something like this: a girl with her best friend/cat are witness to the gruesome murder of her parents. They escape into the woods, only to be split up when she finds herself recovering from shock at an oppressive mental institution for children. There’s a variety of weird things that unfold: skeletal men and clockwork trees, ghosts, a blurring between what’s real and isn’t.

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