Fran Bow 2 - what in my opinion would made it even more amazing game

[DoopForces]

"Killmonday Games will eventually produce a Fran Bow 2 game. There is no timeline on its production at the present time, as they are working on other projects now."

I would like to take this opportunity to (again?) remind what imo was missing from Fran to be fully satisfying great experience:

1) real story and "the truth" that you can uncover more or less depending how deep you look
2) being less linear

1)

many players would love it when the game is ambigous and confusing (as Fran) but to have more and more hints as to what is the real answer, some more obvious some less obvious.

And to reveal the truth of it at the end (perhaps leaving some other things to be discovered, but if people look carefuly at details they can confirm many details).

On Example on Fran:

on most stages I had suspicion that the thing is, that magic and strange things are her imagination, but that most or all of them are reflection of what is really happening.
- in the scenes with ants, with meat and so on I thought in real life she escaped and is hidding near some corpses.. or something of that nature
- when she fallen down and got broken I imagined that in reality she fallen into some obstacle, maybe a wheel, in real life
- when later her body is healed there by the flying entity I assumed that in reality she is rushed to hospital and there is a doctor operating on her. Also, related... ITWard - Intensive Treatment hospital ward?
- when the time and seasons are passing then I thought maybe she is slowly recovering from surgery.. well not years, but e.g. months in real life.
and so on.

That would be so cool if players would get to see some parts of it in ending outright, then piece together more of it as almost certain based on clues, and some other things almost proven but room to speculate.

Example of game that does something kind of like this, would be Paratopic - though there's reverse - where most of the main events are mostly uninteresting or even boring, but there is a fascinating story looming in the background. (tho they had even less of an "explanatory ending" that Fran).


2)
If the story would be less linear, where there are 2-3 ways to solve some of a problems, it would be very cool too. I know there were maybe 2-3 cases of that in Fran, but if that could happen more, and perhaps have entire branches of story being optional.

3)
Other then that, I think nothing is missing from making this one of best games ever, of all time.

Same style, and same music matching the style, it was perfect in original.
(e.g. no need to "upgrade" visuals on technical level or anything like that).

From usability standpoint: a more easy to use saving system with many slot would be great. And option to skip entire dialogs (not just speed up the statements, there are like 50 in some cutscenes) would be nice.


Thanks, waiting to see Fran2, and hoping there's a chance to have such elements there

[abo_+al5er]

nice tips man hope they take it in fran bow 2

[DoopForces]

Originally posted by ♥♥♥-_al5er:

nice tips man hope they take it in fran bow 2

Yeah, all that time later - I am still hoping for it.

By the way - since you refreshed this topic - in the meantime I found a game that also, like Fran Bow, is a "gem" that can create some emotion, has very nice (imo up to excellent) atmosphere created by fitting music... and is similar motive "am I going insane, what is going on?".... AND does these 2 things I listed in OP.

It's a bit older game (2016?) called Soma.
If you want to avoid totally all spoilers, skip even Steam Store page description and screenshots.
(actually I obtained it some time back but played it more recently)
Very nice atmostphere. Story had effect on me for days, weeks, still thinking about it.

Without any spoilers - you are a patient with some head injury, you will take some brain scans to determine your treatment.
It is more futuristic obviously (RMI, computers, doctors, and so on).

There, too, I was questioning own sanity, or "the grand scheme of things" of events.
Even, at times I wondered if certain things are halucinations.. real... or perhaps something that metamorphically relates to some "real world", or something else totally (not saying here).

The big difference is that there you in fact CAN find out - over the progress of game.. and you can find much more info if you are a "detective" interested in reading all the lore that is around your adventure path... something that I tried to do in Fran but failed mostly (to this day I wonder if ants, or dead antman... meat... this things... were there reference to Fran going on drugs on like... killing some.. postman?? dunno..).


Also, it does a bit more about not being linear... there are some... choices.

If you are also looking for some next great thing, and have 10 hours, then Soma is the gem you might want to look into.

My short guide BEFORE playing - to get the best out of experience (unlike in Fran, there you can in fact miss many things) if you should decide to try it
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2514062965

p.s. not to in any way lessen Fran as a great title, both are awesome, and Soma needed big team to do it.

[Vella]

I heard that they're not going to do a Fran Bow 2 instead they're gonna release a new story DLC to complete the story and they're also going to update the game making it entirely New

[Brian Monday]

Originally posted by Alicia:

I heard that they're not going to do a Fran Bow 2 instead they're gonna release a new story DLC to complete the story and they're also going to update the game making it entirely New

Hello Alicia,

You're right that Killmonday Games is planning to release an update to the Fran Bow game as a DLC. We hope to publish a new version of the Fran Bow game which will include this additional content sometime in 2022. This new version will use the same art and follow the same story as the current version of the Fran Bow game, but will include new art and story for the DLC. It will also include additional languages in subtitles (Brazilian Portuguese, Chinese, French, and Japanese) as well as bug fixes, and run on the 64-bit versions of MacOS, and will allow for the game to be published on consoles

There are two videos on the Killmonday Games Youtube channel which give a little information about this DLC. Here are the links:

h t t p s : // w w w . y o u t u b e . c o m /watch?v=t54Y5uOdvRM&t=44m10s

h t t p s : // w w w . y o u t u b e . c o m /watch?v=gYLibwajAGo&t=5m27s

You'll need to remove the spaces in the links above. The last parts of each link contain the timecode (in minutes and seconds) where the discussion of the new DLC begins in each video. The second video contains some glimpses of artwork of the new DLC.

The tentative title for this DLC is "Chapter 6, Keeper of the Key". All owners of the current Fran Bow game here on Steam will automatically receive the updated version of the game which includes the DLC content once it is published here.

But I wouldn't say that this DLC will complete the Fran Bow story. Killmonday Games still has future plans to publish a sequel to the Fran Bow game (commonly referred to as "Fran Bow 2"), but there is no timetable currently for that release.

I hope that you're looking forward to the new content (DLC) for the original Fran Bow game to be published sometime in 2022 (if all goes according to current planning). And that you're happy to hear that a sequel of the original Fran Bow game is still planned (but with no timetable for publication yet).

[Squiddler Cap]

One of things I liked most about Fran Bow was that everything being in Fran's head is just as plausible as it all being real. This ties in nicely with the games themes of psychosis as not only is Fran unsure of what is real or not, the audience is as well. I feel like finding any definitive truth about this game's story would ruin it thematically.

[Stigma]

Originally posted by Squiddler Cap:

One of things I liked most about Fran Bow was that everything being in Fran's head is just as plausible as it all being real. This ties in nicely with the games themes of psychosis as not only is Fran unsure of what is real or not, the audience is as well. I feel like finding any definitive truth about this game's story would ruin it thematically.

+1

[Revalopod]

Originally posted by Brian Monday:

We hope to publish a new version of the Fran Bow game which will include this additional content sometime in 2022.

So was this cancelled, or just delayed?

[Brian Monday]

Originally posted by Revalopod:

Originally posted by Brian Monday:

We hope to publish a new version of the Fran Bow game which will include this additional content sometime in 2022.

So was this cancelled, or just delayed?

Hello Revalopod,

Thanks for your interest in new content for Fran Bow.

There have been some changes at the Killmonday Games studio. For more details about that, consider reading this news post on the Killmonday Games website here: https://killmondaygames.com/end-of-2023/.

Killmonday Games is still working on projects, but is not providing details about exactly what, nor providing any timelines for completion. I don't have information about how to answer your "canceled or delayed" question.

When Killmonday Games has additional information to share, they will first do so on their newsletter. Please consider subscribing to that newsletter. This can be done by going to any page on the Killmonday Games website (including at the link listed above), and then scrolling to the bottom of the page. There you will find a form under the words "Sign up to Newsletter". Enter your email address in the form, and click on the "Submit" button. You'll then receive a message that asks you to confirm your subscription via email.

Once that is done, you'll receive the latest details about what Killmonday Games is up to when they're ready to provide more details.

I hope you find this message helpful. Thanks for your support of Killmonday Games.

[Revalopod]

Originally posted by Brian Monday:

Originally posted by Revalopod:

So was this cancelled, or just delayed?

Hello Revalopod,

Thanks for your interest in new content for Fran Bow.

There have been some changes at the Killmonday Games studio. For more details about that, consider reading this news post on the Killmonday Games website here: https://killmondaygames.com/end-of-2023/.

Killmonday Games is still working on projects, but is not providing details about exactly what, nor providing any timelines for completion. I don't have information about how to answer your "canceled or delayed" question.

When Killmonday Games has additional information to share, they will first do so on their newsletter. Please consider subscribing to that newsletter. This can be done by going to any page on the Killmonday Games website (including at the link listed above), and then scrolling to the bottom of the page. There you will find a form under the words "Sign up to Newsletter". Enter your email address in the form, and click on the "Submit" button. You'll then receive a message that asks you to confirm your subscription via email.

Once that is done, you'll receive the latest details about what Killmonday Games is up to when they're ready to provide more details.

I hope you find this message helpful. Thanks for your support of Killmonday Games.

Thanks for the information. So basically, it looks like they had trouble trying to manage a company, and are going back to their old ways of doing things which works better for them. It seems like the Fran Bow expansion will still happen with the help of freelances, but most (or all) of the other projects, including Fran Bow 2 (which was going to be 3D???), were cancelled. Maybe they'll start Fran Bow 2 from scratch again. I don't think going 3D really makes sense anyway.

[Mr. Hugh Mannity]

We already got Kathy Rain 2 it would make no sense to not make a sequel for Fran Bow as well. Hopefully they're staying faithful with the artstyle and not making some questionable decisions...