In the upcoming point-and-click adventure Rosewater, Harley Leger has left New Bretagne behind along with her past, and she’s looking to make a living as a freelance writer out in the West – West Vespuccia, that is.
It doesn’t take long for trouble to find her, though. Her very first assignment, an interview for the local newspaper in the town of Rosewater, leads her to a quest to find a missing man’s fortune. Of course, it’ll make for a hell of a story for the paper.
A non-linear adventure through Western Vespuccia
Harley’s adventure through the wild West is anything but straightforward.
While the game takes from classic point-and-click adventure gameplay, such as talking to characters and using items with each other, the game also features randomized ‘storylets’ in the adventure to keep things fresh. How these storylets go will depend on your previous actions and the resources you have on hand.
Rosewater also gives Harley five companions, and you’ll have to make important choices when interacting with them. The relationships you build with your companions will affect how the overall story goes.
And because that’s not enough non-linearity, the game also lets you solve problems in multiple ways, so you don’t have to thread the needle when it comes to solving inventory troubles.
According to our interview with developer Francisco Gonzalez, the game has a lot of content, so much so that you won’t see all of it in one playthrough. He expects each playthrough to last 12-15 hours – much heftier than your usual point-and-clicker.
Grundislav Games and the inspirations behind Rosewater
If Rosewater sounds ambitious, it’s because developer Grundislav Games has a solid grasp of point-and-click adventure games already.
For a little over a decade, Francisco Gonzalez, the solo developer behind Grundislav has created adventure games like A Golden Wake and Shardlight (both published by Wadjet Eye Games), and the 2018 predecessor to Rosewater, Lamplight City.
Although Rosewater is set in the same world as Lamplight City, the developer assures me that you don’t need to have played Lamplight City to understand the story of Rosewater. That said, if you have played Lamplight City (or plan to play it soon!), there’s plenty of references and lore to take in when playing Rosewater.
Rosewater’s penchant for non-linearity is inspired by one of Gonzalez’s favourite games, Conquests of the Longbow: The Legend of Robin Hood (1991) by genre pioneer Sierra On-Line. Furthermore, the game’s look and style has been inspired by LucasArts’ classic biker game Full Throttle.
The game’s slick, rotoscoped animation will be accompanied by voice acting from legends like Cissy Jones (Delilah from Firewatch), Dave Fennoy (Lee Everett from The Walking Dead) and Roger Clark (Arthur Morgan from Red Dead Redemption 2). Lamplight City composer Mark Benis returns to score the game.
When and where to play Rosewater
According to publisher Application Systems Heidelberg, Rosewater will release on March 27, 2025 across PC, Mac, and Linux. The game will be available on Steam and GOG.com.
Rosewater will feature text localization in German apart from the default English.
There’s a demo available now on Steam, if you’d like to get a taste of how it looks and plays. For more information on Rosewater, check out the official website here.
Thank you for reading this preview of Rosewater on Into Indie Games! For more interesting articles on all things indie games, check out the links below!
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