Drown the Bride
When a young actress finds herself on a boating trip with her dearest friend and her friend's fiancé, the latest in a long line of horrible beaus, she must use all her wiles to keep her friend's head - and her own - above the water.
Gameplay
Drown the Bride is a point 'n click adventure visual novel game set in a historically themed fantasy world. Your choices impact the plot while exploring and interacting with the world progresses the story.
Story
When Rosemary agrees to chaperone her shy, motherless and very dear friend, Tetrine, on a trip to the coast, she didn't expect her friend's fiancé to be such a bore.
Luckily, Rosemary is both an actress and an excellent judge of character. It should be a piece of cake to convince her friend to give this one a pass. Only, it isn't, and the longer they stay at the house on the cliffside, the more convinced Rosemary becomes that her frend's fiancé isn't just a heel - he's got his heart set on murder.
Will Rosemary be able to persuade her friend to leave? Or will Rosemary lose a dear friend?
Features
- 8,000~ words of content
- Lots of pixel art animation & hand-painted artwork
- 4 distinct endings
- Very puzzle light
FAQ
What content can one expect in Drown the Bride? (Contains spoilers).
Drown the Bride is an interactive story about a young woman whose dearest friend has a tendency to find herself in abusive relationships. You might imagine what that entails.- Violence (more on the cartoony side)
- Abuse (implied, mostly)
- Gaslighting, etc...
- Death, murder
If you really don't like bad endings (or really do like them), please see the "is there a recommended playing order?" question below.
Is there a walkthrough?
See below.Help, I'm stuck!
Try searching the screen for more hotspots and check to see if you've exhausted all the available locations.If you are stuck in the house after the boating incident, check to see which version of the game you have. If you are using 1.2a, you might have reached an unwinnable state. You can still play the game to the end with this version if you only spy on the house twice. Check your auto-saves for the 'spy on them' choice menu and cancel it. The engine typically auto-saves autoamtically at choices. (The 'A' page in your Load screen).
Is there a recommended playing order?
Depends on the kind of experience you like. If you really don't like bad endings, I would avoid these, or only play the Ending IV bad end.If you like bad endings, especially wrenching ones, I would play one of those first and then one of the good endings. It puts the story in a different perspective.
Controls
Use the left mouse button to move Rosemary during exploration sequences and interact with hotspots (points of interest) in the current location.
Use the Compass UI on the lower right-hand side of the screen to change locations.
The story progresses through interacting with hotspots on the screen in addition to dialogue choices. Search unlikely corners of the screen if you think you've missed something. Drown the Bride does not have inventory puzzles. If you get stuck, keep looking around and check that you've explored all the available areas.
A Note For Web: Touch support does work and the game is playable, however, you won't see the label for a hotspot until after you tap (provided you tapped the right spot). So you currently have to tap all over the screen in search of hotspots like it's an actual game from the 90s... unless you use a mouse. A feature that toggles hotspot labels is on my list.
"Team"
Art, Story & Code by S. A. Welland
Further credits can be found in-game. Originally made in one month.
Same Story World
We have a few other games set in the same fantasy story-world. This story takes place before the events of Winter's Trumpet.
- Winter's Trumpet (Features Tetrine & Rosemary)
- Asher (Also features Tetrine & Rosemary)
- The Last of the Lords of Ice (Gothic romance visual novel)
- Tell a Demon (Tetrine shows up in this game)
- The Empress of Aeser (Also Tetrine, next big planned game)
- "And I'll Never Leave" (Short game)
Walkthrough
Developers's note: Provided for your convenience since somebody always asks. I think this game is pretty easy, especially if you've played any point 'n clicks before. The skip feature also makes it easy to skim through the game again and get different endings, but for those who really want a walkthrough, here it is.
How do I get Ending I (the happiest ending)?
- "I'm my own kind of woman."
- "Did something happen?"
- "Our poor, silly Trina left her shawl!"
- "I thought you wanted me here to chaperone?"
- (Encourage Tetrine.)
- "Promise to take good care of her?"
- "How are you doing?"
Choices
Once you have spied on the house twice, have Rosemary go to the cliffside/train station. (Northeast). Then observe the sailboat a couple of times.
Then go to the cabin and look around (be sure to look at the dinghy/rowboat and the junk). Go back to the main house. Look at Tetrine's luggage in her room. Go back to the rowboat and Ending I will play out.
How do I get Ending II (the canon ending)?
- "I'm my own kind of woman."
- "What about you is so terrible?"
- "Do you mind if I talk to Tetrine?"
- "Do you feel safe?"
- (Read Tetrine's future.)
- "I was wrong about you."
- "Are you happy?"
Choices
How do I get Ending III (the worst ending)?
- Of course - we're both new women."
- "Don't be silly."
- "Why are you here, Fell?"
- "You should stand up for yourself."
- (Give Fell a fright.)
- "You can't mean to stick with this guy, can you?"
Choices
How do I get Ending IV (the less bad bad ending)?
- Of course - we're both new women."
- "I'm sure it can't be that bad."
- "It's nothing important."
- "I don't think I like him."
- (Flatter Fell.)
- "I think Fell's a good man."
Choices
Download
Click download now to get access to the following files:
Development log
- Walkthrough Added81 days ago
- More Bugfixes (Plus a Tutorial)83 days ago
- Update (Adds Soundtrack & Bug Fixes)83 days ago
Comments
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This was such a joy to play! So wonderfully atmospheric. It was great getting more of a glimpse into Tetrine and Rosemary's relationship. Not sure how you managed to produce such a rich, world-building story in such a relatively short game. Loved the graphics, the story, the characters--everything!
Thank you so much! :-) I'm glad you liked it!
Well, it did take me several tries to figure out how to write a short story game in a fantasy world. x)
That was really fun! Reminded me of classic point n' click games, but without their rough edges. The compass system to change areas is nifty, and I'm really impressed at how we can click to move Rosey to that spot, like an actual adventure game (despite using Ren'Py).
Love the gorgeous pixel artwork. ♥ Rosey, Trine, and Fell are each interesting characters in their own right, and I enjoyed seeing how the events unfolded in each ending.
If I had one minor critique, lower the default music and SFX volumes. 100% volume was a bit too loud for me.
I also appreciate how you managed to fit in lore about the characters' histories and the setting in such a short word count.
Wonderful job!
Whaddayamean rough edges? lol, they were perfect works of art~
For the point n' click movement, I spent like a week reading up on Python and some of that highschool geometry I'd forgotten. Per K Grok's tutorial on Lemmasoft was also a big help - otherwise I wouldn't even know it could be done in Ren'Py... at least not without breaking Ren'Py's main features.
Anyway, thanks for the comment! I'm glad it was fun!
Also wow, I haven't seen that video in a lo-o-ong time.
I understand some are more sensitive to noise than others (I'm one of them ), but my preference is to give the player the option to choose, when, as in this case, the musician provides a full range of sound.
Tightly written story, compelling characters, and beautiful graphics! It really brought me back to older point and click adventure games I played and loved.
Fantastic work!!!
Wow, thanks! :-)
Stylish, tense, beautifully written, and I really enjoyed the contrasting nostalgia between the pixelated art style and the 1920s-influenced world. A lovely and enjoyable game! (and now I'll have to go and check out the other games with Tetrine and Rosie after this!)
Thank you for the comment!
Love the style and atmosphere, the graphics are superb. The compass for navigation is a nice touch as well. I think I might be stuck in a 'spying' section though. Can't figure out what I'm supposed to do.
Thank you! :-)
If you're in the area I think you are, that means you can explore the house and cabin freely. Try looking through the cabin and then the house.
If you can't access the house, try spying on them again.
i'm spying for the second time (or maybe third? can't remember now) but fell and tetrine aren't saying anything. i can explore the house, but i can't leave. i think just previously to this, i was waiting for tetrine so we could leave.
Which version of the game do you have? The latest is 1.2a which should solve the bug. 1.1 was definitely broken here, 1.2 may have shown you a repeat version. If you have 1.2a, try this sequence:
Go to the cabin, look at the boat, then the junk, then go to the house and look at Tetrine's luggage, then go back and look at the boat.
i've got 1.2a. i'll try that out and let you know how i go. cheers!
uh yeah, think i must have found another way to access the bug :(
i'm already in the house and i can't leave to check the cabin again. if i try to leave, rosemary says 'i can explore later, i'm pretty tired'. and checking the luggage just says 'that's tetrine's luggage', and that's it.
i will say i don't remember seeing 'junk' in the cabin. maybe that's triggering it?
i have a save file from a fair bit earlier, i'll try going back to that tomorrow. definitely want to see what happens in the story.