Rosewater (video game)

The game focuses on Harley Leger (voiced by Maya Murphy^[4]), who arrives at the town of Rosewater to start a job in journalism. She is assigned an interview with wild west legend Gentleman Jake (Gavin Hammon) and his assistant, sharpshooter Danny Luo (Matthew Yang King).^[5]

After Harley shows off her capabilities in a bar brawl, the two rope Harley into their mission: finding a fortune, the remains of an investment from one Dr Bennett Clark's benefactors, in his abandoned lab. Dr Clark had come to Rosewater after a terrible accident at the Lamplight City Expo leaves bystanders and his assistant dead; he had continued his research there before again disappearing. The topic of his research, the "aether", has even inspired the formation of a cult.

While investigating, the trio comes across a fort in the desert, where they meet a General Filomeno "Phil" Marquez (Christian Lanz), an idealistic rebel from New Spain forced to flee his homeland. On an excursion with the fort's captain, they're taken captive by O'odham scouts. The tribe's Chief Luzi tasks the group with raiding an army supply wagon; they're joined by healer Nadine Redbird (G.K. Bowes). Following the raid, the group continue their quest for Dr. Clark’s fortune, finding a clue in his laboratory that he's headed west, for the city of El Presidio.

The group hires a driver, Lola Johnson (Leilani Jones), to take them there. In the journey, which takes several days, Harley and her companions encounter different obstacles, including con artists, settlers, bandits, and eccentrics, stopping to help people and engage in randomized encounter vignettes that branch based on player choices, affecting Harley's relationship with them and revealing more of the characters' backstories.

Before arriving in El Presidio, the group is stopped by the Blackburns, a national, government-sanctioned police force akin to the Pinkertons. The Blackburns' leader Carson hints that the group has crossed powerful figures. The encounter descends into a gunfight. Once subdued, Carson attempts to kill Harley, who is saved by either General Filomeno, Nadine Redbird, or Danny Luo, depending on which of the three she has the closest relationship with. Harley goes to find Gentleman Jake, who has hidden during the gunfight, revealing himself as a braggart and a fraud. If Danny or Filomeno have saved Harley, they die; Nadine lives but is injured.

The survivors in the group finally arrive at El Presidio. Lola abandons the group, keeping the relationship professional. The group meets with DW Shaw, an oil company owner who'd first hired Gentleman Jake to find Dr Clark, wanting him to develop an alternative energy source. The group eventually enters the Jolly Good Club, a gentleman's club, where Harley meets an army general, LaPorte, and a clue that Dr Clark is working in a lab underground on Gannet Island, just offshore.

When they break into the lab, they find Dr Clark working on a gun based on the aether, a superweapon that LaPorte thinks will give the nation military supremacy; it becomes apparent this isn't an officially sanctioned military project, and that it was LaPorte who hired the Blackburns because the group had raided his wagon. Harley convinces Dr Clark to leave with her, but LaPorte interrupts the group, facing Harley and her companions against a wall. Harley, having learned that the gun Dr Clark has developed is unstable, stalls for time, tricking LaPorte. Depending on her actions in the game, different characters appear at the island to assist in rounding up his troops.

In the ending, the companions’ paths diverge based on the relationships built during the journey. Harley returns to Rosewater and writes up her story. Her editor tells her nobody would believe it, but says it has potential as a novel. The game ends with Harley finishing the book, wondering if she'd ever again have such an adventure.

Rosewater is set within the universe of Lamplight City, as the game's designer, Francisco González, wanted to explore more of that game's world.^[6] He began thinking of the game during Lamplight City's development, deciding on creating the "complete opposite" of its industrial setting with a rural, wide-open space, settling on the American West.^[7] However, the game didn't enter production until January 2019.^[8]

Unlike Lamplight City, Rosewater uses a traditional point-and-click adventure game inventory system.^[9] Rosewater uses a higher resolution (1280 × 720) than González's previous games,^[5][9] although it shares their engine, Adventure Game Studio.^[10]

González worked as a designer, writer, artist, and programmer on the game, rotoscoping the animations.^[11] Jess Haskins, an adjunct game design professor at the NYU Game Center,^[12] co-wrote it.^[9]