In the works A game

Dawnbearer

A top-down adventure in the old style. Save what you can. Give what you must.

About this project

Dawnbearer is a web game in the tradition of the 1986 adventures: a screen-by-screen world, a small set of buttons, and dungeons under the map. The look is richer than those old games. The rules stay simple on purpose.

You play a foundling from a village where the well went dark. A sword, a lantern, and a kneel that saves your place. A lot of the creatures aren’t monsters. Something got hold of them. You can fight, or you can bring them back. The land changes color when you do.

It isn’t a public release. Testers are walking the early world now — the first towns, the wider countryside, and several of the dungeons — on a phone, a keyboard, or a gamepad. Saves stay in the browser.

Why it isn't like the others

What makes it different

Mercy is a way to play

Weakening something and giving it back is always an option. The world shows you when you did. You don’t need a quest marker to notice.

Old rules, a fuller picture

Four directions, screen flips, two buttons, a small set of information on screen. The color is there so dusk and dawn can actually look different.

It has to teach itself

No tutorial dump. Testers are asked to play their own way, because where someone gets stuck is the thing worth seeing.

Built for a browser, including a phone

Keyboard, a gamepad, or buttons on the screen. Add it to your home screen and it plays full screen. Your save stays on that device.

One more thing

A few more details

Nine dungeons are planned. The first stretch of the world, and several of those dungeons, are what testers are playing now.
There isn’t a public release yet. When there is, it will be a game you can open.

Keep looking