Darkness and Psychology in A Near Dawn

I promised a little while ago to talk about the darkness in A Near Dawn (though it would be nice to discuss the charming humor, as well – maybe next time?). Our adventure game is now in its last few days on Kickstarter. Since we're talking about darkness, children avert your eyes! Things could get a little serious.

I personally think the world needs more positivity, a real focus on the good things – warm friends, nice people, things generally working out for the best. That is not what I am doing with my story at all, though. As much as I enjoy those things, and do my best to incorporate them into all of my projects (if you played the Prologue then you know there is quite a lot of humor in it), I also want to push my characters to the edge and explore the depths of their humanity. In A Near Dawn, Sam is a compassionate, intelligent, empathetic and I would hope likable protagonist. As we go through more of the story, he almost becomes his own foil, raising questions of morality and in some ways tempting the player’s conscience in the decisions that he can make. We know that Sam has a darker side in the form of a vile fiend named Richard Grave, and this darkness can influence his choices. However, he always has a rational justification for everything he can do in the story.

You won’t see Sam abusing someone without reason, but he can be cruel to them if he believes they did something wrong. Of course, being the intelligent and compassionate man that he is, Sam may also feel great remorse for behaving in such a manner. And this is another aspect to his character – the relationship he has with himself, what he thinks of himself as a person, and how he struggles with what is the right thing to do. One of the questions you may have as an observer is whether Richard Grave is a manifestation of a Dissociative Identity Disorder, or a manifestation of Sam’s baser instincts... or perhaps something else altogether?

This is the character, but at the same time we will also be seeing our story take a darker turn as it unfolds. We might even come to appreciate what Sam’s darker side has to offer as we may be subjected to the more vicious intentions of others. We learned in the intro that our heroes will be going up against a ruthless firm defending the actions of a multinational corporation, which even resulted in people dying. These are the people you will be dealing with - those obstructing your path of uncovering the truth behind this case, and even those who will stop at nothing to prevent you from getting any further than you have. What else could be said without spoiling too much? While the stakes are high for reasons you may not fully understand, know that people close to you may be in danger because of them.

A Near Dawn is up to 55% in its Kickstarter campaign, but with 4 days to go we will need a great deal of support for in order to reach our goal.

Mysteries & Science Fiction in A Near Dawn

I’ve been doing some thinking about how I could maybe have presented our story a little differently, and I decided I wanted to talk more about the Mysteries and Science Fiction in A Near Dawn (as it is currently in its last week on Kickstarter). You did know all about those and that things were going to get Sci-fi-ish, right? Did I not make that clear? Oh, I barely mentioned it at all, didn’t I?

Did I also not mention that I was a big fan of homage? This was an earlier design of the cover art for A Near Dawn. :)

You may have noticed I said that one of my major influences for this project was Steins;Gate, and if you are not familiar with it, it is a brilliant series dealing with the butterfly effect, which for me has the best and most convincing representation of time travel I have ever seen (not to mention all-around great characters). If you haven’t checked it out, there is quite a good translation of the Japanese anime (it is of course also based on the Visual Novel series).

The concept for A Near Dawn was always to start with the present day reality as we know it, and then have our hero (or heroes) follow along and uncover the mysteries that seem to surround the case in question, leading to progressively surreal psychological, potentially supernatural, and even scientific fiction-worthy revelations. For instance, who is this dude and what is his role in our story? (Hint: it is not Michael Jackson.)





It’s a mystery. I haven’t really spoken about this side of the story with a lot of people, because I spend a good deal of it grounded in our reality, and a) I wouldn’t want to spoil an intriguing surprise (which is also why I am being quite vague now), and b) I would not want to set certain expectations for an audience that may not be fulfilled until a good ways into the story. However, that also creates the assumption that an audience is going to want to experience a story without perhaps knowing that there are these things in it that they may find interesting. So, without further ado, here are some of the mysteries of A Near Dawn that you may or may not be wondering about at this time:

1. What are the specifics of the case Sam and Harry are picking up? We know that poisonings and deaths were mentioned in the Prologue, and that a multinational corporation may be involved.
2. What happened the last time Sam and Harry went against PKW (the vicious law firm they have the misfortune of facing once again)?
3. How does Don Juan, who claims to be a psychic, fit into our story?
4. What is Morgan’s problem and who does he represent?
5. What is up with Janet’s life?
6. What are these people hiding?
7. And finally, who or what is [not Michael Jackson]?

Maybe some things to think about?

A Near Dawn is entering its final week in our Kickstarter Campaign and we will need a lot more support to reach our goal. You can download and play the full Prologue on Itch.io. Please help share and support our campaign if you can, and let us know what you think of our project!

A Near Dawn ~ Play the Adventure on Android!

With 10 days left to our Kickstarter Campaign for our noir comedy adventure game A Near Dawn, we are adding an Android Power-up to our project.

One of our backers recently pointed out that they would like to have the game on Android, and though you can play the Prologue on Android, our campaign seemed to be strictly dealing with the PC (Windows/Mac/Linux) version. So, that is true, since we will need to develop the PC version before we can then translate it to mobile. In fact, we hope to have it on Android and even iOS eventually! It will of course take a lot more time to develop and test the game on mobile platforms. But we already have so many backers, we thought... And certainly you wouldn’t want to pay as much for an Android version as the Full 1080HD.

How can we possibly solve this issue? Why don't we give it away, we thought? So, we will give all of you a complimentary copy of the game on Android when it becomes available! If you previously backed our project on Kickstarter beginning with the $6 CAD - Early Wakeup Tier, and all you wanted was the Wallpaper and Icon Pack, you will now get a copy of the game on Android, as well! And this of course extends to our backers who are already getting the game on computer, all of you will now receive an additional copy of the game on Android, as well! You don’t have an Android? No problem, give it to a friend (or frenemy)!

Please take a look at our currently running Kickstarter Campaign, we are a little over 50% funded, but with a week and a half left we will need your support to reach our goal! You can find all the information and links to download the demo for Android / Windows / Mac / Linux on our campaign page!

We caught Mei as she was leaving, and she had this to say:

Inspiration For Your Original Story

Why do we love stories?

We get excited by them, even eagerly await their arrival for months on end (thank you, Strange Things). Stories are creative, imaginative, and we know that it takes intelligence to make a good one, because there are so many bad ones. I think the most important thing stories do is they force us to make a human connection with the characters - "I love her, I hope she finds her happiness" or "I hate that guy, he better get what's coming to him." These reactions create an interest in seeing things through, and I believe that fundamentally this is the real allure of stories - the mystery of what will happen as we watch these characters' lives play out. Will they succeed or fail? What obstacles will they face? As the writer, it is your job to create this allure with characters people want to spend time with going through interesting experiences.

I am obsessed with stories - I need them. I can hardly play a game if it doesn't have a story element, and I would never think of making one that did not. I should probably introduce myself - my name is Leonid Pilchin, Creative Director at Far-off Daydream Games. I am an artist, writer, and animator. I worked in animation for many years on shows like Ugly Americans and Jimmy Two-Shoes, before deciding to branch out into making my own independent projects:

If you are a writer, the chances are someone asked you before where you get your ideas. Somebody recently asked me what inspired me to write A Near Dawn, the story I am currently working on. I knew the answer straight away, but it was not going to be a short one. There are so many things, and I keep getting inspired as I continue to work, so the list will only keep growing. Inspiration is key to keeping your work fresh and original, it sparks new thinking and gets you moving in a different direction. I've thankfully never had writer's block, but I know the solution isn't to keep focusing on the problem, it's to look outside, do some research, expose yourself to new material - find that inspiration. And at the end of the day, there is no shame in someone saying about your work that 'it is like [something you love], but different.' I very much hope that my work ends up being like something I love.

Here are some things I love:

I grew up on adventure games: Monkey Island, Indiana Jones - and later Broken Sword, Blackwell, Ace Attorney. I adore these stories and have an association of pure joy with them, mostly because they are a part of my childhood. These games inspire me, because their writing is clever and their storylines are imaginative. Everyone has a different set of works that set the bar for them, whether films, books, or games - and in my mind, these are the ones that I will always be working towards within my work. I don't need to deconstruct them or reverse-engineer them to know what's great about them, I know it all of that by heart, just as I am sure you do with your selection. These tell their story like any other, but they reinforce it with this charming, quirky humour that is the true genius behind them - their personality. I have a theory about eccentricity, it really sets work apart and in my opinion makes it more memorable. Like Peter Lorre in The Maltese Falcon, I probably wouldn't watch that film again for any other reason. This is the objective of your work, originality. The last thing you want in a story is to experience the same thing you already have a hundred times, because characters are people and people are typical - you don't need another story about typical people.

I always wanted to make an adventure game like these. When I sat down to write one, I wasn’t sure what I was writing at first, but my favourite character is an attorney on holiday named George Stobbart, and I began with one of my own. Except mine wouldn’t be away on vacation, he would be absolutely dedicated to his work, because he had something very important that only he could do. The day my story begins would be the day my character's relatively typical life completely goes off the rails. Someone might say (and someone actually did) that my project reminded them of Broken Sword, except A, B, and C, and that was the biggest compliment.

I think about my influences all the time and I can trace the ideas behind all my original work back to their source. My game about sock puppets stems from seeing someone locked in a room on TV and remembering Dick Solomon on 3rd Rock From the Sun playing with his sock when he was trapped. Another story about an international assassin conspiracy centering around Hong Kong - no surprises, was inspired by some Hong Kong films I was into at the time. And I wonder where the inspiration came from in the original stories that inspired me, and if you could keep tracing it back whether you would end up at the dawn of time.

In addition to those positive and generally upbeat child-friendly adventure games I mentioned, I have also always been fascinated with exploring the depth of humanity, the light and dark within characters, and with pushing them to their limits. I never liked characters that are always strong, strength is easy and boring. I want my characters to be brave, but to struggle, to be afraird, I want them to try and fail - to be human - and earn what they desire. I appreciate how David Lynch can make the typical very interesting by focusing in on it and refusing to look away when most probably would. He is a man who enjoys exposing the charm in a character’s personality, but that is only one of his interests. He also takes pleasure in bending your mind and subjecting his characters to unbelievable realities. Both are things I try to accomplish with my current project, as well. Though I discovered Twin Peaks about three-quarters of the way through developing my story, it inspired me to push even further how much my character's psychological difficulties affect him.

Another possibly surprising influence for my project, certainly one I haven't mentioned much in the past, is an old Japanese horror game for the Super Nintendo, called Clock Tower. It is very good and very creepy, I could not recommend it to everyone. What intrigues me about it, other than the strong female protagonist and their ability to create a very dark and eerie atmosphere with limited graphics, is that your ‘health bar’ is the degree to which you are afraid, and the more exposed you are to the darker elements of the story, the less you are able to defend yourself against them. I initially decided to integrate this idea of a ‘sanity meter’ as well, and as my character would give in to his darker urges he would edge closer to ending up institutionalized.

But your project is your own and it will continue to grow and evolve the more time you spend thinking about it. As I developed my character's darker personality, I saw it more as another side to the story. At some point, it no longer felt right to punish the player with this 'health' system for taking a darker turn and wanting to explore it, when in fact it had become fundamental of the story. So I was initially inspired by the mechanic, I implemented it, and then I scrapped it. You wouldn't know Clock Tower influenced me at all if I hadn't told you, yet traces of it will remain, because it's been part of the evolutionary process of the project. At the end of the day we will always be experimenting and exploring as we create our work and search for originality, but we can't help to be influenced by those sparks of inspiration that drive us. The most important thing in our quest is to listen to your project and give it what it needs and what works well for it (and take away what doesn't). You will know what it is, because you have that bar in your mind set by those works you love just as I do.

Thanks for reading. You can reach me in the comments and on Twitter! Also, please consider checking out A Near Dawn on Kickstarter.

A Near Dawn - The Far-off Daydream

My name is Leon (@LeonDaydreamer), I am the creator of A Near Dawn - a dark, humorous character-driven psychological adventure game about a charming and intelligent Seattle attorney struggling to do the right thing while also fighting his sinister internal demons.

When it came time to it, I named my studio Far-off Daydream Games, because I feel that is what I've been doing my whole life - chasing my dreams. I was inspired by a beautiful Japanese anime just before entering high school (Vision of Escaflowne), it was like nothing else I'd seen up to that point. I dropped everything and decided I would work on becoming an artist. The dream was to become a great animator! I got into Fine Arts, but I didn't get into animation school multiple times. It wasn't all what I had hoped or expected. It was hard, and I put a lot of pressure on myself, and I felt like a failure for not getting into animation school. When I graduated, I refused to seriously look for any other kind work. I have a dream, I'm following it. I sent applications into every studio I could find in the city, eventually someone gave me shot. I did Scene Setup (a department that mostly doesn't exist anymore in TV animation). I learned a lot about the process and conventions - composition, silhouette, stretch/squash, overshoot, settle. I was close to my dream. By my next production I learned enough to be an animator, my work at the time may not inspire many people, but I was finally doing it. On the following project I was doing broadcast quality animation, that was the dream wasn't it? My art would be on television. I worked through several productions and was praised, even promoted on one of them.

But there was something missing. This was not the dream. I realized I didn't want to be a great animator, I wanted to be a great storyteller. And the stories I was helping to tell were not my own, they never would be. Finally, on one project I was very disappointed with the quality of their writing. It was disillusioning, and I began to look beyond this. I started writing more. My dream was to tell my own stories, create my own characters. A Near Dawn represents that Far-off Daydream I have been chasing my whole life.

I take full responsibility for A Near Dawn. I do the Writing, Direction, Character Art, Animation, Lead Design, Programming and even Voice Direction on this project, as well as illustrating the backgrounds in the opening sequence. It is the project that I secretly wanted to make since I was a kid and the project I never could if I didn't have all of the skills that I picked up on the way here. I've only ever dreamed of doing long-form fiction writing before, telling my own stories, and it was liberating and beautiful to be able to express situations, characters' thoughts and reactions just as I intended. I never designed a full cast of characters before, and I gained a great respect for the intelligence that goes into good character design. I never illustrated an entire skyline down to the smallest deliberate detail, and having done so I gained an appreciation for architecture and structural design. I never led an artist, composer and a team of voice actors to execute my story just as I envisioned, and then there we were - all working together to bring my project to life.

This project has been one profound lesson after another, and I have learned so much already making it. I don’t want to stop learning and growing the way I have been, that is my dream now.

*Our project A Near Dawn is Live on KickStarter. Anything you can do to help share or support our campaign would be greatly appreciated!

Dark Adventure A Near Dawn is on KICKSTARTER!

We just launched the KickStarter Campaign for our dark humorous psychological thriller adventure game A Near Dawn! This is the first crowdfunding campaign we ever took part in, and it has been both a blast as well as an amazing learning experience! Please have a look at it, we have some really nice rewards in a wide assortment of tiers.

And, of course, you can download and play the Full Prologue to our game on Steam, Itch.io, and Google Play - on Windows, Mac, Linux, or Android!

The Pouch Master is a parody that appears in our game. We may have gone a little overboard...

Dark Fun Adventure Game A NEAR DAWN (Prologue) is out on Android and Steam!

The Prologue to our dark humorous psychological thriller A Near Dawn is has been released on Steam and Google Play (that's right, there is now an Android version)! You can download A Near Dawn: Prologue on Windows, Mac, Linux, or Android on these websites, or all of them on Itch.io!

If you haven't checked it out yet, perhaps you should - one particularly clever reviewer said that it was "A funny, charming and creepy adventure with a great sense of style" in his review.

We are so proud of how this project has come together, and there is still so much we would like to do with it. That is why we are going to be launching a KickStarter campaign on October 24th to help get support to produce the full game. You can take a peek at our campaign proposal, we are still working on it a bit, but it mostly feels right.

As we mentioned earlier, A Near Dawn is inspired by traditional Point & Click Adventure games such as the Broken Sword, Blackwell, and Ace Attorney series, as well as darker stories like Steins;Gate and even Twin Peaks. It proudly inherits some of their charm, wit and humor.

The Prologue introduces some of our key characters and certain things you can expect from this story. If you give A Near Dawn a try, do reach out to us (Twitter | Instagram) and let us know what you think. And we would love to hear your feedback about our upcoming campaign!