The Dawn: Resurrection
A base-building survival game in pre-design. A father holds a safe house with his family by day and scavenges by night, while four factions each offer him a way out.
- Role
- Writer & Game Designer
- Studio
- Personal project
- Format
- Base-building survival horror
- Status
- Pre-design. No build yet, the plan lives on a Miro board.
- Tools
- Miro
Highlights
- Laid the story out as a fixed run of 20 nights across six locations, then rebuilt it as six modules the player can take in any order.
- Decided what the first, second, third and last module must do, whichever module the player picks for that place.
- Wrote four factions that each offer Jack a different way to survive, and the reason he refuses each one.
- Drafted day dialogue for the safe house: the task, the rule about moonlight, the family, and a stranger at the gate.
On this page
- The project remains in pre-design.
- I planned the narrative structure and wrote dialogue to test it.
- Jack leaves the house to find supplies for his family.
- The factions offer different approaches to survival.
- The first design arranged twenty nights in a fixed order.
- I revised the locations into modules the player can approach in any order.
- I wrote daytime dialogue to test the narrative plan.
- The modules and ending conditions still need development.
The project remains in pre-design.
Jack Americana wakes up after a zombie outbreak and brings his family to Vallselt. They settle in a safe house and build it up. By day they are at home. By night Jack goes out to scavenge the places around them.
The Dawn is in pre-design. There is no playable build. The project material comes from one Miro board: the main character’s motivation, the factions, two versions of the game flow and the day dialogue written so far.
I am its writer and game designer. This page shows how I plan a story before there is a game to put it in.
Cover concept: AI-generated illustration. Typeface: Big Shoulders by Patric King.
I planned the narrative structure and wrote dialogue to test it.
- MotivationWhy Jack keeps leaving the house.
- FactionsFour groups and what each one wants from Jack.
- A fixed flowThe first plan, with every event on a set night.
- ModulesThe second plan, which the player can take in any order.
- DialogueDay scenes written to test the plan.
Jack leaves the house to find supplies for his family.
Jack Americana is trying to keep his wife Jane and his daughter Marry alive near Vallselt, a city wrecked by CYROTECH’s experiments and the outbreak that followed. I started with the reason he would ever leave a safe house.
| Need | What it sends him out for |
|---|---|
| The family’s basics | Food and medicine for Jane and Marry. |
| The truth | Documents and people that explain what CYROTECH did. |
In the current draft Jack had an indirect part in CYROTECH’s work. The clues he looks for may also show what he did, and he carries that guilt into every meeting.
The factions offer different approaches to survival.
Each faction has its own idea of how to survive, and each one asks Jack for something he refuses to give.
Jack, Jane and Marry
They live in one safe house, and Jack puts his family before everything else.
The Faithful
Blair Berkel
- Offers
- Blair says the outbreak is a punishment sent by God to test people, and that Jack should accept it.
- Why he resists
- Jack wants a scientific explanation, because he suspects part of the blame is his.
The Communists
Enver and Jameson Fleming
- Offers
- They believe people can only survive in communes, and they want Jack to bring his family into one.
- Why he resists
- They call it selfish to shut a family inside a safe house. Jack refuses to join because protecting his own family comes first.
The Corpos
Dr. Elias Gray, formerly of CYROTECH
- Offers
- Gray says the company’s science can end the outbreak and rebuild the world.
- Why he resists
- Jack knows the company is responsible for the outbreak, so he does not trust what it proposes.
The Imperialists
- Offers
- They believe the state and its hierarchy can be rebuilt.
- Why he resists
- Jack does not believe the old order can return after the collapse.
Two more encounters are planned. Fritz Kogler is a nomad who survived alone after losing his family. A group of orphans makes Jack ask how far his duty goes beyond his own child.
The first design arranged twenty nights in a fixed order.
The safe house is a farmhouse outside Vallselt. Jack scavenges six places in and around the city, and each place later became a module.
| On the map | Place | Module |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Logging camp | A |
| 2 | Administration building | E |
| 3 | Mall | C |
| 4 | Hospital | F |
| 5 | Shelter | B |
| 6 | Business centre | D |
My first plan was a straight line. Jack visits the six places over twenty nights, and every NPC and every problem at home has a fixed day or night.
- Day 3Blair Berkel arrives.
- Night 3Wild animals attack the safe house.
- Day 6Old Sourborne turns and Jane has to kill him. Jan Eckwielens arrives.
- Night 8Jack meets Enver.
- Day 10Looters come.
- Night 11Jameson Fleming runs from the dead and takes shelter with the family.
- Day 14A wall of the safe house collapses. Dr. Elias Gray arrives.
- Night 17Jack meets Fritz Kogler.
- Day 18Jane or Marry falls ill.
- Night 18Jack meets the orphans.
I revised the locations into modules the player can approach in any order.
Then I rebuilt the same material as modules. Each location became one module with the same shape: a day of conversations at home, a run of nights at one location, and a return home to a new arrival or a new problem.
a day in the safe house a night out
The player chooses which module to take first, so I cannot know which scene comes second. I solved this by planning each position. Whichever module is played first has to do the first module’s job.
| Played | Story job | Meeting the NPC | Trouble at home | Jack’s conflict |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| First | It sets up his motivation and his guilt. | He hears a faction’s answer for the first time. | The first problem appears, such as Sourborne getting worse or the house being attacked. | He questions the offer and turns it down to protect his family. |
| Second | It puts him in front of the opposite view. | A new NPC contradicts the one before. | A wall comes down, or someone in the family falls ill. | His survival instinct and his loyalty to the family start to pull apart. |
| Third | He begins to answer the ideologies by thinking about his own family. | He may meet earlier NPCs again. | A new problem makes him revisit earlier decisions. | He looks for a balance between protecting the house and the chaos outside. |
| Last | Everything he has been through shapes one final decision. | He has a last confrontation with someone he has met or someone new. | The final problem works as a test of that decision. | He chooses between staying alone with his family and joining a community. The ending depends on how the player has played. |
Three things stay the same in every module, so the order can change without the story coming apart:
- The NPCs’ ideologies. Each one makes Jack question how he thinks, and his answers stay centred on the family.
- Problems in the safe house. Each module brings one, and each one strengthens his tie to Jane and Marry.
- His development. Every encounter pushes him to make a harder decision.
This plan means every module has to be written separately.
I wrote daytime dialogue to test the narrative plan.
Each module opens with a day at home, and most of the dialogue is in those days. In Day 1 the house has a problem, an NPC knows where to find the parts, and Jack has to go out. Old Sourborne gives Jack the task in one conversation and the rule about moonlight in a second one.
The safe house · in front of the door
Jack, have you finished getting ready?
Almost.
I told you where to find the materials, but there’s one more thing, and you won’t like it. What matters is when you go.
What do you mean?
You have to travel at night. Don’t look at me like that, son. I know it’s madness, but sometimes madness is the only friend we have.
Don’t talk nonsense, Sourborne. You know how wild the dead get in the dark. You saw it with your own eyes.
Yes. The dead may wait in the camp by day, but at night they gather somewhere else, son. They follow the moonlight, as if something is pulling them. Maybe they’re following scraps of memory from the lives they had.
Memories? Old man, they’re brainless corpses.
Still, there’s a rhythm to how they move. Moonlight weakens them. Full moon, last quarter, first quarter, it makes no difference. While the moon is up, the dead see and hear poorly. We can use that. You can slip between them, gather the materials quietly and leave as if nothing happened.
And if it doesn’t work?
I’m wounded, son, or I’d fight. But that isn’t a choice we have. We need those materials. Without them you won’t have to leave this house to find the dead.
It’s a dangerous gamble, old man, and one I’m forced to play. All right, I’ll do as you say. But if things go wrong, promise me you’ll get my family out of here.
It won’t come to that. You’ll go and you’ll come back. However many times you have to, each time you’ll come back to your family, son.
The family scene happens on the same day. It gives the player no task and shows who Jack is protecting.
The safe house · a bedroom
Jane and their daughter Marry crouch in front of an overturned bed, looking around the room.
Useless, broken, smashed... There’s very little here we can use, Jack. Are you sure we can stay?
We have no other choice, Jane. There are high fences around us, solid walls and a tall roof. We can arrange the inside however we like. Besides, you always said you wanted to live in a house you designed yourself, didn’t you?
That’s not what I meant, but you’re right. Still, I keep thinking... How could everything have come to this?
Thinking about the past won’t get us anything, love. We have to look ahead. We have to think of Marry. We’re laying the foundation of something bigger than us, for the ones who can’t build it themselves. We have to build her a safe future.
You’re a hopeless idealist.
That’s why you said you loved me. And it’s what holds us together. Otherwise we’d be no different from the ones outside.
Marry, sweetheart, what do you think of our new home?
Are there monsters here, Mom?
No, sweetheart. It’s only us here. We’re safe.
Is Mr. Fluffy safe with us too?
Of course. As long as you keep your teddy bear close and hold him tight, he’ll be safe too. The way we protect you.
Then I like it here.
The first conversation: the task
The safe house · in front of the door
Old Sourborne sits in his wheelchair, tending his wounded leg. The conversation starts when the player clicks the talk icon.
Damned leg, it won’t stop bleeding. Ah, Jack. Hello, son.
How’s the leg, old man? Let me see.
I’m fine, there’s nothing to look at. I’m fine... I shouldn’t have jumped in among those zombies. But you know, hope makes us do stupid things.
Trying to save your grandchild wasn’t stupid, Sourborne. I’d have done the same.
I hope you never need to, son. How are Jane and Marry?
They’re looking the house over. It seems safe and solid, but we have a few problems.
Such as?
The water pump is broken. If we want to stay here, we have to fix it.
Hmm... This farmhouse sits just outside Vallselt. That means there has to be a logging camp close by. Yes, we might find the parts we need there.
You seem to know Vallselt, old man.
I lived on the edge of this city for twenty years before the invasion, son. I know it inside and out. You’ll find the materials you’re after at the logging camp.
The conversation ends. A new talk icon appears over Sourborne, and the player starts the second conversation.
Day E: a stranger at the gate
Fritz Kogler arrives at the safe house in module E. Jack has to decide at the gate whether to let him in.
The safe house · the gate
A figure stands on the other side of the gate. The conversation starts when the player clicks the speech bubble.
Wait, stop! Please don’t hurt me.
Who are you?
My name’s Fritz. Fritz Kogler. I l... lived in V... Vallselt, but... but I’m looking for somewhere to stay. Away from them.
There aren’t many places left where you can get away from the dead. Are you alone, Fritz?
Y... yes. There’s no one else, only, only me. Only I’m l... left.
Did you have family with you?
Them... they... We lived by running from the dead, but they found us. Every time, the dead found us. They took the people I loved, my family, my daughter Lena, one by one. All that’s left is... is me.
I’m sorry for them, Fritz. The days are darker than they have ever been. But I can’t just let you in. I don’t know whether you’re a danger to us.
I’ve been alone out there for so long. R... running, hiding. Nights are when I run the most. But I don’t think I can run any more. Please... I used to be an engineer. I can repair things for you, build things... I’ll be useful, please.
An engineer. We could use someone like you. Still, we’re fighting for something bigger than ourselves here, Fritz. Can you add to that?
I’ll do whatever it takes. The memories... their memories follow me. Maybe with you I can learn to live with th... them.
We all have memories. You’re not alone in that. And sometimes having a purpose helps. All right, Fritz. You can come in, but remember this: I’ll be watching you. You have to earn your place here.
Thank you, thank you so much.
There’s water and food inside. After that we’ll see what you can do here.
The modules and ending conditions still need development.
Each module still has to be written out in full, and the endings need their conditions. When those exist they go on this page.