Visual Novels Meet Point-and-Click in A Near Dawn

A New Dawn | Header — Will you stay on the path that leads to dawn? Or will you fall into the madness of darkness?

What happens when a Western developer decided to blend the visual novel format with point-and-click adventure games of old? Add to this inspirations from Ace Attorney, Steins;Gate, Twin Peaks, and some good-old psychological drama and you get A Near Dawn from Far-off Daydream Games.

A Near Dawn is the second game from Far-off Daydream Games and looks to be an ambitious project. In short, Far-off Daydream Games is attempting to do quite a few things here. One is, as I mentioned, blending the presentation of the visual novel format while integrating point-and-click mechanics. Which does sound similar to how the Ace Attorney series handles its exploration. The other big thing the developers are pushing is the fact the protagonist, Sam Nichols, seems to suffer from some sort of psychological trauma.

While it’s not evident exactly as to what Sam suffers from, being an attorney he’s probably seen his fair share of troubling things. And it seems there is an inner darkness lying in wait for the perfect opportunity to make itself known. From what the developers have stated on the game’s Kickstarter page, the choices you make will have a lasting consequence on things down the line. What this is, exactly, isn’t known at this time, but it could be interesting to see what routes and allies you lose or gain based on your actions.

A Near Dawn | Sam Nichols — Just a house of mirrors, or an accurate representation of Sam’s psyche?

One final thing of note is that Far-off Daydream Games is trying to raise enough money through Kickstarter to get the game fully voiced. This is actually their second goal at $12,500 CAD. The first being funding the game at $8,500 CAD (That’s Canadian Dollars for those unfamiliar with the abbreviation).

If this sounds interesting to you then check out the A Near Dawn’s Kickstarter page for more details and be sure to download the prologue from the following places:

Also be sure to check out some information from their press site and trailer below.

Description

A Near Dawn is a charmingly devastating psychological thriller with amusing highs, gut-wrenching crashes, and mature themes. When Seattle-based attorney, Sam Nichols – a victim to some disturbing psychological difficulties – takes on an important new case, he finds himself exposed to progressively dire circumstances that threaten to unravel his reality and destroy those closest to him. With his mentor’s firm on the brink of collapse, Sam will have to take on a ruthless multinational corporation being protected by some of the vilest people imaginable. The odds already seem slim, but you will soon learn that things were never as they appeared – as an even deeper conspiracy begins to emerge. Where will you find yourself if you keep untangling the threads to this mystery? You must be brave to uncover the truth! Our Prologue introduces some of the key characters, the setting, and hints at the challenges ahead, but stopping short of telling you exactly what to expect. The case seems typical. It isn’t. One of the concepts for this title was to start from present day, reality as we know it, and progress down a deep well of mysteries.

History

A Near Dawn is a character-driven psychological thriller point and click visual novel adventure with one part darkness and two parts humor. We have always loved traditional adventure games with their immersive, colorful and often emotional journeys, so it should be no surprise that our project is greatly inspired by the Broken Sword, Blackwell, and Ace Attorney series, as well as darker titles such as Steins;Gate and even Twin Peaks. We feel very passionately about the story and characters of A Near Dawn. This is a very ambitious project that has been in development on and off for three years at our small independent studio. There is so much that we want to do with it, but a lot of that may unfortunately come down to the support we can receive with our upcoming KickStarter campaign.

Features

Beautiful artwork and animations rendered in 1080HD
Immersive cinematics with frame-by-frame art
Original soundtrack composed for the game
Fully voiced audio provided by exceptionally talented actors
Point and Click interface with puzzles to solve – the flow of this game is inspired by traditional adventure games
Dynamic decisions that alter the course of your interactions with others – be they rewards or consequences for your actions
Psychological tension – the main character has a darker personality who will come to the surface if you feed that darkness with the decisions you make
Multiple endings – there is one true ending, but your successes or failures can take you off course, leading you to a different resolution
Episodic narrative – this is a full game, but it is part of an ambitious project with a far-reaching storyline
Remarkable cast
Delightful humor