Psychological Horror, Without a Dawn, Out Now
Solo Finnish developer Jesse Makkonen (DISTRAINT, Afterdream) has released his latest horror title, Without a Dawn. It’s a visual novel with a distinctive pseudo-ASCII pixel art style, and it’s out now on PC.
Without a Dawn follows a woman as she heads to a remote cabin to have time for peace and quiet. However, she soon starts to have disconcerting dreams involving a man in a gas mask, and reality and nightmare begin to bleed into each other.
“There are no distractions in the profound silence and isolation, but the eerie sound of the cold wind weaving through the trees keeps her awake,” Makkonen said on the game’s official site. “In the dark stillness of the night, the silence has begun to take on physical form.”
A Distinctive Style
Without a Dawn is billed as a dark, psychological horror visual novel. There are a few other titles out there like this, such as Slay The Princess and The Letter, but the form tends to favor anime-style narrative and art.
In an interview with Eneba, Makkonen spoke about experimenting with the look of the game to get something unexpected: “The art style of Without a Dawn came from experimenting. You can turn off the texturing in the game to reveal pixel art. I can’t remember exactly how I ended up doing the number texture, but I remember I was playing around with shaders and ended up doing a rough demo, and it instantly clicked: that would be the default art style of my game.”
“I like experimenting with the art style,” he added. “Most of the time, nothing comes of it, but sometimes, I find something cool to use.”
The Voice Inside Your Head
Without a Dawn regularly presents players with multiple choices, and they’re usually framed as the player character’s subconscious weighing up options. While it’s possible to try and divert the story in certain directions, the black hole pull of the character’s conscience may prove impossible to escape.
Players have already expressed appreciation for what Without a Dawn is attempting to do in the visual novel horror genre.
“This is one of the creepiest games I have ever played. The narrative, art, and sounds work together perfectly. It’s pretty short, but well worth checking out.”
“Without A Dawn certainly is more art than a game. It will not be for everyone, given the dark nature of its content. However, the intricate pixel art should impress anyone who has a pulse.”
