‘The Game Doesn’t End When You Run Out of Time’ – How The Blood of Dawnwalker’s 30 Day Countdown Works

“The crippled doesn't extremity erstwhile you tally retired of time,” says Mateusz Tomaszkiewicz, originative manager of The Blood of Dawnwalker.

Time is, without a doubt, the astir arguable taxable erstwhile it comes to developer Rebel Wolves’ debut RPG. And, unless you’ve paid precise adjacent attraction to what the creators person antecedently said, your thought of however clip successful The Blood of Dawnwalker works whitethorn perchance beryllium acold from the truth. There is nary ticking timer. You bash not person to implicit the crippled successful a definite fig of hours. The travel does not extremity astatine immoderate pre-determined minute. Instead, that much-discussed “30 days and 30 nights to prevention your family” applies to conscionable that – redeeming your family. If you don’t scope them successful time, beingness goes on. The crippled continues and the communicative changes.

“I truly anticipation immoderate radical volition play it and fto clip tally out,” Mateusz continues. “I deliberation it's precise interesting, you get immoderate contented that you don't get different if you play this way.”

It’s understandable wherefore Dawnwalker’s clip strategy has caused truthful overmuch confusion. While determination are respective games with akin approaches – Persona’s calendar, oregon Fire Emblem: Three Houses’ schoolhouse twelvemonth – there’s thing that works rather similar Rebel Wolves’ game. Following the prologue, the main quest puts Coen connected the timepiece to prevention his household from the evil vampire Brencis.

But that doesn’t mean clip is perpetually moving out. Each of the 30 days and nights is represented by a barroom divided into 8 segments, and completing quest objectives volition devour 1 of those pieces, pushing the satellite guardant from time to evening, to night, to morning, and repeat. Only actions marked with an hourglass icon advancement the day, and betwixt those actions you tin freely research the satellite for arsenic agelong arsenic you delight without the timepiece ticking by adjacent a second. In short: deliberation of clip arsenic a “currency” utilized to wage for unlocking quests, and you commencement the crippled with 480 “time dollars”. That’s a batch of clip to spend.

Since the clip unit lone applies to Coen’s quest to prevention his family, you tin determine however agelong you privation to endure it. If you’re brave, you tin marque a beeline for Brencis’ castle and rescue them close away, completing Dawnwalker’s main quest successful conscionable a mates of days. But assaulting a heavily-defended vampire castle is much than a small difficult, and you’ll apt request to walk clip gaining allies and dismantling Brencis’ powerfulness structures earlier making your last attack. That does mean clip becomes a important stressor, and you’ll privation to cautiously take which of the world’s quests are worthy taking on.

“You person to deliberation astir however you privation to play astir with this resource,” says communicative manager Jakub Szamalek. “Another mode of responding to it is that you whitethorn get to spot each of the contented if you don't attraction astir the destiny of Coen’s family. You're precise escaped to cheque each nook and cranny if you're good with them ending successful a bloodbath. It's different prime for you arsenic a subordinate to prosecute with.”

Think of clip arsenic a “currency” utilized to wage for unlocking quests, and you commencement the crippled with 480 “time dollars”.“

Rebel Wolves is keen to framework the clip strategy arsenic thing that facilitates prime and consequence, alternatively than thing that exerts unwarranted pressure. For instance, if you bash determine to disregard the 30-day countdown and fto Coen’s household die, that doesn’t mean you’ll get the “bad ending”. Instead, Mateusz compares it to playing a Dark Urge/evil run successful Baldur’s Gate 3. “[Developer Larian Studios] don't effort to framework it similar you're the bully feline present and this [evil path] was right,” helium says. “It's not morally right, but it's a viable mode to play the game. It's not the neglect state. And this is precisely our attack arsenic well.”

Regardless of however you play, the mode the clip strategy shapes your acquisition is thing Rebel Wolves’ unit feels precise passionately about. “Some radical mightiness beryllium worried, ‘Oh, my contented got chopped off. That's really a atrocious thing,’” says Mateusz. “Well, yes and no. Yes, due to the fact that you mightiness miss retired connected immoderate content. But connected the different hand, you get a vastly antithetic acquisition than your friends and you get to comparison these experiences. It feels similar your ain happening that you shaped and not conscionable the linear acquisition you consumed, past you moved on.”

But portion the clip strategy defines overmuch of a player’s journey, it’s not the implicit story. For galore players, The Witcher 3 did not extremity erstwhile Geralt and Ciri’s travel was implicit – determination were dozens much hours of quests to complete. Not a post-game, arsenic such, but the many, galore broadside quests that you didn’t get astir to during the “main” playthrough. The aforesaid applies to The Blood of Dawnwalker. You tin proceed to play agelong aft those 30 days and nights are over, mopping up quests and uncovering the world’s secrets.

“It's truly important to recognize that the clip [system] is connected with the story, it doesn’t extremity the game,” explains crippled manager Konrad Tomaszkiewicz. “Most of the activities we person are not truly connected with the lawsuit which happens aft 30 days, and they inactive [make] consciousness aft the 30 days.”

For those who are truly acrophobic astir the clip system... well, The Blood of Dawnwalker is a phantasy game. Time manipulation isn't retired of the question. We'll research much astir that successful a aboriginal IGN First article.

A Sandbox of Stories

The clip strategy works hand-in-hand with what Rebel Wolves calls its “Narrative Sandbox”, a seemingly caller attack to operation that’s really incredibly aged school.

“We truly emotion these aged RPGs, similar Fallout 1 and 2, that did this benignant of structure,” explains Mateusz, “where the bulk of the crippled content, adjacent the important crippled lines, you could chopped disconnected by conscionable doing a rampage successful the metropolis oregon picking circumstantial choices that fundamentally chopped disconnected an arc oregon changed it significantly. It's thing that felt precise right.”

In The Blood of Dawnwalker, determination is nary linear series of main quests. Instead, the ngo to prevention Coen’s household is the lone “main” quest, and everything other is optional. That’s not to accidental those different quests are inessential – they could supply you with allies and weapons to usage successful the combat against Brencis, oregon termination disconnected 1 of his lieutenants successful bid to weaken him. They’re arsenic important arsenic immoderate different game’s missions. But by breaking the thought of a “chain” of objectives, wherever 1 quest leads to the other, Rebel Wolves has been capable to make a precise antithetic benignant of RPG campaign.

“It's truly hard [in traditionally structured RPGs] to termination NPCs oregon region quests due to the fact that they are truthful connected that it would interruption the full story,” explains Konrad. “This doctrine of the Narrative Sandbox is antithetic due to the fact that you person lone 1 quest which ends the crippled and you tin execute this extremity successful galore ways. When you are creating different stories, they are satellites astir [the main quest] and they are not connected successful the concatenation way, which means that if an NPC dies oregon adjacent a quest disappears, it volition not interruption the full story. It volition conscionable adjacent 1 branch. This mode you consciousness much similar successful the pen-and-paper RPGs due to the fact that it's your choice, the crippled reacts to it and it adjusts.”

Because you person truthful overmuch state to forge your ain way done the campaign, Dawnwalker’s finale has been a immense logistical situation for the plan team. The onslaught connected Brencis’ castle has to relationship for dozens of permutations, changing the events based connected which allies you recruit, however galore members of the vampire tribunal you killed oregon bargained with, and galore different factors.

“They are vastly antithetic quests,” Mateusz says of the variations. “There are a batch of differences successful however it plays retired successful the castle itself and extracurricular of the castle – you tin unlock definite endings without hitting the castle. So I would accidental they're vastly antithetic experiences.

If an NPC dies oregon adjacent a quest disappears, it volition not interruption the full story. It volition conscionable adjacent 1 branch.“

“And, of course, determination are besides combinations,” helium continues. “It's not binary, right? It's not conscionable either you killed each the vampires oregon dealt with them successful immoderate way, oregon not. You possibly dealt with 1 of them and near the remainder of them and truthful on.”

There are a batch of choices that the finale needs to accommodate to, then, but the consequences of your actions volition (hopefully) widen acold beyond that castle assault. As revealed astatine this year’s Summer Game Fest, The Dawnwalker Saga is planned to span aggregate eras, pursuing Coen arsenic his unnaturally agelong beingness takes him into the 21st century. That modern-day-set sequel is aggregate games distant and, naturally, volition lone hap if this archetypal section and immoderate follow-ups are successful. But adjacent though the aboriginal is uncertain, Rebel Wolves is inactive readying a saga that volition transportation your choices done from crippled to game, Mass Effect-style. That means the squad has to see however each that works now, adjacent if their plans ne'er travel to fruition.

“When you plan the sequel, you person to deliberation of which of the choices you tin instrumentality into consideration, however plausible it is,” says Mateusz. “When I deliberation astir canon, determination are definite things that person to beryllium existent for the crippled to marque consciousness and the saga marque sense. You person to beryllium turned into a dawnwalker due to the fact that different the games wouldn't marque sense. So determination are definite truths that person to enactment existent throughout, but we effort to bounds those to the bare minimum and the remainder is up to you.”

Quite however aboriginal games volition woody with this remains to beryllium seen. When truthful overmuch of the communicative is shaped by the player, it’s presumably incredibly hard to bespeak your choices two, three, possibly adjacent 4 games down the line. Maybe that’s wherever the eras thought comes into play – if determination are important clip gaps betwixt games, Coen becomes the lone constant, his quality friends having aged and died betwixt games. A caller formed with each installment creates unsocial opportunities and limits the crippled points that request to cascade crossed the series.

But that’s each for the future. Right now, present successful 2026, each we request to interest ourselves with is the complexities of The Blood of Dawnwalker’s communicative sandbox, and however the clip strategy impacts the mode we navigate it. It’s been a agelong clip since a video crippled RPG had the courageousness and condemnation to operation itself similar this, but successful a post-Baldur’s Gate 3 satellite wherever old-school roleplaying sensibilities are successful vogue, Rebel Wolves couldn’t beryllium trying it astatine a amended moment.

Matt Purslow is IGN's Executive Editor of Features.