Game · 2026 · v0.1

Before Dawn
A pixel-art, turn-based roguelike

Tianle Wang
Play in browser Controls

Lead four heroes through three regions and defeat the Dayless before dawn.
Every skill costs beats on a shared timeline, so time itself is part of the strategy.

Title screen of Before Dawn: a wolf howls at a full moon above a dark forest.
Playable in English and Chinese, right in a desktop browser.

The idea

I have always loved Slay the Spire and Darkest Dungeon. Slay the Spire keeps reshaping your build over a run; Darkest Dungeon is about a party of heroes working together on a long, dangerous expedition. Before Dawn is my attempt to combine the two: a party whose skills keep evolving, on a journey full of random events and hard fights.

It is meant to be difficult. When a run fails, I want you to see exactly which choice cost you, and want to try again.

Time is part of the strategy

Beats instead of turns. Every skill costs a number of beats, and heroes and enemies move along the same timeline. While an enemy winds up a slow, heavy attack, a nimble hero can slip in several quick moves. Haste and delay effects push units along the timeline, so a weak but fast skill can matter more than a strong one.

Read the intent, break the poise. Enemies show what they will do next and whom they will hit. Wear down their poise to Break them: a Broken enemy loses a beat, its armor shatters, and the next hit lands for extra damage.

A party that keeps changing. Pick four of seven heroes. Along the way they learn new skills and awaken random upgrades, collect relics and potions, and face events, shops and campfires across three regions: Rotroot Forest, Thornwood Abbey and the Dayless Sanctum.

A battle against the Dayless, a mass of red flesh covered in eyes, and its two eyes. Each enemy shows its next move above its head.
The final fight: every enemy shows its next move, and the turn order runs along the top.
The map of Rotroot Forest: a winding path of battles, events, campfires and shops leading to a boss.
Each region is a branching path of battles, events, shops and campfires, ending in a boss.

Behind the game

I made Before Dawn in about five days, starting on October 7, 2026. I was responsible for the design, mechanics, testing and tuning; Claude wrote much of the code, and ChatGPT helped with the character art. A few things I learned along the way:

  • Balancing is far harder than it looks. Skills that seem weak alone can become overpowered in combination, and once heroes, relics, enemies and random upgrades interact, tuning the whole game becomes a very hard problem.
  • A language model can be a great programmer, but not necessarily a great player. It knows what every skill does, yet still makes moves no human would, which makes automated playtesting harder than expected.
  • AI does not remove the cost of development; it changes what the cost is made of. Writing code is no longer the bottleneck, but design, testing, balancing and polish still take a great deal of time.

The full essay is waiting inside the game, on the About page. It unlocks after your first clear.

Controls

Mouse
Choose skills and targets; hover anything for details
1–7
Pick a skill
Right click
Cancel
F1
Rules
F11
Full screen
M
Music on or off

Switch between English and Chinese on the title screen. The browser version needs a desktop browser with a mouse and keyboard; phones are not supported.

Play in browser