Greetings Inmates!
I hope you are all doing well. 2023 was a landmark year for us, as we finally launched Back to the Dawn after three years of development. We are absolutely humbled by the enthusiasm you’ve all shown. Watching you delve into the prison world we’ve created, forming alliances and rivalries with different inmates and sharing survival tips reminds us of the joy we felt during development and the immersive experience we aimed to create with the game. Your feedback has been the beacon of hope in our development journey - from the encouraging words, insightful critiques, to the thrilling tales of your in-game escapades.
Many of you have been curious about the backstory of the gameplay choices and artistic direction, and we’d like to take this time to share more about how Back to the Dawn came about to be what you see today.
From the start, our dream was to create a game that offered a high degree of freedom and focused on storytelling within a diorama-like environment. Inspired by an appreciation for hard-boiled cinema and television, particularly narratives centered around prison escapes like "The Shawshank Redemption" and "Prison Break”, it led us to center the game around deep narrative storytelling within this theme.
This direction led us to embrace pixelated anthropomorphic animals for its distinct aesthetic, as we believe that it would make each character more distinctive and memorable through their own unique traits and personalities.
Looking at gameplay mechanics, there were many ideas that were floating around, but eventually we opted for a dice-based mechanic, inspired by the innovative gameplay in “Disco Elysium”. We felt that the simplicity of a dice system introduced an element of chance that complements the game's scalability and storytelling, laying the foundational structure for Back to the Dawn.
Many of you have pondered why we opted for an Early Access release when Thomas the Fox's story is fully fleshed out. Being a small studio comprising 7 of us, we initially planned to include 2 characters to choose from: Thomas the Fox and Bob the Black Panther. However, the full storyline development of Thomas took more time than expected, as we focused on creating detailed character backstories and dialogues that matched their personalities, and ensuring players would experience different reactions based on the characters' preferences.
This attention to detail was crucial for us in creating a rich, immersive experience for everyone. That was why we made the decision to launch in Early Access first. This way, you get to experience Thomas's full storyline now, with a promise to introduce Bob's storyline as a free update during our official release, ensuring both characters' tales are told with the care and attention they deserve.
We hope you've enjoyed learning more about the creative process behind Back to the Dawn. If you have additional feedback or suggestions, please don’t hesitate to share them with us either through the Steam Community discussions or our Discord! Your support is what fuels our dedication, and this journey is as much yours as it is ours.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1735700/Back_to_the_Dawn/
If you enjoy the game, we would really appreciate it if you could leave us a review on Steam. Your positive feedback is a tremendous encouragement and motivates us to continually improve. Spreading the word by sharing it on your socials or recommending it to a friend who might enjoy it would mean a lot to us as well :) Thank you for your support and love!
If you haven't already, be sure to follow our Steam and Twitter pages for upcoming updates. From the bottom of our hearts, thank you for embarking on this epic adventure with us, and we are looking forward to more exciting chapters ahead!
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