// Game Programmer
DAWN UNTO DUSK
ABOUT
Company
Primary Role(s)
Game Engine
Project Status
Project Type
Languages
Independent
Developer
Unity
Released
Personal
C#
Fight hunger, explore the jungle, and solve puzzles in this new text adventure!
Dawn Unto Dusk is a text adventure game that throws you out in the middle of nowhere. You will need to gather resources, such as food and tools, that you will need to survive. If your hunger meter runs out, you will die.
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Stumble upon vast, hidden temples that hold both riddles and puzzles.
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Discover the lore and mysterious of the land.
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Engage in dynamic game play where mechanisms you activate in one part of the island affect some place else.
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Go cut some vines!
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This was my first real foray into game development and especially game programming. I made games before then, sure, but nothing I could either proudly present to people or finish. After diving deep into programming at college, I found a new inspiration to develop games, and this was the first result. I am the sole developer for this project.
Click the buttons below to learn more about how I implemented the core features of "Dawn Unto Dusk"!
During development, I wanted a nice and easy format to create stages. A stage consists of exits, nodes (things the player can closer inspect), and items. I decided to make objects of each stage so I can easily drag and drop the objects I wanted into the stage.
The player can easily transition from stage to stage using keywords. This is covered in the next section.
Like most interactive fiction games, a keyword system is used for user input and interaction. The player themselves can perform a number of actions in context of what's available in the stage. For example, they can:
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go = "go <place>", "move <place>"
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check = "check <object>", "examine <object>", "look <object>"
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take = "take <item>"
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use = "use <item> on <object>"
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eat = "eat <item>"
The below image shows the process for the "go" command:
For the display, I used an animated typewriter effect (which the user can skip if they choose to). Below is the implementation of that:
One key aspect that separates "Dawn Unto Dusk" from other interactive fiction games is the hunger / food system. In essence, the player must collect and eat food before their hunger meter expires. This prompts players to explore every nook in the environment and strategize when to eat or when to hold onto food. The implementation was simple. I used an "item" object that can be used as food (among other things):
To display the food meter, I used this implementation:
