- Patch 2026/09/19 - 18 September 2026
Hey, little patch: - For 3 seconds after they spawn, Putrids won't spawn poison pools idly anymore (they still spawn them if you hit them) - Increased idle time on Zombie Mages by .25s after they blink attack Survival Mode: - Now much easier in the earlier stages (for approx. 30 seconds, then ramps up) - Added a way to recover the Best Chain Multiplier after breaking it (as a pickable item that can drop from enemies after Chaining at least 1/4th of it) THANKS FOR PLAYING!
- DAWN ONE IS OUT NOW! - 11 September 2026
“Hack away at the unessential.” (Bruce Lee)DAWN ONE is a top-down hack and slash pure action gauntlet controlled with the mouse. It’s unique, minimalist cut-to-the-core, centered around overcoming and mastering difficulty. It will not feel familiar, and doesn’t play like any other game. I hope you will stick and connect with it. MASTER THE CHALLENGE100% mouse-driven, 2 buttons. Move, attack and jump at a precision, accessibility and speed only a mouse can provide. Difficulty ramps up and a couple of mistakes can send you back to the start, like in old arcade games. No fluff, no filler, 100% gameplay. Nothing to wait for, no meters to fill, no cooldowns. Some numbers do go up though!A SOLO PROJECT MADE WITH ❤️No asset flipping, no GenAI. Solo developed from start to finish, everything in DAWN ONE, models, textures, effects, animation, gameplay timings and systems — everything — has been…
- Patch 20260911 - 11 September 2026
Hi! RECENT CHANGES - Adjusted enemies spawns balance during the battle before the last boss fight to be a little easier (armored enemies are slightly less likely to spawn) - Added a live stats UI element (top left corner) that tracks scoring breakdown in real-time (optional with the "Live Stats" toggle button) - Added an "Infinite" Survival Mode with its own leaderboard that consists in surviving a single night for as long as possible with gradually increasing challenge and competing for high scores. - Capped Chain Multiplier (I'm not going to call it "Combo":)) from 99 to 999 (for the really hardcore :)) - (Scoring) Increased time bonus gradually from Night 5 to end game (up to 999.9) - Increased throwing daggers fire rate when poisoned (slightly). - Dawn’s ponytail turns blonde depending on her attack speed (full blonde = max speed reached). BUG FIXES / OPTIMISATION - Fix for the Chai…
- my first patch - 2026/08/28 - 28 August 2026
Hey, little tweaks - Mouse cursor now slightly bigger at 1080p + added a scale option - Dizzy effect depletes slightly faster when poisoned THANKS FOR PLAYING!
- Update log - 4 August 2026
Hello super cool people --- Quick update on things that have gone in the demo recently: - Overhauled Training Mode with it's own menu and options. - Fixed a bug on Putrids attacks and frame data (sometimes their contacts didn't register...)- Putrids no longer spawn poison pools if they're the last enemy to be taken out (cosmetic, as you're invulnerable during last enemy sequence anyway).- Slightly increased the time it takes to get poisoned while standing in a poison pool. It is still extremely fast though (0.1s to 0.175s 0.12s)- Polished intro cut scene.- Overhauled collisions precision (hardly noticeable little extra cost on CPU for improved hit detection).- Throwing Knives visual effect more obvious, and added a wizzz sound effect when they're shot. - Some of the smaller UI text has been scaled up a little for readability, and so jiggled some ui elements around a bit.- More shaders a…
- House Keeping - 29 June 2026
Hello! The dust from Next Fest has settled and afaic this thing should be on 365 days a year because many played the demo and wishlisted DAWN ONE, which is amazing! Some people sent feedback and I'm eternally grateful for that. So here's what changed recently: - Added a user interface readability option (new "UI Contrast" button in the main and pause menu) for people struggling with the everything red style. This should make text more comfortable to read and other UI elements clearer. With this option on, UI is white at night and black during the day.- Radically reduced the mouse cursor deadzone, so basic movement is a lot sharper and precise (which I love!! Amazing feedback thank you so much @shuandang on twitter)I am mostly concentrating on the full game so that's pretty much it for the demo, besides GPU optimization on post-process nobody asked for, but I did it anyway.Another takeaw…
- update log - 28 May 2026
Hello! Tightening things up before Next Fest: \- Bombs no longer detonate if you jump over them- Added a second type of bomb that's a falling missile triggering a fire wave- fixed a bug that caused slow-mo to not trigger on death and other certain conditions- rebalanced second phase of giant skeleton boss fight (slightly harder now)\- Added alternative and remappable keyboard inputs for Attack and Jump (Defaults to Left Shift and Left Alt keys)- Radically reduced the amount of camera shakes\- improved some of the animations, notably jumps (permanent project...:) - more shaders added to pre-compilation- and tightened up shader pre-compilation progress bar (the ONLY meter in DAWN ONE :)- more particle systems visual bug fixes (another permanent project...)THANKS FOR PLAYING!
- what's new - 8 May 2026
Hello! I'm concentrating on the full game build atm, but here's some of the stuff that have been propagated to the demo build in recent weeks.\- Fixed an input bug that hopefully will encourage more deliberate play from new players instead of button mash (although i doubt it...)- Fixed a few particle systems visual bugs.- Added more shaders for pre-compilation. \- More varied jump animations.- Added a start screen "Hot mode" toggle button for an optional less revealing outfit (when not armored).\- Slow-mo reduced while jumping.- Giant skeleton boss less likely to dodge attacks.- Reduced charging time of throwing daggers.- Cancel window when knocked back from an air dash is now more generous.- Puking when stepping into poison pools no longer resets chain multiplier.- Added stop frames when hit by enemies to make weapons contact more obvious.THANKS FOR PLAYING!
- Quick demo patch - 21 April 2026
Just a little patch on the Demo build::Zombie Mages (the hooded ones) now also have a melee attack.Throwing Knives buff/nerf: Jumping no longer resets throwing knives charge but charging time is now a bit longer. Dizzy VFX (after blocking) and dirtiness VFX (when you've been tackled by a female zombie) are now a little more obvious.Rebalanced enemies spawns on first and second night to be a little fairer to new players.Rebalanced attack speeds, and...Attack speed upgrades (from fishing) should now feel a little more obvious.Minor bug fixes and hardly noticeable little tweaks.Thanks for playing!
- DEMO AVAILABLE NOW! - 29 March 2026
Cut straight to the core with 100% mouse-driven arcade hack 'n' slash!The arcade tag is thrown around easily on Steam, but DAWN ONE is pure arcade: Nothing gets in your way! No cooldowns, no grind, no skill trees, no meta progression unlocks. Every run is equal.Ultra accessible, ultra hardcore - you are overpowered, and so are your enemies. Old school arcade style. Master the flow, climb the leaderboard and become legend! Try the demo now - and tell all your friends cause I've got exactly zero marketing budget 🙃
- PLAYTEST OUT, DEMO IN - 13 February 2026
This announcement is a few days late, as I've been ill... Human here - not AI bot 😝I have removed the store page's Playtest signups but since there was an influx of players from my last tweet on X I left the playtest build available for people who have already signed up. I will totally remove it in a week or so. Good bye playtest build... I will miss you, but the "official" demo is coming soon! I am aiming to release it next month, shortly after Next Fest since I missed the sign up window for this one. I might release it on the 5th of March, or the 11th, or the 19th, depending on how fast i recover from this illness and how fast Valve approves the build.Thank you so much for trying the playtest build! It's been awesome (not) to see people beat my personal best on the leaderboard. Take care of yourselves and all the best!
- PLAYTEST DEMO AVAILABLE! - 21 August 2025
DAWN ONE is now available in Open Playtest! Access granted immediately! Short, intense sessions perfect for busy gamers, ultra accessible yet ultra hardcore challenging hack and slash arcade-style mouse controlled gameplay. Take it for a spin and feel free to post some feedback in the discussion tab. Thank you! Take care and see you around!
- Dawn Diary, July 2025 - 23 July 2025
THE MATHS GENIUS FORMULA: TOTAL SCORE = (FIGHT SCORE + TIME BONUS) * BEST CHAINFIGHT SCORE: Each time you take out an enemy, it adds up. Tougher enemies yield higher fight scores. TIME BONUS: Time freezes unless enemies are taken out so retreating during combat yields a lower time bonus. BEST CHAIN: Chaining doesn't work like in other games. It is not time based, but action based. Performing an action that doesn't lead to contact or a near miss with an enemy will put the current Chain on hold (say, if you completely miss, if you dash away, or if you jump). Then if the next action doesn't contact either, the chain is broken. Obviously taking any damage also breaks the Chain. In DAWN ONE, each night is an enemy wave and surviving until dawn will get you a score. Each night has a score pool that increases the closer you get to DAWN ONE, so the highest possible scores can be attained during…
- Dawn Diary, early september 2024 - 1 September 2024
With the Twitter ban in Brazil, I'm loosing 16% of my followers so from now on I’m going to post more on Steam. Hopefully Steam won't be banned in Brazil. Tough summer. Love the sunshine and everything, but development on Dawn One has been tricky. I had 2 games industry professionals test an early build back in June (one works in marketing, the other is lead QA), and it was a bit of a reality check: The QA guy liked combat and art, so that’s good. He thought the combat was too simple, though. It is by design, but ok. I decided to take it on board and make combat more tactical. The marketing guy didn’t like the gameplay at all. He didn’t say that but I can read between the lines 🙂 He thought the main character Dawn was awesome though. From his perspective as a marketing professional, she is the strongest element of the game (I’ll take it). Both of them were not sure what to do between n…
