The Blood of Dawnwalker
Preview
Hands-on preview and interview with writer Piotr Kulcharski
by William Thompson
previewed on PC
To get a deeper look into the narrative mechanics of this eerie, creepy storyline, we sat down with Piotr Kulcharski, one of the writers on the project, to discuss pacing, moral grey areas, and managing Coen’s split nature.
The 30-Day Ticking Clock
From the moment you step into Coen's boots, you are operating under a strict 30-day limit to save his family from the villainous Brencis. In many role-playing games, a narrative "urgent crisis" is completely undermined by the player's ability to spend months picking flowers or doing menial side tasks. Rebel Wolves wanted to shift that paradigm.
"The idea behind the 30 days and 30 nights was to add some narrative pressure on the story," Piotr explains. "It’s not a ticking clock in terms of rushing our players... it’s more like treating time as a resource. You have to save someone, but on the other hand, you can get entangled in side quests... So we decided that our players, of course, can choose their own path... but at the cost of time. It’s about choosing your priorities."
In practice, certain tasks and dialogue options will directly deduct time from your clock, forcing you to weigh whether helping a stranger is worth losing precious daylight. In games such as this, I do like to explore, and completing side quests aids in this. During our preview session, I did decide to take on a side quest for an elderly lady whose son’s grave had been tampered with and an item stolen. Small tasks like this can feel rewarding, but players must certainly decide whether they justify the time spent.
Balancing the Man and the Monster
Coen isn't just dealing with a family crisis; he is also wrestling with a vampire curse. When the sun sets, Coen's toolkit shifts as his vampiric side takes hold. If you don't feed your hunger, Coen can completely lose control and become a savage monster.
When writing these questlines, the narrative team had to ensure the game accommodated vastly different playstyles depending on whether Coen uses his human abilities or those of his vampire side. Piotr highlighted how a single objective could be handled completely differently:
"We have a room that is, for example, guarded by night. During the day, they can talk to someone, get an entrance by bribing someone... by night, they can simply shadow-walk, go on the roof, and try to enter from a different angle. We had to take into consideration that players may simply ruin the playthrough by losing control of the character if you don't feed your Coen. But we also think that it all adds up to the narrative...In the end, there is no way to really ruin the game...because of this narrative sandbox we created."
Importantly, the game explicitly avoids a binary "Good vs. Evil" morality bar. A player can make horrific choices as a human, or strive for strict self-control as a vampire by hunting animals for sustenance instead of villagers. During our time with the preview, I spent much of the time chowing down on some rats which provide a small boost, whereas attacking the jugular of an enemy provides a large boost.
And when it comes to the human side of combat, The Blood of Dawnwalker works extremely well. Enemies will indicate their attacks, and so players can counter these with precise defense and then precise attacking strokes. But the game also allows players to hack and slash wildly - at the cost of stamina. This certainly allows less skilful players to still be proficient enough to progress through the game, particularly early on, as they're still getting used to the controls.
A Cinematic Sandbox
The preview we played featured a large number of cutscenes early on, establishing the backstory and anchoring the emotional stakes—specifically Coen's relationship with his sister, Lunka and the budding relationship with Anca. According to Piotr, this structural design is entirely intentional:
"We have quite a lot of those... because you want to get the players to enjoy seeing their character, seeing the character wearing different clothing, and so on! It's also about immersion, giving this film-like experience, but also one that is influenced by the players. Most of them (the players), they want to play a game, not watch a movie. So we give those cutscenes, but there is quite a lot of dialogue... we always try to pace it in such a way that the players will not get bored."
A Haunting, Atmospheric Score
Complementing the grim visuals is a brilliant, unsettling background score that does heavy lifting to establish the game's oppressive atmosphere. The music leans into low, tense strings and minimalist, droning arrangements that make exploring the plague-ridden environments feel genuinely claustrophobic. Instead of relying on bombastic fantasy orchestral tracks, the soundscape uses sparse, traditional medieval instruments that swell into frantic, discordant rhythms whenever the sun sets and Coen's vampiric hunger begins to take over. It's an auditory gut-punch that ensures even the quietest moments of exploration carry an underlying sense of dread.
Building a Shared Saga
For lore hounds, The Blood of DawnWalker is designed to be the foundational stepping stone for a much broader saga. While Coen's immediate battle against Brencis will wrap up in this game, Rebel Wolves has deliberately left a trail of breadcrumbs for future installments.
"If you dig deeper...there's quite a lot of lore bits around the valley hidden in some ruins, some places that are forgotten by time... You will not get all the answers, but we leave quite a lot of breadcrumbs for the people who are lore fans... We already have those answers, we already know what is happening."
With tactical combat, deep customization arrays featuring Witchcraft, Sword Mastery, and Vampirism perks, and a narrative structure that respects player choice down to the minute, The Blood of DawnWalker is shaping up to be a delightfully bleak, complex RPG experience.
Stay tuned to Hooked Gamers for more coverage as the game moves closer to launch.
