Between Dawns

Problem

Most co-op survival games split apart under one of two pressures. Either multiplayer is attached after the single-player systems already own the truth, or the settlement layer becomes a disconnected management screen whose people and resources do not behave like the world the player actually visits.

Between Dawns starts from the opposite direction. Multiplayer authority comes first, and every scale of play uses the same persistent state.

Core Idea

Survive one dawn, use the day to prepare, and hold the world together until the next.

The player directly explores finite top-down zones, scavenges the remains of civilization, and defends a growing settlement at night. The same survivors can receive RTS orders nearby or run distant expeditions through abstract simulation. If the player reaches an unresolved incident, it can become physical gameplay without erasing outcomes that already happened.

Expansion is useful and dangerous. Safe arable land supports more people, but every newly exposed gateway can become another route the infected use to reach the settlement.

Shared Simulation

Direct action, command, and text events are different resolutions of one simulation. Characters keep the same equipment, injuries, fatigue, mental state, experience, and relationships when they move between them.

Current Playable Scope

• A dusk-to-dawn settlement defense loop with scavenging, fortification, shifts, and horde pressure.
• Deterministic finite zones connected as an expanding persistent graph.
• Physical combat, injuries, rescue, treatment, infection pressure, and permanent death.
• RTS field commands, work orders, squads, expeditions, radio distress, and NPC direct control.
• Persistent resources, equipment, vehicles, structures, world facts, journals, and checkpoints.
• A maximum-six-player ENet authority path with dedicated-server and remote-client presentation.
• Keyboard and mouse, Android touch, and Android/XInput gamepad input paths.

Development Journal

Current Status

Between Dawns is a playable vertical slice under active development. The project has automated validation and multiplayer smoke coverage, but that does not replace broader real-device controller, Android, and six-player playtesting.

The next work is not to invent another disconnected layer. It is to keep proving that the existing layers — action, command, expedition simulation, persistence, and networking — agree on the same world.

What This Demonstrates