Blood of Dawnwalker

[Bertram_Tung]

There's a severe lack of even semi-decent vampire RPGs so while this is definitely looking more and more to be pretty generic action-rpg slop I can only replay VTMB so many times.

This has been my personal hell for decades now.

[DrSneed]

ARPG slop is fun as long as the combat is actually fluid and the rest of the game isn't too grating.

[Bertram_Tung]

Good combat is overrated.

[LemonDemonGirl]

It's a Romanian man named Coen

At least it's not Cohen

[Demonic Fate]

Ideally, a vampire game should give you the freedom to explore that whole spectrum, not just the descent. The temptation for more power should be a key factor in the player's decision to further embrace the corruption or not. Another game that did this particularly well, IMO, was Vampyr .

I liked Vampyr, but they dropped the ball on the temptation system. Because there's a major game system around managing your victims and their networks, and the "good" path is to just... not do any of that.

It's kinda like Dishonored, but at least in that game the good path of "please do not use your incredibly cool and fun murder powers" could be treated as a callback to Thief-style ghosting.

[Tangerine]

It's a Romanian man named Coen

At least it's not Cohen

Got some bad news for you.

coen.PNG

[gerey]

The protagonist having a manbun looks so incredibly gay.

[Vergil]

It's a Romanian man named Coen

At least it's not Cohen

Got some bad news for you.

So this is actually an interesting case and the name "Coen" is not actually jewish. Coen is an old European name that just happens to look/sound like the hebrew "Cohen" which ****, infamous for altering their names to blend in to their new host countries, simply co-opted. They do a similar thing with the 100% Scottish in origin name "Cowen" as well. The setting of Dawnwalker is in the region where someone might have this name. The fact it's also being used as a given name (as typical of actual European) and not a surname (like a jew changing Cohen to Coen/Cowen/Koen etc would do) means it's very unlikely the protagonist is a jew. Just a fella with an unfortunate name like **** Van ****.

[Valter]

Kingdom Come Deliverance style directional melee combat. Vavra does it again

[Acrux]

At least it's not Cohen

Got some bad news for you.

So this is actually an interesting case and the name "Coen" is not actually jewish. Coen is an old European name that just happens to look/sound like the hebrew "Cohen" which ****, infamous for altering their names to blend in to their new host countries, simply co-opted. They do a similar thing with the 100% Scottish in origin name "Cowen" as well. The setting of Dawnwalker is in the region where someone might have this name. The fact it's also being used as a given name (as typical of actual European) and not a surname (like a jew changing Cohen to Coen/Cowen/Koen etc would do) means it's very unlikely the protagonist is a jew. Just a fella with an unfortunate name like **** Van ****.

[lucky-SVLLa]

Good combat is overrated.

That's true, those combatenjoyers won't understand.

[Vergil]

Rusty edited my OP
https://www.nsvrc.org/survivors

[rusty_shackleford]

Rusty edited my OP
https://www.nsvrc.org/survivors

Reason: Add steam link

[Vergil]

Rusty edited my OP
https://www.nsvrc.org/survivors

Reason: Add steam link

Just being silly honey bunch

[swbgtoc]

humans bad evil monsters good yawn

White noble evil and cruel. The people needs the ****.

The Blood of Dawnwalker — Cinematic Trailer & Gameplay Teaser - 0-3-52.jpeg

[Valter]

Eurogamer Interview
Blood of The Dawnwalker Will Not Have a Main Questline, Only a Main Goal.

► Direct Quotes

So I ask him again and, "No, there's no main quest," Tomaszkiewicz repeats, when we meet in London before the Golden Joystick awards, the event he flew in from Poland to attend. "You build your experience from the quests you encounter. You know where your [enemy is]. You can attack this place anytime you want to. It's up to you if you want to do it by yourself, or if you want to build yourself, find the powerful items, develop your character, or do some quests and find allies to help you do it.

"We want to bring video games closer to pen-and-paper RPGs and give you the freedom to experience what you want to experience," he says.

How you approach that overarching goal, then, is up to you, and it's this sandbox approach - this letting go of a player's hand approach - forms part of a niche in the RPG genre that Tomaszkiewicz wants to carve out for his new studio Rebel Wolves. "We wanted to take a step forward with the evolution and bring something new, and create our own area in the genre," he said.

"It's for sure less guided but I would say that simulation is too far," Tomaszkiewicz clarifies. "We're taking from our previous experience [The Witcher 3], the things we feel that makes the quest cool - how to build the storytelling in a way that you are engaged and you are immersed, but giving you more freedom.

"Kingdom Come Deliverance is not a bad example," he adds, "but still they have the main story that develops; you have the open world and the main quest which is leading you. In our game it's different. Our game is more similar in this area to the old Fallout, the first and second [games], where you have a clear goal and everything is optional - you decide. You travel the world, you decide what you want to do. There is no main quest."

There's even a neat-sounding wanted- or infamy-like reputation gauge that builds as you adventure, depending on how much you upset or loosen the antagonist's hold on the valley region you're exploring in. The more effect you have, the more the gauge will fill; and the more the gauge fills, the more actions the antagonist will take against you, such as passing edicts to close shops and sending assassins against you. "We wanted to create a world which reacts to what you are doing," Tomaszkiewicz says.

The most important thing to note about time ticking down, though, is this: "Even if the time ends, this is not the end of the game..." Tomaszkiewicz says, but doesn't elaborate for fear of spoiling it.

"For sure we are not creating the game [that can be played] for 200 hours," Tomaszkiewicz adds. "We cannot do it in this scope and budget. But it will be a big game. I think one playthrough will be around 40 hours, maybe 50 hours, it depends, and you will not do everything so you have things for other playthroughs. But in the meaning of gameplay, or the story, or the cut-scenes, we are close."

Oh and incidentally, just like The Witcher 3, The Blood of Dawnwalker will be self-funded - something else that surprises me for a studio's first game. The money was apparently raised by selling a quarter of the company to NetEase, and Namco Bandai is on board to help with marketing and publishing duties. "But we are independent," stresses Tomaszkiewicz, "and we are doing everything from our own money."

► Full Transcript

When Konrad Tomaskiewicz, the former director of The Witcher 3 and now the director of The Blood of Dawnwalker, tells me his new role-playing game has no main quest, I have to ask him to repeat himself because that's an unusual thing for someone making an RPG to say.

So I ask him again and, "No, there's no main quest," Tomaszkiewicz repeats, when we meet in London before the Golden Joystick awards, the event he flew in from Poland to attend. "You build your experience from the quests you encounter. You know where your [enemy is]. You can attack this place anytime you want to. It's up to you if you want to do it by yourself, or if you want to build yourself, find the powerful items, develop your character, or do some quests and find allies to help you do it.

"We want to bring video games closer to pen-and-paper RPGs and give you the freedom to experience what you want to experience," he says.

The Blood of Dawnwalker was unveiled properly earlier this year. It's an RPG that takes place in a valley in the Carpathian Mountains in the 14th Century, and concerns a main character - Coen - who's half-vampire, half-human, hence his titular ability to walk around during the day. But unlike Marvel's famous day-walking vampire Blade, Coen's abilities change depending on what time of day it is. At night, he's a vampire, but by day he's human, which gives him two potential toolboxes of abilities to use. By day, Coen can talk to people and solve puzzles, and use his sword, if needs be, to settle disputes. Whereas by night, as a vampire, he can walk up walls and scuttle along the rooftops, and drink blood.

How you approach that overarching goal, then, is up to you, and it's this sandbox approach - this letting go of a player's hand approach - forms part of a niche in the RPG genre that Tomaszkiewicz wants to carve out for his new studio Rebel Wolves. "We wanted to take a step forward with the evolution and bring something new, and create our own area in the genre," he said.

Therefore while there are similarities to The Witcher 3 in the game - you need only watch a few minutes of The Blood of Dawnwalker gameplay footage to pick up on them: the tone, the presentation, the dark fantasy - there are major differences here.

To me, The Blood of Dawnwalker seems like a slower experience as you play detective while in human form, talking to people and looking for clues, and then stealthier when you become a vampire by night and stalk the rooftops looking for ways to infiltrate. At times it actually seems closer to a sandbox simulated RPG experience like Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 than The Witcher 3. But that's not quite right.

"It's for sure less guided but I would say that simulation is too far," Tomaszkiewicz clarifies. "We're taking from our previous experience [The Witcher 3], the things we feel that makes the quest cool - how to build the storytelling in a way that you are engaged and you are immersed, but giving you more freedom.

"Kingdom Come Deliverance is not a bad example," he adds, "but still they have the main story that develops; you have the open world and the main quest which is leading you. In our game it's different. Our game is more similar in this area to the old Fallout, the first and second [games], where you have a clear goal and everything is optional - you decide. You travel the world, you decide what you want to do. There is no main quest."

It's almost like I didn't hear him the first time.

The game's distinct time mechanic is a way of giving shape and urgency to your experience, and of ensuring you spend time in both human and vampire form - a change that's brought on by the change of day into night. Were there no time pressure, you could skip parts of the day to play in your preferred form always, but this way, with a limited amount of time, you won't want to. Which is good for experiencing the full range of things the game wants you to experience.

But there are concerns about the time mechanic, too, and how it might restrict us when exploring the world. I know from first-hand experience that RPG players like to do everything, and this system seems to be directly opposed to that. But don't panic: time won't dribble away while you explore. Time will only move on at very clearly telegraphed moments, and you'll always be told by how much before you make the decision to do it.

There's even a neat-sounding wanted- or infamy-like reputation gauge that builds as you adventure, depending on how much you upset or loosen the antagonist's hold on the valley region you're exploring in. The more effect you have, the more the gauge will fill; and the more the gauge fills, the more actions the antagonist will take against you, such as passing edicts to close shops and sending assassins against you. "We wanted to create a world which reacts to what you are doing," Tomaszkiewicz says.

The most important thing to note about time ticking down, though, is this: "Even if the time ends, this is not the end of the game..." Tomaszkiewicz says, but doesn't elaborate for fear of spoiling it.

The Blood of Dawnwalker looks and sounds like an exciting prospect to me, and I'm particularly encouraged by it not simply retreading the same ground as The Witcher 3 in order to win over some of the same fans. Comparisons will be inevitable, though, and I wonder whether Tomazkiewicz is anxious about the expectations they might bring - this is, after all, Rebel Wolves' debut game, not the third game in a more established studio's series.

But Blood of Dawnwalker's team is roughly similar in size to that which made The Witcher 3, Tomaszkiewicz tells me. The Witcher 3 team apparently averaged 160 people - a number bumped to 205 with the help of the Cyberpunk 2077 team - and the Rebel Wolves team is currently 155 people.

"For sure we are not creating the game [that can be played] for 200 hours," Tomaszkiewicz adds. "We cannot do it in this scope and budget. But it will be a big game. I think one playthrough will be around 40 hours, maybe 50 hours, it depends, and you will not do everything so you have things for other playthroughs. But in the meaning of gameplay, or the story, or the cut-scenes, we are close."

Oh and incidentally, just like The Witcher 3, The Blood of Dawnwalker will be self-funded - something else that surprises me for a studio's first game. The money was apparently raised by selling a quarter of the company to NetEase, and Namco Bandai is on board to help with marketing and publishing duties. "But we are independent," stresses Tomaszkiewicz, "and we are doing everything from our own money."

The Blood of Dawnwalker is in development for PC, PS5 and Xbox Series S/X, and it's due to be released sometime next year.

Which one of you raves about real RPGs not having main quests? Well here you go I personally wasn't too impressed with this interview, 'cause I really doubt there won't be at least a couple of quests that will be more important than others, maybe even worthy of being labeled "main" quests, but it's just semantics at that point. I do hope they keep to their word and go all-in for player agency.
And again they touched up on the limited time mechanic and how actions that consume time will be clearly labeled as such. That's pretty cool, the resource is limited but you can still explore the world at your leisure

Never played Fallout 1 and 2, and while they may be critically acclaimed games, I'm always aprehensive when devs state they start naming games theirs "takes inspiration" from, as more often than not I find it to just be a shallow attempt to ride off of a more successful game's recognition. Only time will tell, but I do like what they're saying so far.

[LemonDemonGirl]

Ask Skyrim players about the Main Quest. Go on. I'll wait.

[Vaako]

Eurogamer Interview
Blood of The Dawnwalker Will Not Have a Main Questline, Only a Main Goal.

► Direct Quotes

So I ask him again and, "No, there's no main quest," Tomaszkiewicz repeats, when we meet in London before the Golden Joystick awards, the event he flew in from Poland to attend. "You build your experience from the quests you encounter. You know where your [enemy is]. You can attack this place anytime you want to. It's up to you if you want to do it by yourself, or if you want to build yourself, find the powerful items, develop your character, or do some quests and find allies to help you do it.

"We want to bring video games closer to pen-and-paper RPGs and give you the freedom to experience what you want to experience," he says.

How you approach that overarching goal, then, is up to you, and it's this sandbox approach - this letting go of a player's hand approach - forms part of a niche in the RPG genre that Tomaszkiewicz wants to carve out for his new studio Rebel Wolves. "We wanted to take a step forward with the evolution and bring something new, and create our own area in the genre," he said.

"It's for sure less guided but I would say that simulation is too far," Tomaszkiewicz clarifies. "We're taking from our previous experience [The Witcher 3], the things we feel that makes the quest cool - how to build the storytelling in a way that you are engaged and you are immersed, but giving you more freedom.

"Kingdom Come Deliverance is not a bad example," he adds, "but still they have the main story that develops; you have the open world and the main quest which is leading you. In our game it's different. Our game is more similar in this area to the old Fallout, the first and second [games], where you have a clear goal and everything is optional - you decide. You travel the world, you decide what you want to do. There is no main quest."

There's even a neat-sounding wanted- or infamy-like reputation gauge that builds as you adventure, depending on how much you upset or loosen the antagonist's hold on the valley region you're exploring in. The more effect you have, the more the gauge will fill; and the more the gauge fills, the more actions the antagonist will take against you, such as passing edicts to close shops and sending assassins against you. "We wanted to create a world which reacts to what you are doing," Tomaszkiewicz says.

The most important thing to note about time ticking down, though, is this: "Even if the time ends, this is not the end of the game..." Tomaszkiewicz says, but doesn't elaborate for fear of spoiling it.

"For sure we are not creating the game [that can be played] for 200 hours," Tomaszkiewicz adds. "We cannot do it in this scope and budget. But it will be a big game. I think one playthrough will be around 40 hours, maybe 50 hours, it depends, and you will not do everything so you have things for other playthroughs. But in the meaning of gameplay, or the story, or the cut-scenes, we are close."

Oh and incidentally, just like The Witcher 3, The Blood of Dawnwalker will be self-funded - something else that surprises me for a studio's first game. The money was apparently raised by selling a quarter of the company to NetEase, and Namco Bandai is on board to help with marketing and publishing duties. "But we are independent," stresses Tomaszkiewicz, "and we are doing everything from our own money."

► Full Transcript

When Konrad Tomaskiewicz, the former director of The Witcher 3 and now the director of The Blood of Dawnwalker, tells me his new role-playing game has no main quest, I have to ask him to repeat himself because that's an unusual thing for someone making an RPG to say.

So I ask him again and, "No, there's no main quest," Tomaszkiewicz repeats, when we meet in London before the Golden Joystick awards, the event he flew in from Poland to attend. "You build your experience from the quests you encounter. You know where your [enemy is]. You can attack this place anytime you want to. It's up to you if you want to do it by yourself, or if you want to build yourself, find the powerful items, develop your character, or do some quests and find allies to help you do it.

"We want to bring video games closer to pen-and-paper RPGs and give you the freedom to experience what you want to experience," he says.

The Blood of Dawnwalker was unveiled properly earlier this year. It's an RPG that takes place in a valley in the Carpathian Mountains in the 14th Century, and concerns a main character - Coen - who's half-vampire, half-human, hence his titular ability to walk around during the day. But unlike Marvel's famous day-walking vampire Blade, Coen's abilities change depending on what time of day it is. At night, he's a vampire, but by day he's human, which gives him two potential toolboxes of abilities to use. By day, Coen can talk to people and solve puzzles, and use his sword, if needs be, to settle disputes. Whereas by night, as a vampire, he can walk up walls and scuttle along the rooftops, and drink blood.

How you approach that overarching goal, then, is up to you, and it's this sandbox approach - this letting go of a player's hand approach - forms part of a niche in the RPG genre that Tomaszkiewicz wants to carve out for his new studio Rebel Wolves. "We wanted to take a step forward with the evolution and bring something new, and create our own area in the genre," he said.

Therefore while there are similarities to The Witcher 3 in the game - you need only watch a few minutes of The Blood of Dawnwalker gameplay footage to pick up on them: the tone, the presentation, the dark fantasy - there are major differences here.

To me, The Blood of Dawnwalker seems like a slower experience as you play detective while in human form, talking to people and looking for clues, and then stealthier when you become a vampire by night and stalk the rooftops looking for ways to infiltrate. At times it actually seems closer to a sandbox simulated RPG experience like Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 than The Witcher 3. But that's not quite right.

"It's for sure less guided but I would say that simulation is too far," Tomaszkiewicz clarifies. "We're taking from our previous experience [The Witcher 3], the things we feel that makes the quest cool - how to build the storytelling in a way that you are engaged and you are immersed, but giving you more freedom.

"Kingdom Come Deliverance is not a bad example," he adds, "but still they have the main story that develops; you have the open world and the main quest which is leading you. In our game it's different. Our game is more similar in this area to the old Fallout, the first and second [games], where you have a clear goal and everything is optional - you decide. You travel the world, you decide what you want to do. There is no main quest."

It's almost like I didn't hear him the first time.

The game's distinct time mechanic is a way of giving shape and urgency to your experience, and of ensuring you spend time in both human and vampire form - a change that's brought on by the change of day into night. Were there no time pressure, you could skip parts of the day to play in your preferred form always, but this way, with a limited amount of time, you won't want to. Which is good for experiencing the full range of things the game wants you to experience.

But there are concerns about the time mechanic, too, and how it might restrict us when exploring the world. I know from first-hand experience that RPG players like to do everything, and this system seems to be directly opposed to that. But don't panic: time won't dribble away while you explore. Time will only move on at very clearly telegraphed moments, and you'll always be told by how much before you make the decision to do it.

There's even a neat-sounding wanted- or infamy-like reputation gauge that builds as you adventure, depending on how much you upset or loosen the antagonist's hold on the valley region you're exploring in. The more effect you have, the more the gauge will fill; and the more the gauge fills, the more actions the antagonist will take against you, such as passing edicts to close shops and sending assassins against you. "We wanted to create a world which reacts to what you are doing," Tomaszkiewicz says.

The most important thing to note about time ticking down, though, is this: "Even if the time ends, this is not the end of the game..." Tomaszkiewicz says, but doesn't elaborate for fear of spoiling it.

The Blood of Dawnwalker looks and sounds like an exciting prospect to me, and I'm particularly encouraged by it not simply retreading the same ground as The Witcher 3 in order to win over some of the same fans. Comparisons will be inevitable, though, and I wonder whether Tomazkiewicz is anxious about the expectations they might bring - this is, after all, Rebel Wolves' debut game, not the third game in a more established studio's series.

But Blood of Dawnwalker's team is roughly similar in size to that which made The Witcher 3, Tomaszkiewicz tells me. The Witcher 3 team apparently averaged 160 people - a number bumped to 205 with the help of the Cyberpunk 2077 team - and the Rebel Wolves team is currently 155 people.

"For sure we are not creating the game [that can be played] for 200 hours," Tomaszkiewicz adds. "We cannot do it in this scope and budget. But it will be a big game. I think one playthrough will be around 40 hours, maybe 50 hours, it depends, and you will not do everything so you have things for other playthroughs. But in the meaning of gameplay, or the story, or the cut-scenes, we are close."

Oh and incidentally, just like The Witcher 3, The Blood of Dawnwalker will be self-funded - something else that surprises me for a studio's first game. The money was apparently raised by selling a quarter of the company to NetEase, and Namco Bandai is on board to help with marketing and publishing duties. "But we are independent," stresses Tomaszkiewicz, "and we are doing everything from our own money."

The Blood of Dawnwalker is in development for PC, PS5 and Xbox Series S/X, and it's due to be released sometime next year.

Which one of you raves about real RPGs not having main quests? Well here you go I personally wasn't too impressed with this interview, 'cause I really doubt there won't be at least a couple of quests that will be more important than others, maybe even worthy of being labeled "main" quests, but it's just semantics at that point. I do hope they keep to their word and go all-in for player agency.
And again they touched up on the limited time mechanic and how actions that consume time will be clearly labeled as such. That's pretty cool, the resource is limited but you can still explore the world at your leisure

Never played Fallout 1 and 2, and while they may be critically acclaimed games, I'm always aprehensive when devs state they start naming games theirs "takes inspiration" from, as more often than not I find it to just be a shallow attempt to ride off of a more successful game's recognition. Only time will tell, but I do like what they're saying so far.

Sounds certainly good if you dont have to do the railroading of a mainquest to unlock areas or abilities first. But you also need interesting progression systems then hidden entrances you maybe can exploit in later playthroughs if the knowledge of them being there is enough to access them and you dont have to do some mandatory quests.

[Valter]

Eurogamer Interview
Blood of The Dawnwalker Will Not Have a Main Questline, Only a Main Goal.

► Direct Quotes

So I ask him again and, "No, there's no main quest," Tomaszkiewicz repeats, when we meet in London before the Golden Joystick awards, the event he flew in from Poland to attend. "You build your experience from the quests you encounter. You know where your [enemy is]. You can attack this place anytime you want to. It's up to you if you want to do it by yourself, or if you want to build yourself, find the powerful items, develop your character, or do some quests and find allies to help you do it.

"We want to bring video games closer to pen-and-paper RPGs and give you the freedom to experience what you want to experience," he says.

How you approach that overarching goal, then, is up to you, and it's this sandbox approach - this letting go of a player's hand approach - forms part of a niche in the RPG genre that Tomaszkiewicz wants to carve out for his new studio Rebel Wolves. "We wanted to take a step forward with the evolution and bring something new, and create our own area in the genre," he said.

"It's for sure less guided but I would say that simulation is too far," Tomaszkiewicz clarifies. "We're taking from our previous experience [The Witcher 3], the things we feel that makes the quest cool - how to build the storytelling in a way that you are engaged and you are immersed, but giving you more freedom.

"Kingdom Come Deliverance is not a bad example," he adds, "but still they have the main story that develops; you have the open world and the main quest which is leading you. In our game it's different. Our game is more similar in this area to the old Fallout, the first and second [games], where you have a clear goal and everything is optional - you decide. You travel the world, you decide what you want to do. There is no main quest."

There's even a neat-sounding wanted- or infamy-like reputation gauge that builds as you adventure, depending on how much you upset or loosen the antagonist's hold on the valley region you're exploring in. The more effect you have, the more the gauge will fill; and the more the gauge fills, the more actions the antagonist will take against you, such as passing edicts to close shops and sending assassins against you. "We wanted to create a world which reacts to what you are doing," Tomaszkiewicz says.

The most important thing to note about time ticking down, though, is this: "Even if the time ends, this is not the end of the game..." Tomaszkiewicz says, but doesn't elaborate for fear of spoiling it.

"For sure we are not creating the game [that can be played] for 200 hours," Tomaszkiewicz adds. "We cannot do it in this scope and budget. But it will be a big game. I think one playthrough will be around 40 hours, maybe 50 hours, it depends, and you will not do everything so you have things for other playthroughs. But in the meaning of gameplay, or the story, or the cut-scenes, we are close."

Oh and incidentally, just like The Witcher 3, The Blood of Dawnwalker will be self-funded - something else that surprises me for a studio's first game. The money was apparently raised by selling a quarter of the company to NetEase, and Namco Bandai is on board to help with marketing and publishing duties. "But we are independent," stresses Tomaszkiewicz, "and we are doing everything from our own money."

► Full Transcript

When Konrad Tomaskiewicz, the former director of The Witcher 3 and now the director of The Blood of Dawnwalker, tells me his new role-playing game has no main quest, I have to ask him to repeat himself because that's an unusual thing for someone making an RPG to say.

So I ask him again and, "No, there's no main quest," Tomaszkiewicz repeats, when we meet in London before the Golden Joystick awards, the event he flew in from Poland to attend. "You build your experience from the quests you encounter. You know where your [enemy is]. You can attack this place anytime you want to. It's up to you if you want to do it by yourself, or if you want to build yourself, find the powerful items, develop your character, or do some quests and find allies to help you do it.

"We want to bring video games closer to pen-and-paper RPGs and give you the freedom to experience what you want to experience," he says.

The Blood of Dawnwalker was unveiled properly earlier this year. It's an RPG that takes place in a valley in the Carpathian Mountains in the 14th Century, and concerns a main character - Coen - who's half-vampire, half-human, hence his titular ability to walk around during the day. But unlike Marvel's famous day-walking vampire Blade, Coen's abilities change depending on what time of day it is. At night, he's a vampire, but by day he's human, which gives him two potential toolboxes of abilities to use. By day, Coen can talk to people and solve puzzles, and use his sword, if needs be, to settle disputes. Whereas by night, as a vampire, he can walk up walls and scuttle along the rooftops, and drink blood.

How you approach that overarching goal, then, is up to you, and it's this sandbox approach - this letting go of a player's hand approach - forms part of a niche in the RPG genre that Tomaszkiewicz wants to carve out for his new studio Rebel Wolves. "We wanted to take a step forward with the evolution and bring something new, and create our own area in the genre," he said.

Therefore while there are similarities to The Witcher 3 in the game - you need only watch a few minutes of The Blood of Dawnwalker gameplay footage to pick up on them: the tone, the presentation, the dark fantasy - there are major differences here.

To me, The Blood of Dawnwalker seems like a slower experience as you play detective while in human form, talking to people and looking for clues, and then stealthier when you become a vampire by night and stalk the rooftops looking for ways to infiltrate. At times it actually seems closer to a sandbox simulated RPG experience like Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 than The Witcher 3. But that's not quite right.

"It's for sure less guided but I would say that simulation is too far," Tomaszkiewicz clarifies. "We're taking from our previous experience [The Witcher 3], the things we feel that makes the quest cool - how to build the storytelling in a way that you are engaged and you are immersed, but giving you more freedom.

"Kingdom Come Deliverance is not a bad example," he adds, "but still they have the main story that develops; you have the open world and the main quest which is leading you. In our game it's different. Our game is more similar in this area to the old Fallout, the first and second [games], where you have a clear goal and everything is optional - you decide. You travel the world, you decide what you want to do. There is no main quest."

It's almost like I didn't hear him the first time.

The game's distinct time mechanic is a way of giving shape and urgency to your experience, and of ensuring you spend time in both human and vampire form - a change that's brought on by the change of day into night. Were there no time pressure, you could skip parts of the day to play in your preferred form always, but this way, with a limited amount of time, you won't want to. Which is good for experiencing the full range of things the game wants you to experience.

But there are concerns about the time mechanic, too, and how it might restrict us when exploring the world. I know from first-hand experience that RPG players like to do everything, and this system seems to be directly opposed to that. But don't panic: time won't dribble away while you explore. Time will only move on at very clearly telegraphed moments, and you'll always be told by how much before you make the decision to do it.

There's even a neat-sounding wanted- or infamy-like reputation gauge that builds as you adventure, depending on how much you upset or loosen the antagonist's hold on the valley region you're exploring in. The more effect you have, the more the gauge will fill; and the more the gauge fills, the more actions the antagonist will take against you, such as passing edicts to close shops and sending assassins against you. "We wanted to create a world which reacts to what you are doing," Tomaszkiewicz says.

The most important thing to note about time ticking down, though, is this: "Even if the time ends, this is not the end of the game..." Tomaszkiewicz says, but doesn't elaborate for fear of spoiling it.

The Blood of Dawnwalker looks and sounds like an exciting prospect to me, and I'm particularly encouraged by it not simply retreading the same ground as The Witcher 3 in order to win over some of the same fans. Comparisons will be inevitable, though, and I wonder whether Tomazkiewicz is anxious about the expectations they might bring - this is, after all, Rebel Wolves' debut game, not the third game in a more established studio's series.

But Blood of Dawnwalker's team is roughly similar in size to that which made The Witcher 3, Tomaszkiewicz tells me. The Witcher 3 team apparently averaged 160 people - a number bumped to 205 with the help of the Cyberpunk 2077 team - and the Rebel Wolves team is currently 155 people.

"For sure we are not creating the game [that can be played] for 200 hours," Tomaszkiewicz adds. "We cannot do it in this scope and budget. But it will be a big game. I think one playthrough will be around 40 hours, maybe 50 hours, it depends, and you will not do everything so you have things for other playthroughs. But in the meaning of gameplay, or the story, or the cut-scenes, we are close."

Oh and incidentally, just like The Witcher 3, The Blood of Dawnwalker will be self-funded - something else that surprises me for a studio's first game. The money was apparently raised by selling a quarter of the company to NetEase, and Namco Bandai is on board to help with marketing and publishing duties. "But we are independent," stresses Tomaszkiewicz, "and we are doing everything from our own money."

The Blood of Dawnwalker is in development for PC, PS5 and Xbox Series S/X, and it's due to be released sometime next year.

Which one of you raves about real RPGs not having main quests? Well here you go I personally wasn't too impressed with this interview, 'cause I really doubt there won't be at least a couple of quests that will be more important than others, maybe even worthy of being labeled "main" quests, but it's just semantics at that point. I do hope they keep to their word and go all-in for player agency.
And again they touched up on the limited time mechanic and how actions that consume time will be clearly labeled as such. That's pretty cool, the resource is limited but you can still explore the world at your leisure

Never played Fallout 1 and 2, and while they may be critically acclaimed games, I'm always aprehensive when devs state they start naming games theirs "takes inspiration" from, as more often than not I find it to just be a shallow attempt to ride off of a more successful game's recognition. Only time will tell, but I do like what they're saying so far.

Sounds certainly good if you dont have to do the railroading of a mainquest to unlock areas or abilities first. But you also need interesting progression systems then hidden entrances you maybe can exploit in later playthroughs if the knowledge of them being there is enough to access them and you dont have to do some mandatory quests.

Like a Dragonborn exploring the world without his shouting ability unlocked? ****** up

[Valter]

Ask Skyrim players about the Main Quest. Go on. I'll wait.

True, Skyrim's main quest as long as it is, is never forced upon the player. Though I would still count this "no main quest" rhetoric these devs are pushing as a positive, since you can't make it mandatory if it doesn't even exist

[Vaako]

Eurogamer Interview
Blood of The Dawnwalker Will Not Have a Main Questline, Only a Main Goal.

► Direct Quotes

So I ask him again and, "No, there's no main quest," Tomaszkiewicz repeats, when we meet in London before the Golden Joystick awards, the event he flew in from Poland to attend. "You build your experience from the quests you encounter. You know where your [enemy is]. You can attack this place anytime you want to. It's up to you if you want to do it by yourself, or if you want to build yourself, find the powerful items, develop your character, or do some quests and find allies to help you do it.

"We want to bring video games closer to pen-and-paper RPGs and give you the freedom to experience what you want to experience," he says.

How you approach that overarching goal, then, is up to you, and it's this sandbox approach - this letting go of a player's hand approach - forms part of a niche in the RPG genre that Tomaszkiewicz wants to carve out for his new studio Rebel Wolves. "We wanted to take a step forward with the evolution and bring something new, and create our own area in the genre," he said.

"It's for sure less guided but I would say that simulation is too far," Tomaszkiewicz clarifies. "We're taking from our previous experience [The Witcher 3], the things we feel that makes the quest cool - how to build the storytelling in a way that you are engaged and you are immersed, but giving you more freedom.

"Kingdom Come Deliverance is not a bad example," he adds, "but still they have the main story that develops; you have the open world and the main quest which is leading you. In our game it's different. Our game is more similar in this area to the old Fallout, the first and second [games], where you have a clear goal and everything is optional - you decide. You travel the world, you decide what you want to do. There is no main quest."

There's even a neat-sounding wanted- or infamy-like reputation gauge that builds as you adventure, depending on how much you upset or loosen the antagonist's hold on the valley region you're exploring in. The more effect you have, the more the gauge will fill; and the more the gauge fills, the more actions the antagonist will take against you, such as passing edicts to close shops and sending assassins against you. "We wanted to create a world which reacts to what you are doing," Tomaszkiewicz says.

The most important thing to note about time ticking down, though, is this: "Even if the time ends, this is not the end of the game..." Tomaszkiewicz says, but doesn't elaborate for fear of spoiling it.

"For sure we are not creating the game [that can be played] for 200 hours," Tomaszkiewicz adds. "We cannot do it in this scope and budget. But it will be a big game. I think one playthrough will be around 40 hours, maybe 50 hours, it depends, and you will not do everything so you have things for other playthroughs. But in the meaning of gameplay, or the story, or the cut-scenes, we are close."

Oh and incidentally, just like The Witcher 3, The Blood of Dawnwalker will be self-funded - something else that surprises me for a studio's first game. The money was apparently raised by selling a quarter of the company to NetEase, and Namco Bandai is on board to help with marketing and publishing duties. "But we are independent," stresses Tomaszkiewicz, "and we are doing everything from our own money."

► Full Transcript

When Konrad Tomaskiewicz, the former director of The Witcher 3 and now the director of The Blood of Dawnwalker, tells me his new role-playing game has no main quest, I have to ask him to repeat himself because that's an unusual thing for someone making an RPG to say.

So I ask him again and, "No, there's no main quest," Tomaszkiewicz repeats, when we meet in London before the Golden Joystick awards, the event he flew in from Poland to attend. "You build your experience from the quests you encounter. You know where your [enemy is]. You can attack this place anytime you want to. It's up to you if you want to do it by yourself, or if you want to build yourself, find the powerful items, develop your character, or do some quests and find allies to help you do it.

"We want to bring video games closer to pen-and-paper RPGs and give you the freedom to experience what you want to experience," he says.

The Blood of Dawnwalker was unveiled properly earlier this year. It's an RPG that takes place in a valley in the Carpathian Mountains in the 14th Century, and concerns a main character - Coen - who's half-vampire, half-human, hence his titular ability to walk around during the day. But unlike Marvel's famous day-walking vampire Blade, Coen's abilities change depending on what time of day it is. At night, he's a vampire, but by day he's human, which gives him two potential toolboxes of abilities to use. By day, Coen can talk to people and solve puzzles, and use his sword, if needs be, to settle disputes. Whereas by night, as a vampire, he can walk up walls and scuttle along the rooftops, and drink blood.

How you approach that overarching goal, then, is up to you, and it's this sandbox approach - this letting go of a player's hand approach - forms part of a niche in the RPG genre that Tomaszkiewicz wants to carve out for his new studio Rebel Wolves. "We wanted to take a step forward with the evolution and bring something new, and create our own area in the genre," he said.

Therefore while there are similarities to The Witcher 3 in the game - you need only watch a few minutes of The Blood of Dawnwalker gameplay footage to pick up on them: the tone, the presentation, the dark fantasy - there are major differences here.

To me, The Blood of Dawnwalker seems like a slower experience as you play detective while in human form, talking to people and looking for clues, and then stealthier when you become a vampire by night and stalk the rooftops looking for ways to infiltrate. At times it actually seems closer to a sandbox simulated RPG experience like Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 than The Witcher 3. But that's not quite right.

"It's for sure less guided but I would say that simulation is too far," Tomaszkiewicz clarifies. "We're taking from our previous experience [The Witcher 3], the things we feel that makes the quest cool - how to build the storytelling in a way that you are engaged and you are immersed, but giving you more freedom.

"Kingdom Come Deliverance is not a bad example," he adds, "but still they have the main story that develops; you have the open world and the main quest which is leading you. In our game it's different. Our game is more similar in this area to the old Fallout, the first and second [games], where you have a clear goal and everything is optional - you decide. You travel the world, you decide what you want to do. There is no main quest."

It's almost like I didn't hear him the first time.

The game's distinct time mechanic is a way of giving shape and urgency to your experience, and of ensuring you spend time in both human and vampire form - a change that's brought on by the change of day into night. Were there no time pressure, you could skip parts of the day to play in your preferred form always, but this way, with a limited amount of time, you won't want to. Which is good for experiencing the full range of things the game wants you to experience.

But there are concerns about the time mechanic, too, and how it might restrict us when exploring the world. I know from first-hand experience that RPG players like to do everything, and this system seems to be directly opposed to that. But don't panic: time won't dribble away while you explore. Time will only move on at very clearly telegraphed moments, and you'll always be told by how much before you make the decision to do it.

There's even a neat-sounding wanted- or infamy-like reputation gauge that builds as you adventure, depending on how much you upset or loosen the antagonist's hold on the valley region you're exploring in. The more effect you have, the more the gauge will fill; and the more the gauge fills, the more actions the antagonist will take against you, such as passing edicts to close shops and sending assassins against you. "We wanted to create a world which reacts to what you are doing," Tomaszkiewicz says.

The most important thing to note about time ticking down, though, is this: "Even if the time ends, this is not the end of the game..." Tomaszkiewicz says, but doesn't elaborate for fear of spoiling it.

The Blood of Dawnwalker looks and sounds like an exciting prospect to me, and I'm particularly encouraged by it not simply retreading the same ground as The Witcher 3 in order to win over some of the same fans. Comparisons will be inevitable, though, and I wonder whether Tomazkiewicz is anxious about the expectations they might bring - this is, after all, Rebel Wolves' debut game, not the third game in a more established studio's series.

But Blood of Dawnwalker's team is roughly similar in size to that which made The Witcher 3, Tomaszkiewicz tells me. The Witcher 3 team apparently averaged 160 people - a number bumped to 205 with the help of the Cyberpunk 2077 team - and the Rebel Wolves team is currently 155 people.

"For sure we are not creating the game [that can be played] for 200 hours," Tomaszkiewicz adds. "We cannot do it in this scope and budget. But it will be a big game. I think one playthrough will be around 40 hours, maybe 50 hours, it depends, and you will not do everything so you have things for other playthroughs. But in the meaning of gameplay, or the story, or the cut-scenes, we are close."

Oh and incidentally, just like The Witcher 3, The Blood of Dawnwalker will be self-funded - something else that surprises me for a studio's first game. The money was apparently raised by selling a quarter of the company to NetEase, and Namco Bandai is on board to help with marketing and publishing duties. "But we are independent," stresses Tomaszkiewicz, "and we are doing everything from our own money."

The Blood of Dawnwalker is in development for PC, PS5 and Xbox Series S/X, and it's due to be released sometime next year.

Which one of you raves about real RPGs not having main quests? Well here you go I personally wasn't too impressed with this interview, 'cause I really doubt there won't be at least a couple of quests that will be more important than others, maybe even worthy of being labeled "main" quests, but it's just semantics at that point. I do hope they keep to their word and go all-in for player agency.
And again they touched up on the limited time mechanic and how actions that consume time will be clearly labeled as such. That's pretty cool, the resource is limited but you can still explore the world at your leisure

Never played Fallout 1 and 2, and while they may be critically acclaimed games, I'm always aprehensive when devs state they start naming games theirs "takes inspiration" from, as more often than not I find it to just be a shallow attempt to ride off of a more successful game's recognition. Only time will tell, but I do like what they're saying so far.

Sounds certainly good if you dont have to do the railroading of a mainquest to unlock areas or abilities first. But you also need interesting progression systems then hidden entrances you maybe can exploit in later playthroughs if the knowledge of them being there is enough to access them and you dont have to do some mandatory quests.

Like a Dragonborn exploring the world without his shouting ability unlocked? ****** up

You didnt need to unlock anything in Oblivion, to get all skills to 100 just train. But you could get access to spellmaking/enchanting. And more op loot if you did the mainquest. Or just ignore it and do guild quests first.

[Roguey]

Sounds neat, too bad the boss fights they've shown off look really bad.

But if I don't have to fight any except the last one...

[rusty_shackleford]

"main quests" don't belong in RPGs

[ThulsaDoomer]

Which one of you raves about real RPGs not having main quests? Well here you go I personally wasn't too impressed with this interview, 'cause I really doubt there won't be at least a couple of quests that will be more important than others, maybe even worthy of being labeled "main" quests, but it's just semantics at that point. I do hope they keep to their word and go all-in for player agency.
And again they touched up on the limited time mechanic and how actions that consume time will be clearly labeled as such. That's pretty cool, the resource is limited but you can still explore the world at your leisure

I'd rather have a compelling main narrative or questline than sandbox nonsense that fails to ever deliver what it promises. How many years has it been and we still don't get branching storylines in most modern RPGs? Instead we go further away from this and back into trying to simulate tabletop group improvisation roleplay in singleplayer experiences. I am beyond desperate for a good story, which shouldn't be this hard for game developers to achieve.

[Vergil]

Have they revealed something awful to rug pull everyone interested yet? Any ****** sex or black *******?

[lucky-SVLLa]

For some reason, I find this game more questionable than Witcher 4. The comparison to Kingdom Come: Deliverance will likely turn out to be mostly inaccurate—except when it comes to combat. Hopefully, I'll turn out to be wrong about these concerns.

[Finarfin]

The Blood of Dawnwalker Prologue Preview
The Blood of Dawnwalker - Official Collector\u0027s Edition Overview Trailer

The Blood of Dawnwalker - Official Gameplay Deep Dive Overview Part 3

[Vaako]

Sigh gameplay looks like another ubisoft game again, generic no name enemies, he just bites soldiers in the neck which wear chain armor protection there. Skyrim compass on the top, witcher/vtm2 style detective sense with yellow foot prints this time, also enemy health bars over their heads. Your character comments constantly on things.

Shame had hopes for this.

[Brother Chad]

I expect all AAA and most AA games to be ****.

I am never pleasantly surprised. They're all just ****.

[wndrbr]

I wasn't interested in this game before, but then I read that it's going to have a real passage of time (like in Dead Rising / Majora's Mask / Pathologic), and now I'm curious. Open world action-rpg where you can fail the main quest if you **** around for too long is a rare thing.