Until the Morning Breaks

"Don’t let the fire go out" - so said the last person who let their fire go out.

A procedural survival thriller. Coax woodland creatures into the light; collect the Morning Stones; avoid night beasts

Web support for this game is currently experimental. If you are having performance issues please use one of the download options below. From my testing it works much better in Chrome than Firefox. 

Roam the winter night, shepherding tiny woodland creatures (and two terribly lost penguins) to the light and try to break the curse of the eternal darkness.

The sun has been captured by the wolf and the moon by the flightless bird. Collect the three Stones of Morning to break this night and greet a new day. A word to the wise, don’t let the fire go out. The dark has twisted creatures of the forest into monsters that walk in the night. For now these beasts mutate in their cocoons of horror, but if you listen carefully, you can hear their groans of misery in the wind. They are coming. Don't let the fire go out.

Description

You play as a young saviour burdened with the task of collecting the lost morning stones. Collecting the stones and bringing them to your bonfire will break the curse of the wolf and flightless bird.

Along the way you will encounter hapless animals lost in the darkness, and monstrosities of the never ending night - you'd best avoid the later. The only true victory is to save these poor animals before placing the last morning stone onto the fire. Otherwise, the poor creatures will be lost to the darkness forever.

No matter what happens you will always have your bonfire and your faithful companion, snuffles. No daemon of the night can take those from you...

Controls

• 'WSAD'   - Move
• 'Arrows' - Move
• 'SPACE'  - Interaction (Sprint / Chop / Drop)
• 'q'      - Screenshot (desktop only)
• 'Esc'    - Return to the menu  (desktop only)
• 'Enter'  - Return to the menu
• 'Tab'    - Return to the menu
• 'm'      - Mute
• 'F10'    - Toggle Fullscreen (desktop only)
• '.'      - Skip to Credits (menu only)

Guide 

(Based on a response to a question received during the Jam)

There are three stones out in the darkness. If you find them, pick them up and place them in your bonfire. Once you’ve collected all three the curse of eternal night will be lifted, i.e. victory.

As a bonus, you can try and save the little woodland creatures along the way. They will follow you back to the fire if you coax them.

Like your faithful dog, these woodland creatures can detect monsters in the dark. If you see an exclamation point (!) above their head, monsters are close.

At the start of the game there are no monsters. As the game progresses they will emerge out of their eggs scattered around the map. If you find an egg, smash it. Doing so will make your life considerably easier.

Word of caution, when you hear a crackling sound a monster is about to hatch. If you’re smashing an egg, it might be the one that’s hatching. Also, even if you smash all the eggs keep your guard up, they will re-spawn a few minutes later in a random location.

The monsters can’t see very well, but they can hear just fine. Be careful when you’re chopping wood, smashing eggs or running in the dark. Be ready to make a beeline back to your fire if you see a monster. You will hear a distinct howl when they have discovered you.

One strategy is to run around the map right off the start smashing any egg that you find and taking note of the locations of stones and animals. Another is to cut down as much wood as possible before you hear the first egg crack, leaving the chopped wood by the tree. There are a bunch of other fun strategies that are required to win at the “Hard” and “Good Luck” levels of difficulty.

There are 3 cannon difficulty modes plus a sandbox mode, which can be selected from the credits page. There is an additional "Good Luck" mode, which I have been unable to beat myself. I couldn't bring myself to cull it from the game. So, if you manage to find it, good luck.

Attribution

Game Code - Alexander Griffith (GPL3+)
Game Art - Alexander Griffith (CCBY 4)
Font (Avara) - (OFL)
Font (Inconsolata) - (OFL)
Sounds Effects - InspectorJ, JoseAgudelo, Dobroide &Gerainsan (CC0)
Library (Lume) - RXI (MIT/X11)
Library (anim8,bump,gamera) - Enrique Cota (MIT)
Engine (LÖVE) - LÖVE Dev Team (Zlib)
Language (Fennel) - Calvin Rose (MIT/X11)
Web Support (Love.js) Davidobot

Built for the web using https://github.com/Davidobot/love.js

This was a submission to the 2021 Kindred Game Jam. The theme options were "Penguin Party" and  "The Fire Mustn't Go Out". Can you tell which was my focus?

The source code can be found at: https://gitlab.com/alexjgriffith/until-the-morning-breaks

It is nice that cute animals come out. But it's a pretty difficult game. It was fun though.
Recommended for those who like cute and scary games.
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