Due to limits of formatting and image sizes on steam guides, this isn't exactly like the original google doc, so you should maybe just read it instead.[docs.google.com]

WHAT IS DUSK? (You’ve seen the reveal trailer, right?)

Cool, well here’s our NEW one

It’s a retro FPS, duh. One that wears its inspirations on its sleeve. Our sleeves. Sleeves covered in BLOOD and DOOM. Get it?

It looks like Quake, it plays like Quake. It’s got hints of Heretic, Hexen, Blood, DOOM, Redneck Rampage, Half Life, Marathon, Duke 3D - you name it -> https://youtu.be/lqa7iuMelo8

It’s being developed by David Szymanski (who you may know from Fingerbones, The Music Machine, The Moon Silver and A Wolf in Autumn). Produced by Dave Oshry (hey, that’s me) with SFX and Music by Andrew Hulshult.

That’s it. That’s the whole team. Basically just one dude. He’s a nice guy. Just look at this face:



Now, if you’ve played the pre-pre-pre Alpha (and if you’re reading this there’s a good chance you have!) then A LOT has changed in the last few months. But before we get to that...

Well, Episode 1 is done. It’s like done done. Super duper done. Polished and QA’d to high hell by the New Blood QA team (hi guys) and ready for you. If there are any bugs or the game drops below 144 FPS at any time they will be flogged. Believe that.

Endless mode is done. There’s one map in this build for ya!

VS. Multiplayer is a thing that works. We call it DuskWorld. We’re bringing it to QuakeCon[www.quakecon.org]. Because that seems like the place you take a game like this, right? You should come play it there.



The first pass of Episode 2 is nearly done. It will be iterated on and polished until it’s as ready as Episode 1. Then we’re on to Episode 3. Wheeeee…

And after that? Well I guess the FULL game we want to LAUNCH is DONE. Woah.

Three full single player episodes. An Endless mode with 3 arenas (one for each episode) and arena style online multiplayer. All for $20. We think that’s a pretty good deal.

We’re working on an SDK (Called DAWN) co-op campaign mode and potentially more episodes, endless arenas and who knows what else. The skybox is the limit. Ha ha game dev jokes.

WELL… It’s going to remind you a lot of Episode 1 of DOOM. You remember Knee-Deep in the Dead, right? It’s got 11 levels (one of which is a secret level) and 3 total boss fights + just enough story to keep you intrigued without bogging you down.



But this is an old school PC gamer type of PC game so we assume the first thing you’re gonna do is go into the options menu. Good idea - ‘cuz we gots a lots of em.

Let’s start with the basics: DUSK supports every resolution from 640x480 to 21:9 ultrawide and beyond.
It lets you cap the frame rate anywhere from a “Cinematic” 24 FPS (please don’t do that) to UNCAPPED which may melt your GPU ...so maybe keep it at like 144? ^__^

The FOV goes from 75 to 150 a/k/a “Cynical”



You can change the weapon model size. (people like this?)



You can change the 15 crosshairs to any color and size you want:



We’ve got a PIXELIZATION slider (amongst other things)
if you wanna get REALLY old school



You can toggle things like weapon sway and camera animations on/off if the game makes you sick \m/ from all the SPEED.

And the colors, Duke - the colors!



We’ve currently got more game color options than Serious Sam and we’re going to hold onto that title proudly ‘til Croteam gives us SS4. C’mon guys. It’s been like 6 years. WHERE’S IT AT?!

You can save / load wherever you want.
You can also quicksave / load.
As many times as you want.



It’s for everyone! With difficulty options ranging from
ACCESSIBLE to DUSKMARE (you die in one hit)
We’re also totally working more controller support

You can do dumb stuff with the UI by pressing + and -



We’ve even included Auto-Aim options that go from “Just a Bit” to SHAMEFUL. Don’t worry - nobody is judging you. Except me.



You can Press TAB to see your stats for the current level

You can Press T to create a timestamp - HI SPEEDRUNNERS!

You can press R to spin your weapon for no reason. Wheeeeee

There’s even an old school World Map where you can replay levels
With whatever loadout you want
Yeah, we did that - too.



Yes, there is skill based movement but it’s pretty easy to utilize unlike in other classic FPS. It takes 4 bunnyhops to reach max speed and you’ve got full air control. Go nuts.



There’s no Y axis lock (as you may know) so feel free to do all the front and backflips you want. Jump pads are fun.



Basically, if you’re playing like THIS? You’re doing it right.

There are some monster closets. There are some jump scares. You can utilize the environment. Barrels are your friend. Throw them at stuff. Don’t forget to rocket jump. Never forget that.



You can sleep in the beds. You can eat the food. You can cook viscera and then eat it. Gross.


You can flush the toilets.
YOU CAN FLUSH THINGS DOWN THE TOILETS.



Press 0 to smoke a cigar. Why not?! There are secrets. Lots of them. Some are easy to find. Some are not so easy to find.

Episode 1 begins the story of YOU, The “DuskDude” (the protagonist doesn’t have a name or face or gender really)

You’ve woken up on a meathook only to find you’re about to be slaughtered Texas Chainsaw style. As you fight your way out you’ll realize things in and around the town of DUSK have gone wrong - very wrong. But the only way out is through if you want to find answers as things get deeper and darker.

You’d better just kill everything in your path.
That’s what Doomguy would do, right? He’s so great <3

We encourage you to explore just as much as you create gore in DUSK. We’ve tried our best to reward the player for doing so and for clearing the levels in creative and fun ways.

And if all else fails type in IDKFA (Yes, that really works)

We want you to go, “Hey, I wonder if I stack this gas can on top of this box and rocket jump off it onto this roof, will there be a secret up there?” Yes, there is a secret up there. And now you feel rewarded. At least that’s how we think it works...

There are achievements built into the game as well as ones we’re working on for the final version that will unlock outside of the game on your platform of choice.

Yes, they look like that on purpose.

We’ve been using similar polygon and palette restrictions to match Quake 1. Unity keeps trying to make the game look better.

Originally posted by Symanzki interview:

Dusk looks like it was built in the Quake II (1997) engine but, in fact, it’s being built in Unity—a modern game engine capable of some truly impressive visuals[killscreen.com]. Which is a problem. “[The] biggest challenge is just convincing Unity to stop doing things that make the game look better,” Szymanski said. Through a process of trial and error he has figured out different ways to make Dusk look truly retro. This involved not just using lower res textures, but using textures that had a smaller color palette—a limiting factor for games back in the day. Some of these settings can be turned on and off, “depending on how faithfully crappy players want Dusk to look,” Szymanski said. -KillScreen Interview

The idea is for Dusk to look like old school Quake 1 software rendering at it’s “worst” and like a high end Quake source port (like DarkPlaces running the Epsilon mod comp) at its “best”



“Ok, sure - got it”

Indeed it does. That’s because DUSK has an all original OST composed by metal music mastermind Andrew Hulshult who you may know from Brutal DOOM and Rise of the Triad. Some dude on reddit knows what’s up:



Andrew’s aforementioned OST that will contain probably like 40+ tracks. There are shades of QUAKE, DOOM and ROTT all up in this MF. There’s melody, there’s metal, there’s everything in between. Y’all like Ministry? Y’all like NIN? Y’all like Beethoven? Sure ya do.

We’re probably going to do a CD & vinyl release. Maybe even a big box DUSK Collector’s Edition. But don’t quote me on that.

Don’t quote me on anything really.
Sometimes I just make ♥♥♥♥ up.

The sound design is also mostly original. David went out in rural Pennsylvania to record it. With a recorder. Kinda nuts!

He even went over to Centralia[en.wikipedia.org]. Which is kind of where DUSK takes place. You may have heard of it. Because it’s also the setting for Silent Hill. OOOooOhhhhH SPOOKY.




Anyway, we hope you appreciate the effort we put into the sound design + OST. Wear some nice headphones. You’ll be glad you did.

So yeah. That’s DUSK.

A love letter to almost all things 90s FPS.

We care about level design.
We care about sound design.
We care about making the player feel powerful and rewarded.
We care about providing a lot of value for $20.
And we care about you having a good time.

So go have a good time.

Because if you love DUSK as much as we love DUSK - then we’re pretty sure that you will.

Chur \m/

@DaveOshry c/o @TheNewBloods and @DUSKdev