Survive the silent forest

UNTIL FIRST LIGHT

Hollow Vale has sunk into the Nightmare. Keep one campfire burning for 29 nights, and stay in its light: the Entity hunts anyone left in the dark.

Download for Windows Version 0.4.0 playtest · Windows 10/11, 64-bit · 423 MB zip
The Nightmare: spiders and the Entity close in on a campfire in the dark forest

The long night

Keep the fire alive

Gather, build and fight through 29 nights that never end in day. Every night the dawn breaks apart and the dark closes in again, and every few nights it breaks into the Nightmare.

The screen glitching apart as dawn fails

The dawn that never comes

First light creeps up the horizon, the world stutters and tears, and the night winds back to 6 PM. Nothing warns you which dawn will break into the Nightmare.

The Engineer at a camp ringed with fences and traps

Fortify the camp

Fell trees, break stone and scavenge scrap. Raise fences, set bear traps, caltrops, tar pots, spike plates and powder kegs, and build a night watch to keep the hours.

The pack open on the weapon upgrade bench

Forge your weapon

Each calling fights and gathers with its own weapon. Rework it through five tiers as you level, from a hunting bow to Dawnstring.

The survival pass with a character card and prestige

Grow between expeditions

Levels earn survival points for your calling. Spend them on a survival pass of perks and offerings, and climb in prestige page by page.

Four callings

Choose who keeps watch

Each calling has its own weapon, three skills and a passive. Together they cover what the others lack.

The Ranger drawing her bow

Ranger

Range & scouting

An elven scout who fights from a bowshot away. Her arrows fell trees; she dashes clear and whips up a vortex of razor leaves.

The Engineer beside his cannon

Engineer

Defence & building

A dwarven smith whose hammer smashes, builds and mends. Turrets hold a lane while his forge ward shields the party.

The Cleric in a chapel garden

Cleric

Support & sustain

The chapel's novice, who smites with prayer, mends the party and hurls the swarm back on a wave of holy light.

The Berserker with her greataxe amid flames

Berserker

Melee frontline

Ysolde Redmane, last captain of the shieldwall. War Cry, Whirling Axe and Earth Shatter, and crimson blades when she is brought low.

Together

Up to five around one fire

Host online and share a ten-character room code. Friends join from anywhere with no port forwarding or extra software. Each wanderer has their own pack, calling and health; fallen friends can be brought back with candles lit at their cross. LAN play works too.

Install and play

  1. Download the zip and extract the whole thing.
  2. Run Until First Light.exe. Keep the .pck file beside it.
  3. Windows may warn about an unrecognised app. Choose More info, then Run anyway.
  4. For co-op, everyone needs the same version.

Controls

  • WASD move, mouse aim, left click attack
  • Q, E, right click calling skills
  • F gather and interact, Tab pack and upgrades
  • B build, M field atlas, Esc pause
  • Xbox-style controllers are supported.

Light the fire

This is an early playtest build. Expect rough edges, and tell us what you find.

Download for Windows