Welcome to Dawn World Online

Dawn World is a strategy life game concept in a rich 3D online mmorpg environment. It is a progressive concept driven mainly by PvE (Player to Environment) and PvP (Player to Player) interaction. The game world is set in a pre-industrial era and aims to reflect a degree of realism in the gameplay, while also maintaining the enterntainment value of gaming. Rather than endlessly leveling up in order to slay greater enemies, a degree of lateral thought has gone into the development, encouraging intuitive and strategic thought to progress through the world.

The mmorpg experience is diverse and interactive. As in actual life you can improve your skills and trades as you choose. You are not limited to any particular skill or trade path and can pick and choose how and when you use these to solve missions, and even create your own unique missions which may well effect the online world. This allows for a rich and open-ended online experience, an important part of the game play. As in real life there are centres (towns, taverns, markets) for trading, gaining information, and meeting up with fellow players.

There are many ways the Dawn World Online Game can be played. In addition to having multiple skills (passive, active, and combat) that can be used in general gameplay and mission/quest solving, you will be able to trade locally and internationally; buy and own businesses; own and lease land; employ NPC (nonplayer in-game characters); hire out your services; barter, agree to pacts, treaties and deals; and be involved in governing responsibilities...If you are good enough, you may even make it to being map-world ruler if the environment permits.

I've launched a YouTube channel to organise some video tutorials, probably the easiest way to learn how the game works. You can see the videos at

Dawn World Channel

Added slipgate and town locations to the HUD map. Fixed some minor HUD related bugs.

Game Play
[25/06/10] [Fixed] Crafting, when an item is crafted, the resources aren't consumed
[25/06/10] [Fixed] Crash when try to buy in player market
[25/06/10] [Fixed] Player selling item gets a notification item isn't found re above
[25/06/10] [Fixed] Sometimes can't buy items from some NPCs

Interaction
[25/06/10] [Fixed] On game start camera view is straight up/down - use mouse forward scroll to reset view
[25/06/10] [Improved] On Collision, character gets drawn into obstacles from certain angles - Improved collision formula, however there are plans to introduce full Physics once the game play is working well, and so this will suffice for the initial alpha testing as it's not critical to game play.

The 1st Alpha release has been quite successful . The aim was to identify any game play and interaction anomolies. A number of small bugs were identified by the alpha testers and fixed immediately. a number of more critical bugs were found and we are now working on those.

The recent release included the automatic mining / chopping of ore and rough wood for resource gathering. Now that this is all working correctly and some recent HUD bugs have been fixed, it's time to move on the much awaited crafting abilities. The majority of the code base is already in place and working, so it's just a case of testing for any remaining bugs and adding items to be crafted. This is relatively straight-forward as the system is entirely modular making it very easy to introduce new items and the relative attributes.

Introducing the new character has been quite involved due to the use of human motion capture animations. The new model has been introduced, as has animations and automatic resource gathering of Wood / Stone / Metal. You can basically go to a quarry, see it's details and start mining. Mana will reduce as you mine, you can pick up the items, use the HUD and replenish mana as you mine. As soon as the mining animation has been refined, the update will be released.

Recently we've been working on incidental resource gathering (Herbs / food for health and strength) and material gathering such as wood/stone and metals. Incidentals are complete and working and te materials gathering is mainly complete except for some tidying of behaviour.

We also plan to introduce a new model as the main character. Essentially it is a refined version of the present character, animated with human motion capture. It was a difficult decision due to the amount of work involved. As the current model was only meant to be a stand in, it was inevitable that new model should be completed. As soon as I introduced it, the game play looked 100% better (to me) and it was a good move to do it sooner rather than later.

Progress was delayed recently by the Windows 64bit installation problem and currently an oddly behaving animation sequence in the new model is causing a weapon mounted in the hand to rotate in an undesired way. After much research the source of the problem has been found (but not the actual problem, no body knows at the moment), so I will just replace the animation sequences. The new model can be introduced then and progress with the game play can be made.

The next stage of developemnt will be focusing on basic gameplay and initial content. We have already implemented basic rescource gathering, herbs / plants, fish and sea produce. Shortly you will also be able to cook with meats and fish and produce more effective foods. These items can be used for health and mana replenishment and sold in the local markets. We are now moving on the secondary rescource gathering, such as wood, stone and metal ores. You will need the right tools for this, using the wrong tool may damage it. The better the tool, the quicker you could gather a resource.

The initial alpha release has been sucessful. There were a number of minor bugs (to be expected):

We also received both positive and thorough feedback from the alpha testers, thanks indeed. We have noted these comments and will absorb them into the concept.

We are pleased to announce that the first alpha release is now out. This first release is to test installation, server connections, basic game interaction and performance. If you are interested in being an alpha tester and having a sneak preview of the game, head to the forums -> "Dawn-World Alpha Testing" where you will find info on how to sign up and install the game files. Enjoy.

Fianlly we have ironed out most of the bugs and have finished the install test on several machines. there were a few issues with regional language and currency settings, but now it installs fine on a number of configurations. This represenrs a major step forward and I see this as a milestone in the game development. Basically we now have an interactive world where items can be traded and made, raw materials collected, missions done together with chat and meeting up with other players.

We are a little behind due to the recent flu in Europe, however we are now going through the final stages of basic game play testing. We have also been carrying out the final server function testing and hope to have something for those who have been patient in the next few week. The first release will test the install set, graphics, basic gameplay and server code stability. After this we will implement clans & alliances, further missions and later, player building options.

During the last month much time has been spent on the development of more detailed player models, refining animations, quality of foliage and general visual quality of the game. Now we are nearing the completion of the planned 1st Alpha test. As the graphics are now of a good standard, we have decided to release a test / practice demo showing basic trading, simple and more complex missions and general world interaction. This demo will be without a server login, but will show how the game play works. We decided on this route to give a sneek preview of Dawn World, rather than prolong the release until the server code was fully tested. We intend to make this available in the next 2 to 3 weeks.

Much time has also been spent on developing the idea for players to build thier own buidings. A system has been devised for a player to make a tent, form a camp, build the camp into a village and attract other players to form a clan. Players will also be able to build a unique house from pre defined but diverse set of components in keeping with the available matrerials. the player could choose to join a village / clan and build their house there, or build a house outside a village, area permitting. There will be no requirement to build, but players would choose to build if it suits their method of play. This will allow a further degree of diversity in the game.

The general concepts have been completed and coded into the game play. General open ended, NPC and NPC specific missions have been completed. An additional concept of moral based missions, where you receive moral and reputation points instead of hard payment has also been coded in. All that remains is to do is test to make sure all missions track correctly and transfer from session to session.

The current development effort is focused on in-game missions. The work includes setting up a universal mission structure in which all missions can be loaded. There are three main types of missions planned: General game missions, where you collect various items to construct, mix or sell; General NPC missions, where once you have the general info you can collect, construct or buy various items/skills to supply generally in one or more areas; NPC specific missions, where your goal is to obtain specific items or skills required by an NPC. There is also plan to introduce a system where you can buy or sell missions and mission items. This will allow you to offer out hard earned mission info to other players with skills for that mission, or sell items required for a mission goal to other players, and you could even act as a middle man for a specific missions.

It has always been intended to release Dawn early in the development process and let it grow gradually. This has several benefits to the developers and player community as a decent mmorpg is a complex and demanding development process. Rather than investing great effort in developing behind closed doors followed by mass marketing to recover quickly the initial investment, an evolutionary release practice will involves the game community and provide valueable feedback. Allowing the online game experience to improve gradually. In this way not only are the players directly involved in the virtual world development they are actually involved in the world development in actual reality.

As inhouse testing and debugging continues we are nearing the time a Alpha release will be available to decicated testers. There is very little to do category wise with just final server data tests, customise character code and initial missions to finish off. We can't say exactly when the release will be available as it's always the last 10% that takes the time, but it will be soon.

The forum is now up and running. This will allow for Alpha testers to sign up for an account and report on any bugs found. It is also intended to evolve into a general discussion forum for the game. Please feel free to sign up for an account and express any interest you have.

Although mmorpg games have a low latency server requirement (needs to update game information every 1 or so second), the servers will still need to support a large player base per map. Generally this would be about a 500 to 1000 logged in players per server. We found the server code to be robust and capable to support an online game.

The look and feel of the Dawn website was finalised. the trick was to make it look unique but keep the familiarity of an mmorpg online game. We wanted to keep it straightforward and uncluttered while capturing the essence of the game environment. We feel that a good balance has been achieved and we hope you agree.

A substantial part of the game code has recently been completed and debugged and we are now begining to see the fruits of all our labour. The recent code build now allows for us to capture in game screen shots and use them on the website. Earlier versions screenshots showed little environmental grass and trees. Recent developments have allowed a greater density of grass and a doubling of bush and small tree density.