Visual Novel: Before the Dawn

Visual Novel: Before the Dawn follows Evdokia, a singer who has concerts, television appearances and fans in the city but rarely thinks about her hometown. When her sister Alyona calls and asks her to visit because she is alone at their grandmother’s house, Evdokia hurries onto a bus without her medication. She gets off in Skukotino, beside a leaning post with a faded, barely legible name.

Alyona greets her happily, though she is painfully thin and often vanishes into the woods. Their grandmother’s house stands at the edge of the village, blackened with age and covered in moss. After Alyona sends Evdokia to rest in the bathhouse, Evdokia discovers that she is not alone there.

Meet the spirits

The village and forest are home to supernatural beings, each with their own personality, rules and reasons for appearing:

• The Bannik: the spirit who rules the bathhouse and dislikes people bathing alone in his domain.
• The Nochnitsa: a tall, gaunt woman with white eyes who takes Evdokia’s song drafts and challenges her to hide-and-seek until dawn.
• The Boginka: a young woman in a ravine who braids her hair and asks unexpected questions.
• The Vodyanoy, Rada and Vladislava: the Vodyanoy wants to sleep, while the mermaids alternate between chatting, arguing and beckoning Evdokia into the water.
• The Leshy: an old forest guardian who is not evil. You can visit him with a campfire, berries and nuts, but must answer his questions.

The forest also holds a talking black dog and a figure from Evdokia’s past to whom she owes a debt. Dialogue brings out unexpected sides of these beings: the sisters tease each other, while the water spirits and the Leshy speak differently from the terrifying figures they are supposed to be.

Explore the village

The story unfolds in an autumn village among a forest and fog, with a wood-burning stove, an earth-roofed bathhouse, a field at night, a river and a campfire deep in the woods. The Nochnitsa’s hide-and-seek game puts Evdokia’s songs at stake.

A story with multiple endings

The story follows two sisters, old grievances and the question of whether it is possible to return to a place you once fled. It has multiple endings, some dark and others hopeful.