Chasing the Dawn / CTD

Chasing the Dawn is a pixel-art roguelike strategy game built on a single high-stakes mechanic: every decision in the dungeon carries weighted risk, and failure means losing resources and progress that could have rebuilt your village. The release date for Chasing the Dawn is July 13, 2026 on PC.

The core loop chains dungeon runs to village rebuilding. You descend into randomised maps, manage limited resources and character abilities, and extract whatever loot, runes and recruits you can carry back. Each successful run feeds Dawnville's reconstruction, unlocking new expedition members and their unique abilities, which in turn enable deeper and more specialised dungeon strategies on the next attempt. It is a tight feedback cycle that rewards planning across multiple runs rather than mastery within a single descent.

Character specialisation reshapes every run

The roster grows to five members, each with distinct dungeon roles. Swapping between them is not cosmetic—the tactical options and enemy counters you can access change fundamentally depending on who you bring. This means higher difficulty attempts are not just harder versions of the same strategy, but require rethinking your approach for each character's toolkit. A run that works with one member becomes impossible with another, which is the design pressure the game relies on to stay unpredictable even after many ascents.

Risk management is the true opponent. Nearly one hundred runes can be chained for cumulative effects, dozens of random events force you to choose between recovery and progress, and seven distinct maps each introduce their own hazards and mechanics. The question is not whether you can win a run—it is whether the resources you commit now will compound into meaningful village upgrades that pay off over time. Greed often loses to patience, and knowing when to retreat with what you have is as important as knowing when to push deeper.

Whether balancing risk across multiple runs and waiting for compounding upgrades stays fresh through higher difficulties is the test Chasing the Dawn must pass. The mechanics support it, but execution and pacing will decide if this becomes a meditative, goal-driven roguelike or a grind that feels like progress stalling. For players who thrive on systems thinking and incremental mastery over twitch skill, and who enjoyed the long-term planning of games like Slay the Spire or the village-loop patience of Spiritfarer, this is worth adding to your wishlist now.