HUNTED: THE LAST DAWN

The crash was only the beginning. Hunted by Nullbeasts, Sage must turn his Trailwarden into a survival machine and unlock Project Dawn before humanity’s last hope is erased.

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Inspiration

HUNTED: THE LAST DAWN was inspired by survival games in which every resource, route and preparation decision matters.

We also wanted to place a disabled hero at the center of a science-fiction survival story—not as someone waiting to be rescued, but as a capable researcher whose mobility device is essential to exploration and survival.

Sage is a paraplegic researcher who survives an orbital shuttle crash. His tracked Trailwarden mobility chair becomes his transportation, lighting system, upgrade platform and primary defense against the creatures hunting him.

What it does

HUNTED: THE LAST DAWN is a single-player, portrait mobile survival and resource-management prototype.

The player must:

  • Explore a hostile wilderness.
  • Gather wood, water, food and salvage.
  • Choose upgrades for the Trailwarden.
  • Repair a long-range beacon.
  • Escape the Null Echo during the night.
  • Reach and restore a damaged field outpost.
  • Craft a cutter and recover Project Dawn data.
  • Prepare for and survive three escalating defense waves.

The prototype contains a complete two-day campaign with a clear beginning, progression, victory, failure, retry and replay experience.

Players can select Guided Navigation for directional ground chevrons or use Standard Navigation with the compass, destination name, distance and objective marker.

How we built it

The prototype was created through an AI-assisted, prompt-based development process using:

  • HTML5
  • JavaScript
  • Three.js
  • Procedural Web Audio
  • Mobile touch controls
  • Responsive portrait interface design

The readable, unminified game code is contained in index.html. Three.js is packaged locally inside the vendor folder, and the prototype does not require external network requests while running.

Development was completed in focused passes. We first established movement and the core gather → upgrade → survive loop. We then added crafting, objectives, escalating threats, navigation, lighting, accessibility, defense waves, failure recovery and replay systems.

A chronological build log records the prompts, decisions, tests, problems and corrections made throughout development.

Challenges we ran into

The greatest challenge was making a 3D survival environment understandable and playable on a portrait phone.

Physical-phone testing revealed several issues that were not obvious during desktop testing:

  • HUD text was too large.
  • Daytime scenes still appeared too dark.
  • The original objective marker resembled a vertical beam instead of a directional arrow.
  • Resource guidance needed clearer destination matching.
  • The second defense wave did not initially give Sage enough time to reposition.
  • Restart and replay systems needed to reset lights, enemies, objectives and timers without creating duplicates.

We corrected these issues by reducing and simplifying mobile text, improving Day 2 daylight, adding automatic nighttime headlamps, creating compass and ground-chevron guidance, correcting objective targeting and adding temporary protection during Wave 2.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We are proud that the prototype delivers a complete and repeatable survival session rather than ending with an unfinished feature.

Other accomplishments include:

  • A distinctive disabled protagonist whose mobility device is part of the core gameplay.
  • A focused gather → build → survive resource loop.
  • Meaningful Trailwarden and outpost choices.
  • A complete Day 1 night escape and Day 2 outpost defense.
  • Three escalating defense waves.
  • Clear victory, failure, retry and replay states.
  • Standard and Guided navigation options.
  • Large mobile touch targets and reduced-motion support.
  • Offline procedural lighting and audio.
  • Successful physical-phone testing of daylight, headlamps, navigation and temporary protection.

What we learned

We learned that desktop testing and calculated measurements cannot replace testing on a physical phone.

Lighting that appeared acceptable on a computer could still look too dark on a phone. A marker that was technically visible could still be difficult to follow while driving. Text that passed a size calculation could still overwhelm the portrait display.

We also learned that a focused, complete core loop is stronger than adding several unfinished systems. Frequent testing and narrow correction passes helped protect working features while improving readability, fairness and direction.

What's next for HUNTED-The Last Dawn

The full version would expand into a multi-region survival campaign featuring new environments, Project Dawn discoveries, deeper Trailwarden customization and additional Nullbeast variants.

Future upgrades would include a resource-powered Dawn Shield that allows Sage to spend supplies for temporary protection. Each new region would deepen the established gather → prepare → survive loop while building toward Sage's final confrontation with the Nullbeast.

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