Undying Dusk is a video game in PDF format, with a gameplay based on exploration and logic puzzles, in the tradition of dungeon crawlers.

The game is set in a fantasy realm where a curse set by the Empress keeps the world in an eternal dusk. You play a woman who recently found shelter in an eerie monastery.

It features:

• ~ 200 000 PDF pages
• retro aesthetics: 160x120 resolution & a 16 colors palette
• a grid-based world with 50+ distinct tiles & 10 maps to explore
• more than 30 treasure items, weapons & spells to pick up in order to face 15 enemy monsters
• 20 music tracks
• thousands of "Game Over" pages, and a single path to victory
• 4 hidden secrets & a concealed epilogue
• an online hall of fame

It was made during the summer of 2020 by Lucas Cimon. To my knowledge, this is the very first video game in a PDF format.

Dedicated SubReddit

Table of contents:

• Trailer GIFs
• Download
  • For Windows gamers
• Compatible PDF readers
• Credits & attribution
  • Heroine Dusk
  • Graphical assets
  • Fonts
  • Music
  • Playtesters
• Tools used
• Build steps
• License

Trailer GIFs

Download

Download the game on itch.io.

Release notes: CHANGELOG.md

For Windows gamers

There is ZIP archive you can download for every version on the GitHub Releases page: it contains the PDF game and the Sumatra PDF reader program.

Once the ZIP content is extracted in a folder, you just have to double-click on the LAUNCH_UNDYING_DUSK_IN_SUMATRA.bat file to start the game.

This will allow you to play with the PDF reader that is best compatible with the game, without installing it globally on your computer.

Compatible PDF readers

You will find below a comparison table of how well several PDF readers wil let you play to Undying Dusk. Notably, Adobe Acrobat Reader does not perform well to render the game.

We only recommend PDF readers that meet all of the above criteria.

Questions & edits on this table are welcome through issues & Pull Requests.

Credits & attribution

Heroine Dusk

Undying Dusk is basically a PDF port / total conversion of Clint Bellanger wonderful Heroine Dusk game, with different game mechanics & slightly expanded.

I cannot thank him enough for providing the foundations of this game, under a GPL v3 / CC-BY-SA 3.0 license: high quality Javascript source code of a retro dungeon-crawler game engine, and numerous gorgeous visual assets of tiles, enemies & items. Thank you Clint!

Graphical assets

First of all, this game uses the great 16 color palette made by DawnBringer at PixelJoint.

This game also makes use of the following assets, some of which I ported to the DawnBringer palette:

• all the original art was made by Clint Bellanger for the original Heroine Dusk game - CC BY-SA 3.0
• enemies come from Redshrike remix of Heroine Dusk original ones. Seamus wizard, demon & gorgon portraits from his 6 More RPG Enemies spritesheet, black bird from his Tower Defense Prototyping Assets and blowfish from his 3 RPG enemy remixes - all CC BY-SA 3.0 Shadow soul extra frames come from Bosses and monsters spritesheets (Ars Notoria) by Balmer - CC BY 3.0
• most new sprites (direction arrow, items, tiles) come from the awesome Recolor all the items!!! spritesheet by Marcus Ihde - CC-BY-SA 3.0
• bible, fish & scroll 16x16 icons from Kyrise's Free 16x16 RPG Icon Pack - CC BY 4.0
• cloudy town, animated flying demon, prie-dieu, statue, wood box & well from GothicVania Patreon Collection, GothicVania Church assets, GothicVania Cemetery assets, GothicVania Town assets, Forest Background & Mountain at Dusk Background by Luis Zuno (@ansimuz) - public domain
• forest fringe & valley village backgrounds by trulio - CC BY 3.0
• !$dungeon Of Sorrow Gate & !$Secret Passage by Nicnubill
• portcullis from LPC castle by Evert - CC BY 3.0
• cauldron & fire from [LPC] Dungeon Elements by Sharm - CC BY 4.0
• Boulder pixel art by TdeLeeuw - CC BY-NC-SA 3.0
• portal by LetargicDev - CC0
• dead tree by JRob774 - CC BY 3.0
• health bar from Buch Golden UI - CC0
• torch on wall from Blackspire studio Medieval PixelArt assets
• small amulet & magnifying glass from DawnLike 16x16 Universal Rogue-like tileset by DragonDePlatino - CC BY 4.0
• distant castle background by jkjkke - CC BY 3.0
• palace hall & ruins background from CraftPix.net 2D Game Assets - OGA-BY 3.0
• Dominik portrait from Blarumyrran faceset 2-bit - CC0
• Seamus portrait from RPG portraits by Buch - CC0
• Monk from Oracle Portrait by Justin Nichol - CC BY-SA 3.0
• Monk portrait from Wizard by lylfDW - CC0
• small storm dragon by Sharm - CC BY 3.0
• open book by Min - CC0
• stump made from Snake on an old stump by Angry Amish - CC0
• hangman from Fantasy Tiles by surt - CC0
• Temple background by Ironthunder - CC BY 4.0
• boat from Mythical Ruins Tileset by voec - CC0
• knight from Dungeon Crawl 32x32 tiles - CC0
• other knight from 2d Lost Garden Zelda style tiles resized to 32x32 with additions by Daniel Cook, Jetrel, Saphy (TMW), Zabin, Bertram - CC BY 3.0
• small mimics from Chest and Mimic by IndigoFenix - CC BY 3.0
• blood splat by PWL - CC BY 3.0
• Rose Flower by Lovecraft - CC0
• fish-on-a-stick & hand mirror from 496 pixel art icons for medieval/fantasy RPG by Henrique Lazarini (7Soul1) - CC0
• knight & skeleton portrait from 32x32 Fantasy portrait set by CobraLad - CC BY 3.0
• explosion from Lots of free 2d tiles and sprites by Hyptosis - CC BY 3.0
• SNES JRPG Background: Snowy Village by Inkerrio
• attacks SFXs from Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup - CC0
• gorgon's staff downscaled from Staff by LordNeo - CC0
• castle & tree on historical map from Karto tileset - CC BY 3.0
• small house on historical map from Micro Tileset - Overworld and Dungeon - OGA-BY 3.0