Game Background and Worldbuilding#

Back to the Dawn sets its stage in a city called Rockfall City. In the official setting, this is a city rotten with corruption: the mayor’s faction covers the sky with one hand, and anyone who dares investigate the truth gets thrown into prison in return. The game’s opening is the result of that suppression — the fox reporter Thomas is framed and imprisoned by the mayor’s faction for investigating the truth, and what he must do is gather evidence, break out and clear his name within 21 days.

Understanding the worldbuilding is the prerequisite for understanding the whole design: why the schedule is strictly enforced, why gang relationships matter so much, and why intelligence is worth more than fists — every one of these systems grows out of the two layers of soil that are “a corrupt city” and “a crowded prison.”

Core Worldbuilding Settings#

Rockfall City: A Corrupt City#

Rockfall City is not a backdrop. It determines the two basic rules of the game:

1. Power can invert black and white. The mayor’s faction can turn a reporter investigating the truth into a prisoner, which means “clearing his name” cannot go through normal procedure — Thomas must build up evidence inside the prison himself, build up leverage, and then fight a path out for himself with his own hands.
2. There is no justice within the rules, and no freedom outside them. The prison schedule (roll call, yard time, curfew) is the surface-level rule that must be obeyed, while gangs, trading and intelligence networks are the real order beneath the water. Players moving between these two layers of rules is exactly where the game’s design tension comes from.

The Prison: A Society in Miniature#

With over one million words of text, the game writes the prison as a complete micro-society:

• Three major gangs check one another: the three gang forces inside the prison restrain each other; official and media material confirms the names of two of them, the “Bigfoot Gang” and the “Black Claw Gang,” while the third gang’s name has not been disclosed by any reliable source yet.
• Roughly 47-48 inmates with dedicated backstories: the counts differ slightly between sources (one says 47 inmates, another says 48), but the common point is that no inmate is a passerby — each has their own past, their own demands, and their own relationship lines to unearth.
• The schedule is the order: roll call, yard time and curfew form the skeleton of a prison day, and the cost of breaking the schedule is part of this game’s risk system.

How the Two Protagonists Ended Up in Prison#

Back to the Dawn uses a dual-protagonist setup, and the two of them crash into the order of the same prison from different directions.

Thomas: The Framed Fox Reporter#

Thomas’s identity as a reporter is not just a character tag: intelligence gathering and social interaction are exactly how he stands on his feet in prison. What he has to fight is not a single guard but an entire corrupt network stretching from the prison to city hall — the main story evidence of the mayor’s recording stitches together the two worlds inside and outside the prison.

Bob: The Undercover Black Panther Cop#

Bob is the second protagonist added in the full release, with his own independent story line. His relationship with Thomas is not a simple “reskin”: the reporter lives by his mouth and his brain, while the undercover cop stands on his skills and his stealth — the two lines move through the same prison at completely different rhythms.

The Relationship Between the Two Lines#

It should be emphasized that the official wording clearly states Bob has an independent story line. The best way to understand the two lines is “one prison, two gameplay philosophies”: Thomas’s line is a suspense-oriented evidence marathon, while Bob’s line puts more weight on action and stealth execution. See In-Depth Analysis of the Two Protagonists for a detailed comparison.

Genre Inspiration and Narrative Temperament#

The Bahamut game description notes that the subject matter of this game takes inspiration from classic prison works such as Prison Break and Escape from Alcatraz. All three points of that inheritance can be found in the game:

Narrative Themes: Truth, Time and Identity#

• Truth: the mayor’s recording is the key evidence of the main story, and “escape first or exonerate first” forms the game’s most central branching choice — escaping before finishing the main objective and escaping after lead to completely different ending paths.
• Time: the 21-day limit turns “time” into part of the narrative itself. Media reviews confirm this too: the time-pressure mechanic is seen as a drawback by some players, but it is exactly what gives every day weight.
• Identity: reporter, undercover cop, inmate, gang member — the game keeps switching the player’s identity viewpoint to convey the tension between rules and freedom.

How Worldbuilding Maps to Gameplay#

This mapping shows that the worldbuilding of Back to the Dawn is not decoration pasted onto levels; it grows directly into the systems. Later pages in this guide will take these systems apart layer by layer.

Related Pages#

• In-Depth Analysis of the Two Protagonists — full profiles and selection advice for Thomas and Bob
• Prison Area Map and Facilities Overview — the worldbuilding landing in concrete locations
• All Ending Conditions and Routes — the ending branch of “escape first or exonerate first”
• Also a narrative-driven RPG, Disco Elysium handles “small people crushed by the system” in a completely different way, and makes good contrast reading.