Before Daybreak: A Replayable Branching Story Where Promises Have Real Consequences

Before Daybreak is a short, replayable interactive story built for the Sanity Challenge, in which players navigate an ethical dilemma involving four people trying to leave a company-controlled site with evidence of concealed injuries. Players make three decisions — how to handle an offer of passage, what to prepare, and whether to keep a promise — with each choice materially affecting later outcomes rather than simply altering dialogue. A key mechanic ties the consequences of a broken promise to whichever character was established earlier as the guarantor, meaning the same final action can harm a different person depending on prior choices. After completing the story, players can revisit one earlier decision while the game preserves the previous ending to highlight which consequences changed and which did not. Built with Next.js, React, and Sanity Studio, the project requires no player account and no paid AI service to play.