UNTIL DAWN: Character Overview
“Hello friends and fans”
I wanted to take a look at the main cast of characters from Until Dawn and a little retrospective on how I feel about each one and the direction they take throughout the game. A little preface for anyone reading this who hasn’t read my page on my portfolio; I was the narrative designer and writer for Until Dawn (2024) at Ballistic Moon, and if you want more of my perspective and the challenges I faced on the project as a whole I recommend taking a look at that page!
UNTIL DAWN has a host of beloved (and not so beloved) characters, each played brilliantly by their respective actors. As someone who was on the Until Dawn reddit page religiously during the development of the 2024 release, I am fully aware of both the communities opinions on the characters, as well as the interesting views that same community seemed to hold about the developers opinion on the characters. It always made the office laugh when the latest ‘the devs hate character’ posts would surface. The truth to that is pretty simple, they were all loved and our own personal opinions on decade old characters didn’t have any impact on the treatment of any one character. Ultimately there is no business sense in somehow finding a way to treat one character better than the others, if resources and time were not the largest factor of development then more effort would have been placed towards increasing the impact and playtime of all the characters. Unfortunately it wasn’t to be and we took the wins where we could; a new ending for a certain character, a fleshed out prologue that added more screen time and development for the twins and the odd scene rework to expand on the nuances of others.
I don’t want to go into production details and speculate on the wider business intentions of the characters because it simply isn’t my place. Instead I wanted to share my thoughts and feelings towards the characters as they are. I spent many years working with and learning about these characters and I don’t believe in dictating opinions, especially when I am not the original writer. I will first talk about the traits and which ones I decided to change for each character. In chapter 1 (chapter 2 for Josh) each character is introduced with a freeze frame that states their dynamic in the friend group, as well as three words that describe their personalities. In the 2024 Until Dawn I changed several of these for different characteristics that I felt better suited them, I am fully aware that not everyone will agree with these but I would like to explain why I believe they better suit our protagonists.
Emily Davis:
Emily is my favourite character, she was in 2015, she is in 2025. I believe Emily is inarguably the most polarising character in Until Dawn, a real ‘love/hate’ personality. Her no nonsense attitude and self serving entitlement makes for such a compelling character, phenomenally portrayed by Nichole Sakura. In my personal opinion, Emily has the best lines in the game (I used to have a number of them posted on my wall above my desk) and she is such a fun element to the game. However, I can absolutely understand how someone could hate her, if I knew her in real life we would absolutely come to blows. Thankfully she is a fictitious character.
“Mike’s Ex”
Many of the characters had their group dynamic descriptors changed for a couple of reasons. Due to these reasons we tried to create a semblance of continuity among the characters. Emily, Mike, Matt and Jessica were all adapted so that this status reflected their partner. In terms of readability this did make it easier for new players, simplifying the web of who’s who. It makes it a lot more memorable when Emily is introduced as the girlfriend of the character that is right next to her and he is referred to as the boyfriend of the character right next to him. It was also to give a tiny bit more autonomy to the characters, it felt kinder to refer to these characters in relation to the relationships they are in, opposed to the ones they are beholden to. Emily is Matt’s girlfriend and Matt is Emily’s boyfriend, a more mutual emphasis than before. Nothing more to say on that, it was a minor change that was predominantly done for readability.
“Intelligent/Resourceful”
There was no need to change these traits, they are both great descriptors for the character we come to know throughout the game. Emily consistently is a voice of reason and responsibility throughout the game, even if she delivers it in less than polite ways. Her idea to radio for help, the ingenious methods in which she escapes the mines and her ability to preserve herself is rooted in her intelligence.
Emily knew how to craft a torch, immediately using the resources around her (including ripping up a very expensive piece of clothing, the height of character development)
She knew not to move in the elevator, despite not having the information that other characters would be given in such situations
It was Emily that discovered the most important clues towards the tragic accident that affected Beth and Hannah a year ago
Some would even argue that pushing a friend, who advocated for your almost certain demise in leaving a safe room, so that you could get a head of them in a dangerous situation was a healthy dose of self preservation. (Some would argue)
Emily IS intelligent and resourceful, I don’t believe that should be up to debate.
“Persuasive/Forthright”
Yes I did change this. Yes, I believe I was correct in this instance. This change did not come about due to the need to refer to Emily as ‘forthright’ but due to the mislabelling of ‘persuasive’. I do not believe that Emily is persuasive for one simple reason, we should not conflate ‘persuasive’ for ‘manipulative’. Linguistically there is a clear difference between the two words purely based on transparency. Emily is not persuasive when it comes to Matt, she does lie to him in order to get him to go to the lodge while she finds Mike, she places Matt in multiple positions that would endanger him in order to further protect herself (The Cable car ledge, the deer on the cliff and even attempts to get him to leap to a the cable car that is far beyond their reach.) Now don’t get me wrong, there is a fine line between the two but I don’t believe that Emily exudes persuasive traits in the same way that someone like Sam does, who employs more intelligence and logic based arguments opposed to personal reasonings. I struggle to think of many scenarios in the game where Emily is persuasive, even her most reasonable argument regarding the radio at the tower is a false choice, if you do not agree with her Matt is not persuaded, he is practically forced to agree.
Forthright to me is simple. Emily does not hold back, she speaks directly and unfiltered most of the time. She is unapologetic in her statements and someone who is forthright can often be seen as aggressive or outspoken, this sounds very much like Emily Davis.
Samantha Giddings:
The internets true ‘final girl’, Sam is the protagonist of Until Dawn in my eyes. Sam is meant to serve the role of the most balanced character who we experience the night through. Everything from her demeanour to her aversion to conflict is designed to make her a likable character to all. She has many moments to shine throughout the game. In the best ending, she is responsible for the culmination of the nights events, freeing Hannah’s spirit and ending the wendigo’s reign of terror, while also ensuring the survival of all her friends at the risk of her own life.
“Diligent/Considerate”
These two descriptors go hand in hand for me. The examples of where Sam shines in respect to these traits are as follow:
The finale; the entire ending is rooted in Sam’s selfless need to protect her friends and get them out of harms way. She acts as if it is her duty in that moment to be the last out, to ensure the safety of her friends.
‘Emily’s Dilemma’ is another great example, she is the only person advocating on the side of Emily in this moment and she rushes to Mike while he holds a fire arm trained on Emily.
The prologue depicts Sam as the only (non-passed out) friend of the Washington’s that holds some trepidation when it comes to the prank, completely opting out of joining in
For a more in depth look into the narrative decisions taken here, you can read what I have to say in my portfolio work, where I direct a section towards Sam’s character and development as a whole throughout the game.
“Adventurous/Brave”
Adventurous never sat right with me as a trait for Sam, because she isn’t. I think it actually takes away from her character and the decisions that she makes throughout the game when labelled as such. Sam isn’t adventurous, she is a very brave young woman. She doesn’t actively seek danger or tackle challenges because it is in her nature, but because she feels an obligation to do so, even if it places her in danger. The person we know looks to be more reserved than adventurous, she has no interest in joining the Ouija board crew, opting to instead take a hot bath for 3 hours and relax. In the prologue she is depicted drawing her friends throughout the night instead of partying to the same extent and she does not insist on joining the daring Mike in his escapade to save Josh, until she discovers information that requires her to go after him. These are the actions of a brave individual who puts aside her own fear and comfort to protect her loved ones, not for the thrill of adventure.
She was not adventurous in tiptoing around in a towel, in the dark, looking for her friends, she was brave.
Climbing a huge rock wall on her own, intent on reaching her friend to save him was not adventurous, it was bravery
Ensuring all her friends have the chance to escape, while ensuring the destruction of the monster that plagued them, is the definition of brave
I fully believe in the change here because Sam is a good character who gets painted as ‘bland’ and ‘boring’ by some. I think there is a lot more complexity to the character here, that is on display if you look at the scenarios differently and with perspective shift.
MORE TO COME NEXT WEEK
