Published , by Sam Chandler
Published , by Sam Chandler
Dark and Darker has had a turbulent development cycle but the team at Ironmace Games has crossed another major milestone and released the game into early access. Players can pick it up through the official site or Chaf Games.
On August 7, 2023, the team at Ironmace Games made the announcement that after a long wait, Dark and Darker is finally in early access. No more waiting for betas or week-long Steam demos, if you want to play an incredibly unique, Dungeons and Dragons-style extraction game, you can do so now. Players can pick up the game from the Dark and Darker store or from Chaf Games, the latter of which is known for its library of indie games.
The official announcement by Ironmace notes that the Korean release has been delayed as the team awaits the rating from the Korean Game Rating Board. Additionally, in-game VoIP is temporarily unavailable as the legal team spends time ensuring that the agreements are “absolutely perfect, especially when it comes to dealing with user data and third-party partners.”
Ironmace has always been open about the need to monetize the game but to do so in a way that does not exploit the playerbase. There is an in-game shop in Dark and Darker, as well as a Founder’s Edition for those who want some extra goodies, but the team wants to avoid “random loot boxes and FOMO items.”
Finally, the announcement notes that this is still a work-in-progress and there are bound to be problems. One such problem has already cropped up with Chaf Games who has had to issue refunds due to some desynchronized payments. Apparently this is due to an “unexpectedly high volume of traffic”, which makes sense given Dark and Darkers’ popularity.
As for what’s been going on with Dark and Darker and why it’s taken Ironmace Games so long to release it into early access, it’s all thanks to some ongoing legal issues. Nexon had issued a cease and desist again Ironmace which resulted in Steam delisting the title. There are also allegations that ex-employees stole code and assets from Nexon and were using them to create Dark and Darker.
Since then, Ironmace has managed to run another demo weekend of Dark and Darker despite the game not being formally hosted on major platforms. Users had to acquire a string of digits from Ironmace, which were then decoded using a hex tool, which gave them a magnet link to download the game by torrenting. This roundabout way of accessing the game was due to official channels (Twitter and Discord) not accepting torrent links. During this punk playtest, Dark and Darker suffered a DDoS attack and underwent a few patches, which were also distributed via torrent.
But now, after all that and while still in the throes of legal battles with Nexon, Ironmace has released Dark and Darker into early access. Looks like it’s the season for dark fantasy games.