Dark and Darker, the long-awaited PvP dungeon crawler that's faced some big uncertainties due to legal disputes, is finally coming to Early Access today through a website called Chaf Games.
If you've not previously heard of Chaf Games, you're not alone. It's a pretty small indie gaming storefront whose primary business model seems to be based on a $7 USD monthly subscription similar to Xbox Game Pass. The service hosts some notable indie games - you'll probably recognize games like Overcooked 2, Blasphemous, and Yoku's Island Express from at least one of the 50 indie bundles you've bought in the last few years - but it's not exactly the kind of place you'd expect a game like Dark and Darker to be distributed.
Dark and Darker itself is going to be available as a purchase separate from that subscription. You can either pick up the Standard Edition for $35 or spend $50 on the Founder's Edition to get exclusive access to the skeleton race, blue torch item skin, and hold the line emote, as well as some sort of special access to test dungeons. The game's not yet available as of this writing, but the store page is currently up for your perusal - at least for now, as the site's been going up and down under the weight of all the curious fans.
If you prefer a direct download, Dark and Darker is also available through developer Ironmace's official website. Either way, there's an in-game store you can spend real money in, which isn't a shocker for an online game in 2023, but is a notable announcement given how unclear the game's monetization plans have been.
"Our assumption when we started this company was that you could still build a lucrative business while being true to your fans," the devs say on Discord. "The in-game shop is our attempt at being realistic with the business of running an online game but trying to find a way to do it without resorting to random loot boxes and FOMO items. We want to offer players a fair way to support us while enjoying the game."
For now, the devs warn that "Early Access" means Early Access, and you should expect to see "many growing pains." The studio says that "many key features are still missing and will be added in the upcoming months. We’ll be experimenting with the leaderboard system, and we’ll do our best to be transparent about the ranking schedules so players don’t get too stressed out."
The rollout has been more than a little weird. Developer Ironmace hasn't been sending out press releases or launch trailers, but after fans discovered the store page earlier today, the studio has been talking to content creators like Onepeg and community members on Discord to confirm some of the details, including the fact that Chaf Games is the company's "official partner and they are also helping us prepare."
But a weird rollout is par for the course when it comes to Dark and Darker. After some very successful playtests on Steam, Nexon - a massive Korean publisher - alleged that some of its former employees, now developers on Dark and Darker, stole assets from their previous job in order to create the game. In the wake of those allegations, there were reports of police raids and the game was pulled from Steam, but the ongoing legal issues haven't prevented the developers from continuing to deliver playtests by whatever means necessary.
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