Dark and Darker devs announce April playtest with "some pretty substantial additions"

Four adventurers journey into a dim dungeon
(Image credit: Ironmace)

After some astronomically successful playtests, Dark and Darker is getting one more playtest in April ahead of its Early Access launch.

In their official Discord, the devs at Ironmace say that the most recent playtest "gave us a lot of clues on how to proceed with development. We realize we still have some important questions that need to be answered. It is for this reason we have decided to schedule another playtest prior to our Early Access launch. We hope to test some pretty substantial additions for this playtest that require a bit more development time than in the past."

That new playtest is scheduled to run from April 14 through April 19. The devs acknowledge that players may be disappointed by the longer downtime between this playtest and the last, but say "we will work our hardest to make the next one even better than before." There's no clue yet on what those "substantial additions" might be, however.

The devs have not yet committed to a firm release window for Dark and Darker in Early Access, though in a Q&A a few weeks ago, they said a launch in late April or early May was likely. This later playtest could indicate a later launch for the game itself, though without a proper release date announced in the first place, we can't really call this a delay.

While the success of Dark and Darker has been impressive, it hasn't been all good news lately. Nexon has alleged that Dark and Darker uses stolen assets from a project it had in the works - a claim Ironmace has vehemently denied.

Check out our Dark and Darker class guide if you're looking to plan your build before the next playtest.

Dustin Bailey
Staff Writer

Dustin Bailey joined the GamesRadar team as a Staff Writer in May 2022, and is currently based in Missouri. He's been covering games (with occasional dalliances in the worlds of anime and pro wrestling) since 2015, first as a freelancer, then as a news writer at PCGamesN for nearly five years. His love for games was sparked somewhere between Metal Gear Solid 2 and Knights of the Old Republic, and these days you can usually find him splitting his entertainment time between retro gaming, the latest big action-adventure title, or a long haul in American Truck Simulator.