Immediate success is rare in video games, but Lethal Company became a sensation almost as soon as it arrived on Steam back in October 2023. Now, two years on, how is solo dev Zeekerss moving forward? By making weird, fun horror games such as Welcome to the Dark Place, and I’m here for it.
Attracting tens of thousands of players in mere weeks, Lethal Company soared through the ranks of 2023's biggest and best releases. The co-op survival game, about gathering treasure on monster-infested moons, channels the same scares and bombastic hilarity as Phasmophobia or, more recently, REPO.
After tearing up Steam and the excitement and stress that ensued, Zeekerss is moving on through small, point-and-click games. Welcome to the Dark Place is a spooky, single-player experience about escaping a nightmare void before it consumes you totally.
Set in a "nightmare playground of ideas," the game combines text and sound to drag you in and push you toward finding an exit. It's creepy and chilling, and uses some nice, shadowy pixel art for select scenes to give you a sense of what's happening.
Honestly, I love it, both as a project and as a next step for Zeekerss. Work on this has been a palette cleanser from the demands of Lethal Company over the years, and it marks a return to the experimentation you can see in the developer's other work, like The Upturned and It Steals.
The first trailer actually arrived in 2019, as this has been a passion project Zeekerss has gradually chipped away at over the years. Whatever the case, Welcome to the Dark Place is free for anyone who wants to play. A fine way to celebrate Halloween, whether you've been poking around the moon for loot or not.
