Addictive and vicious retro-styled comedy puzzler chock full of profanity, abuse, unfairness and warped logic. Will You: Go North? Find Light Switch? Cower and whimper like a beaten swine? Make your decision and escape The Dark Room! Just remember - YA DIE! YA DIE! YA DIE! YA DIE!
All Reviews:
Very Positive (106) - 90% of the 106 user reviews for this game are positive.
Release Date:
Sep 20, 2018
Publisher:
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Early Access Game

Get instant access and start playing; get involved with this game as it develops.

Note: This Early Access game is not complete and may or may not change further. If you are not excited to play this game in its current state, then you should wait to see if the game progresses further in development. Learn more

What the developers have to say:

Why Early Access?

“The Dark Room is a wickedly unique product: a game based on a stage show that started as a YouTube series heavily influenced by old school text adventure games. We've done our best to capture the essence of the stage show in the game, with world class motion and facial animation capture that even few AAA studios can match.

But being something unique and different means that there's often a lot of unanswered questions or assumptions that we make about what's going to make the best possible experience for players. By taking the game to Early Access, we can fund further development and implement all the input from players and fans to truly make this the next best thing to seeing The Dark Room live.”

Approximately how long will this game be in Early Access?

“Depending on how quickly we can turn around development, we could potentially have the entirety of the Dark Room complete pretty fast! But as with all things in Game Development, sometimes things go wrong and we cannot account for what we don't know. We are hoping however to finish the game within 3 months, with major updates and releases of new rooms along the way.”

How is the full version planned to differ from the Early Access version?

“In future, we plan on releasing Room 2, Room 3, and then the Darkest Room - the ultimate challenge of your skills as a Darren. But in addition to being able to complete the story, there are plans for such neat features as Twitch integration for streamers, and a "Party Mode" to play with your friends at home.”

What is the current state of the Early Access version?

“Currently the entirety of Room 1 is playable from start to finish, with full facial motion capture and voice overs!”

Will the game be priced differently during and after Early Access?

“While we're in Early Access, the game will be discounted to reward all those players that adopted early and supported us on the way to our full release.”

How are you planning on involving the Community in your development process?

“We plan on sharing with the community every step of the way through development, and will be providing updates such as snippets of animation or dialogue that they can be expecting to see in future content passes. Players will be able to interact with the developers by way of the Steam Forums, where their feedback on timing and content will reach the team and be used to iterate on what the game will eventually become.

The Guardian himself may also make an appearance to interact with players!

Bugs will be our first priority to fix when we receive feedback, but we are all open to ideas for new mechanics to put into the game over time. We intend on building a community of players who can help us make this the best game it can possibly be.”
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About This Game

What is the Dark Room? The Dark Room is:

1. Sadism. With jokes.
2. An addictive throwback to 1980s text adventure games.
3. A one-of-a-kind retro-styled comedy puzzler that pits your pitiful brain against brutal deathtraps in the pursuit of freedom.
4. An adventure with a deep hidden story you can only unlock through skill, patience and exploration.
5. The kind of thing you can send to your friends just to make them very, very angry.
6. The exact opposite of an open-world game.
7. Like Fortnite, but only in the sense that it’ll make you want to kill.

With over three-and-a-half hours of recorded content, plus profanity, comedy, body horror, puzzles and warped logic, this is the Dark Souls of text adventures, the BDSM of RPGs, it’d be a walking simulator, but only if you were walking through a minefield.

Level One has 60 minutes of specially mo-capped dialogue and performance, while levels 2, 3 and Darkest give you even more, and will bring you the true story of Darren. Your money goes into making the game bigger, louder and more dangerous!

The Dark Room is the videogame adaptation of the interactive stage show of the same name from comedian John Robertson. So play this, then, when the show comes to your town, gather with the other survivors. Just remember - YA DIE! YA DIE! YA DIE! YA DIE!

Pick up the game while it's in Early Access and help us create the full Dark Room experience!

“This is the future of gaming.” - Ron Gilbert, on Twitter. (Original version, 2012)

“Is there a map? I’m lost.” - Ron Gilbert, on Twitter, three hours later. (Original version, 2012)

“The Dark Room is the stern scolding we all deserve... one of the most clever, hilarious and innovative takes on the genre I’ve ever seen” - PC PowerPlay

8/10 - Starburst Magazine

“I ate lint” - GameInformer AU

Mature Content Description

The developers describe the content like this:

The Dark Room is a game that does not visually depict any violence or gore, but it does describe it in detail to the player. This violence and gore is usually directed specifically at the player, and describes the players violent demise. In addition, there are themes of death and suicide, and the player is sometimes told to kill themselves by the games antagonist. The games antagonist is aggressive and will also berate the player.

System Requirements

Windows
macOS
    Minimum:
    • Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
    • OS *: Windows 7 / 8 / 8.1 / 10
    • Processor: Intel Core2 Duo E4300 / AMD Athlon Dual Core 4450e or equivalent
    • Memory: 4096 MB RAM
    • Graphics: GeForce 8800 GTX (768 MB) / Intel HD 4600 / Radeon HD 3850 (512 MB)
    • DirectX: Version 11
    • Storage: 1 GB available space
    • Additional Notes: Any computer built with components after 2010
    Recommended:
    • Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
* Starting January 1st, 2024, the Steam Client will only support Windows 10 and later versions.
    Minimum:
    • OS: OSX 10.10.5 Yosemite or higher
    • Processor: Intel Core i5-2520M (2 * 2500)
    • Memory: 4096 MB RAM
    • Graphics: GeForce GT 750M (1024 MB)
    • Storage: 1 GB available space
    • Additional Notes: Any Mac built after 2013 running Sierra
    Recommended:
    * Starting February 15, 2024, the Steam Client will no longer support 32-bit games or macOS 10.14 or lower.

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