"Dark and Darker" is a multiplayer game where players take on roles and go on adventures. It was created by Ironmace and is set in a dark fantasy world. The game was made available for testing on August 7, 2023.
Gameplay
"Dark and Darker" is a game that combines elements of a dungeon adventure and a role-playing game set in a dark medieval fantasy world. It mixes ideas from games like Dungeons & Dragons, roguelikes, and multiplayer games such as DayZ. Polygon says the game fits into the extraction shooter category.
Players can choose from ten different character types, including fighter, barbarian, rogue, ranger, wizard, cleric, bard, warlock, druid, and sorcerer. The game includes PvPvE gameplay, where players fight monsters to earn valuable items while also being careful of other players. The game world becomes more dangerous over time, and eventually, all players who have not escaped are killed. If a player survives, they can take loot out of the game to use in future matches. If a player is killed, they lose all their items and equipment. If they survive the dungeon, they can store their loot in a special area for later use or selling. Players can trade items with each other using in-game money or other valuable items.
During the early access phase, updates added new features such as a marketplace for buying and selling items, matching players based on their gear to make fights fairer, a religion system that gives benefits in the dungeon, and the ability to use skills from multiple classes.
Development and release
A South Korean company named Ironmace created a video game called Dark and Darker. A demo version was first released in February 2023 as an early test during Steam Next Fest. Ironmace planned to release the game in early access in April or May, with a full launch in the fourth quarter of the year. However, the release was delayed on May 9 due to a legal disagreement with Nexon.
The game entered early access on August 7, 2023, through Chaf Games and Ironmace’s website. Later that month, Ironmace announced a partnership with Krafton, the company behind PUBG Mobile, to bring the game to mobile devices.
On January 4, 2024, the Game Rating and Administration Committee assigned Dark and Darker a 19+ rating. In March 2024, Ironmace announced the game would be available on the Epic Games Store.
In June 2024, the game introduced free-to-play accounts. Players could upgrade to a paid account to unlock additional features and exclusive items. Some Steam users criticized the free-to-play option, calling it a demo.
In December 2024, the game changed how players could obtain "Legendary Status." Instead of using in-game currency called Redstone Shards, players could purchase it through a downloadable content (DLC) pack.
A mobile version of the game, developed by Bluehole, a company owned by Krafton, was announced for early access in Canada and the United States on February 4, 2025. On the release day, the game reached the top of the North American iOS App Store RPG chart.
A few months later, the mobile version was rebranded as Abyss of Dungeons. This new title was described as an updated version of the former mobile version of Dark and Darker.
Legal issues
On February 16, 2023, it was reported that Nexon, a South Korean video game company, claimed that the game Dark and Darker had similarities to a game in development called P3. Nexon said that assets from P3 were shared on an external server by Ju-Hyun Choi, who was the project team leader for P3 and also worked on Dark and Darker. Choi suggested that his teammates leave Nexon to create a game similar to P3. Choi was fired in August 2021 and later joined Ironmace, a company started in October 2021 by Terence Park Seung-ha, who was also part of the P3 team.
After the P3 team was disbanded, the core development work for P3 was reworked into another game temporarily named P7. Ironmace denied the claims, stating that the game’s genre could not be copyrighted and that the game was created from scratch using Unreal Engine assets and original code.
On March 8, 2023, police searched Ironmace’s office in Seongnam for evidence related to the allegations. On March 24, 2023, Nexon sent a legal request to Ironmace to stop developing Dark and Darker. On March 26, 2023, the game was removed from the Steam online game store after Nexon submitted a copyright notice.
However, on April 14, 2023, Ironmace announced its fifth public playtest of the game, distributing updates through BitTorrent links instead of Steam. That same day, Nexon filed a copyright lawsuit against Ironmace in the United States. Ironmace responded by saying the issue involved only one employee and should be resolved in South Korea.
On April 20, 2023, Ironmace asked Steam to restore Dark and Darker on its store, claiming Nexon’s copyright claims had no basis. On August 17, 2023, the U.S. court case was dismissed. By June 7, 2024, the game was back on Steam as a free-to-play title.
In February 2025, a Seoul court ruled that Ironmace did not copy Nexon’s copyright but did violate trade secrets by sharing internal data. Ironmace was ordered to pay 8.5 billion South Korean won (about $5.9 million) in damages.
On June 17, 2025, Epic Games informed users that Dark and Darker was removed from the Epic Games Store in March 2025 due to a court decision in South Korea. On November 1, 2025, the game would be removed from users’ libraries, making it unplayable through the Epic Games Store. Refunds were given for purchases of the Legendary Status upgrade, but not for the game’s premium currency.