A Dark Room

Description of App

**Want Amir or Michael to speak at your school about game development and coding? Reach out to us! We'd love to inspire young minds.** Awake. Head throbbing. Vision blurry. Come light the fire. Official release of A Dark Room. #1 RPG, Game, and App *overall* in the US, UK, Australia, Singapore and Canada. Ranked as one of the top 10 games in 17 countries worldwide. 100% accessible and playable via VoiceOver. Critical Acclaim: "The game creates an enthralling parallax effect that can keep devoted players dosed, for hours, on the pleasurable sense of immersion..." - The New Yorker "A Dark Room will blow you away with its evolving depth and variety. It’s exciting to discover something so unique and refreshing on the App Store. 5 stars" - Cult of Mac "These are the twists you'll find in the corners of "A Dark Room" -- a game that's always unpredictable and always intriguing." - Huffington Post "If Cormac McCarthy made an iPhone game, it would be this one... an unlikely but thoroughly deserving bestseller. And it’s as compelling as it is unsettling." - Slate Magazine Paste Magazine, Maddy Myers: Top 20 Indie Games of 2013 Forbes, Daniel Nye Griffiths: Top 5 Anti-Games of 2013 Giant Bomb, Zoe Quinn: Top 10 Games of 2013 Giant Bomb, Cara Eillison: Top 10 Games of 2013 (honorable mention) Indie Games: Top 10 Game Dev’s Favorites of 2013

Version

2.33

Free or Paid

Paid

Apple Watch Support

Device(s) App Was Tested On

iPhone

iOS Version

8.4.1

Accessibility Comments

This game is 100 percent accessible.

VoiceOver Performance

VoiceOver reads all page elements.

Button Labeling

All buttons are clearly labeled.

Usability

The app is fully accessible with VoiceOver and is easy to navigate and use.

Other Comments

If the description above confuses you, this game combines interactive fiction with resource management. You start off with nothing and work to create a village which will range in size the farther you go.

App Store Link

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/a-dark-room/id736683061?mt=8

Developer's Website

http://amirrajan.net/a-dark-room/

Developer's Twitter Username

@ADarkRoomiOS

Recommendations

16 people have recommended this app

Most recently recommended by Rafaela Freundt 5 months 3 weeks ago

Options

Comments

interesting beginning

Tried this out for a few minutes, looks like it is played in real time or at least parcially so. Just in flicking through, the screen starts out with a heading that includes the room description followed by buttons to view resources or make a choice followed by a text description. The text in this area appears to be updated in real time every 20 seconds or so. I thought this would be like a choice of games title and text only be updated when a choice was made. It's a little bit of a pain to keep going back to the text area to see if anything has changed. Does anyone know if you can be killed while sitting on this screen waiting to see if any text is updated? Voice over seems to read any updated text followed by the text that previously appeared. I also went to the resources screen and you start out with wood in order to start building materials. The wood amount also seems to be updated in real time and it seems that some of the same if not exactly the same text descriptions on the main screen are also on this screen. I personally don't really enjoy real time text based games such as muds or Infocoms BorderZone but maybe this one won't be that bad. Definitely sounds interesting and I will keep exploring it. Please let me know if I am wrong about any of these observations. Thanks

confusing

I am so confused with this game. The wording is so vague, that it's not even appealing. Is there anyone here who understands this game better than myself? Thanks.

Map and compass

Hi, I'm totally blind and have a hard time finding where my village is when I'm venturing out in multiple directions. I tried counting five times north, three times west and so on in order to reverse it and go back to the village, but sometimes I lose count or make some other mistake that gets me lost. Has anyone else found a way around this issue?

Just my opinion

Hello again. I just have to say that the update that the developers put out today is awesome. It totally fixes the issues I've been having. What's even better is that I've got my 3 sisters addicted to the game, and since we're all blind, we all appreciate the new additions to the game, so thanks to the developers.

great game

I've just picked this one up myself and it's fantastic! really like an old dos rpg, but with modern real time elements. I'm really liking the game thus far, though I wish there were more things to find exploring that you couldn't just make for yourself since most of the loot I get isn't worth taking home, it'd also be great to see more weapons and items in the game, since this sort of game can always do with more content and with being longer. The access measures though are some of the best I've seen in an ios game. My only miner access point is that when returning from an expedition, the alert with the scout selling me a map always covers up the history so I don't get told what happened at the end, whether I died or not, indeedd the first time I ran out of water I wondered what happened and what I'd lost. perhaps either the alert could show up later or the history could hold the event? Either way though these are just miner niggles and this game is one of the best I've played on the Iphone. I just hope considdering I've built what I believe to be the top armor and carrying equipment, and have some advanced weapons, that things aren't coming to an end too soon! :D.

Seems interesting and boring at the same time

I've just purchased the game and explored the app. Seems no sound effects at all during the gameplay. Any other iOS game similar to PapaSangre and The Nightjar?

Addictive As Chocolate and Video Games Combined

It wasn't obvious at the beginning, but there is so much going on in this game! I wanted to share a few tips that I learned the hard way, after three or four game resets. Hopefully these will help someone avoid some brick walls I seemed to run into early on. 1. Huts first. Things seem to go much easier, if you focus on building all the huts you can at the beginning. It may seem tedious, but you'll need 80 villagers for all the things you have to do, so build up the village first. The huts get more expensive as you go, and so you can build the latter ones much faster if all your villagers are gathering wood. Early on, I tried to build all the other buildings first, and it just didn't seem to work as well. 2. The "cart wood" button seems to have some other purpose. I don't know the real purpose of this button, because after a few game resets, I figured out that as long as the app is open, all your villagers are doing their jobs, every ten seconds. If you have five hunters, they are bringing you five furs and five pieces of meat, every ten seconds, so you'll have 30 furs and 30 pieces of meat after a minute. The only thing that button seems to do eventually, is turn your villagers into slaves. You can use it in the beginning, but once it starts saying things like, "Make them work day and night", and talking about how weary they are, stop using it, or your villagers will become your slaves. Maybe that's part of the game, I don't know, but I didn't like the idea of my villagers as slaves, and i've played for hours and hours on this latest game with them as free workers. Just be aware that's what will eventually happen with the "cart wood" button. 3. Keep an eye on your supplies. If you want to start in on other parts of the game before you finish building all the huts, the most important thing to remember is to keep your supplies balanced. You'll need everything later, even if it's not obvious in the beginning. It doesn't have to be a perfect balance, but if you have 45 thousand furs, and 23 coal, you might want to look at how to go about getting more coal. 4. Don't be afraid to assign and reassign workers. If you look at your supplies and see that you need one thing or the other, it doesn't hurt the game to shuffle the villagers around workwise. It's not obvious at first, but there is so much to this game, especially once you start exploring. I left a lot of things behind in caves and houses, thinking they were useless, only to find much later, that they were essential. So if you have room for it in your explorations, bring back even the most seemingly inconsequential loot; you might be surprised.

If you doubletap with two

If you doubletap with two fingers, you can always bring up the map. It will tell you how much water and food you have left, and which direction the compass is pointing. But after that, it will tell you about all the places you've found during your explorations. So you may have to listen for a while as it reads, but eventually you'll hear, "village" followed by directions such as, "2 clicks south, 4 clicks east." If you listen for the word "village" and follow the directions, it will be easy to get home, and you can go anywhere you want on the map in this way. Listening for "house" will give you directions to the closest house, which will always replenish your water supply, etc. If you want to see that you're on the right track after making a move, just listen again after each move, and the directions will tell you what you still have left to do in order to reach your destination. VoiceOver automatically reads the map after each directional move you make, so you won't have to two-finger doubletap, unless you want the map to repeat itself.

Just finished the game

Well I've just finished the game in 267 minutes. As far as I can determin the cart wood button gives you a certain amount of wood each hit, 80 wood at the start, but 40 or so later. I didn't know it was that button that turned the villagers into slaves, I thought it was building more huts that did that, though it would be interesting to see if there is a way to change things since the ending to the game seemed to require your villagers become slaves. Then again, I was reliant upon my workers quite a lot in the game since I didn't realize after you explored a location it turned back into an outpost where you could get a water refill, thus I probably didn't loot as much from the map as I could have done, it'll be interesting to see if I change things around with that and rely more on what I can gather from the map how much the game changes My only cryticism is I do wish there was more stuff that was loot only, and more weapons etc. I also would've liked to see more locations on the map but i suppose there's time for that, indeed given the ending it seems possible there could be a sequal. All in all a great game with a good atmosphere and an interesting ending, I was just sorry it was all done in 267 minutes.

You have to gather wood to beat the game

Jen, This is Amir, the developer of A Dark Room. I know the thought of your villagers becoming slaves is saddening, but it's part of the story line. You have to keep gathering wood to complete the game. There is an alternate ending to the game. I would say it is a bit happier. If you beat the game without ever building any huts, you will get a different ending. One with no slaves of course (since you didn't build any huts). Keep in mind that the "solo mode" is significantly harder than if you build huts. I'd try finishing the game with slaves first, then try the alternate ending. Best of luck. And keep gathering wood! Sincerely, Amir (Creator of A Dark Room for iOS)

Thanks for letting me know,

Thanks for letting me know, Amir. It's a fantastic game!

Solo made

I'm playing solo mode now with no slaves. It is undoubtedly harder, but at the same time I find it a more rewarding and tactical game and I look forward to seeing what the ending on this mode is like. I also realize I got the cartwood business wrong. it is a flat 20 wood each time you click the button.

Version 1.4

What's New in Version 1.4

- New story elements added to the end game sequence.
- Additional accessibility enhancements for VoiceOver users.

He I'm really loving the

He I'm really loving the game. I'm stuck exploring now and catching stuff in my traps. Not much interesting righ tnow, but I would like to make one suggestion

When in a battle on the dusty path, I think it's a bit redundant to say repeat then your damage. Over all though, the game really rocks.

Take care

Version 1.5

What's New in Version 1.5

Added iPad support. A Dark Room is now a universal app.

Yep just updated, it works

Yep just updated, it works very well, it does want to crash every once in a while but yeah over all the app is pretty good still. Loving the game. I still get caught by the sniper though. Gleh!

I have updated as well and I am glad that it is now a universal app.

Version 1.6

What's New in Version 1.6

- there was a capital letter in the game, we killed it with fire
- minor gameplay tweaks
- view optimization for iPad minis (fonts)
- one more thing, but it's a secret ;-)

alternate ending

how do u unlock a dusty road without hut. i dont get it. lol

How to get exploring

Build a store and buy the compass.

Version 2.2

What's New in Version 2.2

- she want's you to tell your friends about this game
- she want's you to gift this game to others
- she doesn't want to be forgotten

- completely revamped alternate ending now available on iPad
- fixed crashes on iPad
- minor update in preparation for new devices

I'm stuck

Hi. I began playing this game, and got more and more challenges, building more and more huts, and other buildings, setting up traps, etc.
But, now that I have the most people I can have, all the traps, and all the huts, and buildings, my people are just gathering wood and bates from the traps. And nothing else is happening. When I go out on a mission, I either starve or get killed, especially when I want to visit a house, like, sixteen clicks to the south, and seven clicks to the west. And sometimes I lose count, because I encounter critters along the way.
Is there something I have to do.
I know that you should stock up first before embarking, add cured meat, a bone speer, etc.
I had a sword once upon a time, but I don't know where that went.
So at the moment I have something like 3000 wood, 2000 leather, etc.
Can someone help?
Thanks.

great game

Great game but after almost 3 hours of playing when i god some alien veapon stuff i god stucked and didnt know what to do next. May be i should try and try... but can someone give me a little hint? As a concept i like it much, buying it was not a mistake for sure.

Need some assurance I'm making progress on No-Hut completion

Hello! Finished the game with huts last night and decided to go for no-hut. I have a cart, a trade post, and 30 traps. Other resources reads:

Wood: 1094
Fur: 4144
Meat: 2658
Scales: 1006
Teeth: 321
Cloth: 60
Bait: 0

All I can do now is check traps, cart wood and stoke fire. Am I doing this correctly to get to some point where I can move the plot along? Was I not supposed to build traps? It feels like I'm not getting any traction and I would like some assurance that I'm spending my time toward something.

Thanks in advance!
Y

To get further

You must go to the trade post and buy the compass to unlock the dusty trail. There you can explore the map just like the slave run.

sequel

Does anyone know if the sequel is accessible?

I would say it is. I haven't

I would say it is. I haven't finished a dark room yet so I didn't try it

Pssible bug

I started the game before playing the prequel. I'm on iOS 8.3 on an iPhone 4s, risky I know :D.
The thing is that when I close the game part of it is not saved, forcing me to redo things. For example, I purchased the compass, and crafted 10 torches with some cloth that a beggar gave me. When I reopened the game I had the compass, but not cloth nor torches.

Your phone

I'm worried that may just be your phone not wanting to cooperate. I use an iPhone 6 and haven't had that problem. Also, I don't understand. You were having this problem with A Dark Room? Or some other game by the same developer?

The issue is with A Dark Room

I hate to say it....

I hate to be the person who asks the obvious, but have you tried restarting your phone? It also might help if you make sure your things are in the inventory when you close.I had something similar happen once, but chalked it up to me letting my phone die while I was out questing and my character dying. I'll see if I can repeat the bug again on my phone later today. Sorry I can't help more.

I played before without

I played before without having issues at all. Actually I almost completed the game, but I had to restore my phone and start over. But thanks anyways.

Maybe figured it out...

OK. So I got it to happen to me again, but only when I left the app for a while when I wasn't in my village. Is that the same for you?

Pause game?

Does anyone here know how to pause the game? I've been looking all over for it, but I can't find it. Please reply if you do know! :D

It's sort of iffy...

In regards to pausing the game, that kind of depends on where you are in the game. If possible, just go back to your village, make sure you're there, then close the app in app switcher. if you just want to pause for a moment during a fight, a two-finger doubletap should do the trick, as per the advice you get when you start a battle. If you are in a big hurry, and can't get back to your village but aren't in a battle, just close the app in app switcher. I can't stress enough, though: CLOSE THE APP! UNLESS YOU WANT TO POTENTIALLY DIE AND/OR LOSE THINGS, DON'T JUST GO TO THE HOME SCREEN AND CALL IT GOOD.

Hope this helps!

Version 2.33

What's New in Version 2.33

Gameplay optimizations for the visually impaired.

Be sure to try out Amir's new experience: A Noble Circle

A Noble Circle

Is the new game, "A Noble Circle" accessible? I'm on an IPhone 6+ with iOS 9.2, and it seems to crash with VoiceOver. I reinstalled it with the same results.

Ending with no-huts

I just finished the game with no huts built, but I did not see the different ending that I was supposed to see.

What's different from the regular ending?

Definitely have to try both games

As I sit here, reading everything about this game, I can't believe all the fun I've been missing.
Now I really have to go get those games as soon as possible.
Happy new year everybody.

Help navigating on the map

Hi all, Just bought this game a day or so ago, and I'm finding it addictive. hehe
At this point, I've built all 20 huts, and have nearly 30 traps going. I also have the trading post and the cumpas too.
But, I'm stuck once I'm on the map screen.. how do I go in the various directions to move to the locations shown? I try swiping in all four directions with one finger, with even three fingers and I go nowhere. what am I doing wrong. lol thanks for any help here.
Also what kind of supplies, and of what quantity should I bring with me? thanks again! Can't wait to explore!

Answers to questions

OK. So on the map, you'll see it has for buttons. Move north, east, south, and west. So to move to places on the map, for example, if you have an outpost four clicks north and one click East, you press the move north button four times, and the move east button once. Also, it depends on your equipment on your journey. If you have something large, that can carry a large amount of capacity, then I would suggest equipping one of about 20 to 25 food, one rifle, lots of ammo for the rifle, though that depends. If you encounter a battlefield in the way. And some other weapons. However, don't forget to leave out space in case you need to carry more stuff. Hope this helps.

Navigation success!

@Igna, thanks so much for the help with this. I've gotten my workers, ahem, slaves to the iron mine, and I'm on my way. I hope one day I'll either be able to craft a rifle or find one. Bullets are piling up though.
thanks again. :)

better weapons

Hi, I've located a rifle and a battery in one of the not so near by cities. But, I lost them as I didn't have enough rassions to make it back, sadly.
The city is like 10 clicks north and 11 west but, by the time I get to the loot, or where I hope I can find it again, my hp is nearly gone.
I was lucky enough to loot some coal, so I've made a few steal pieces. I'm using a steal sword and steal armor, but if I have an encounter with a soldier, I'm toast. :)

Hope someone can offer suggestions what I might be doing wrong. Thanks so much!
:)

suggestions

What equipment do you have to carry items? I assume that it is the wagon, since you've made it to the iron mine and back. So, to get to the city and back successfully, take 20 food, so that you leave space for the rifle, and any other stuff you want to carry. Also, if you get any outpost in the way, go in. Hope this helps.

Re: suggestions

Thanks for the suggestions Igna. Btw, I have the convoy carrier to haul equipment in, and the water troff.
I'll make it a point to stop into the outposts. But other then replenishing water which I don't need too much, might I find decent loot in there?
I sure could use better armor too. At 60 hp, it doesn't hold up for long after a few battles with giant lizards and such. lol

Again, thanks for the help mate.

Re, suggestions

OK so if you have the convoy, pack about 30 food, some torches about four, and if you have found bolas pack some as well. They are useful in combat, since they stun your enemies. And, if you are searching for a rifle, the best place to find it is in the battlefields. You will find lots of other weapons in there as well. Also, if you are planning on going to find a rifle, take some bullets with you, in case you find one. By the way, you already have the maximum armor. 60 is the maximum HP that you can get. At least, in this game it is. Also, if you can, use your fists as much as possible. They will slowly but surely upgrade, and they will do massive damage. That is the thing that I mostly use. Though having the barbarian perk also helps. The only loot you'll find in the outpost is mostly food. However, places that have loot, are the houses. They mostly have leather, sometimes torches and food and sometimes a weapon or two as well.

How to do damage like a sniper and soldier

Pack all weapons. Now when you're in a fight and it's your turn to make a move, double tap on your first, then second, then third and fourth weapon and so on. It depends on how many weapons you have. This trick will allow you to perform a weapons combo attack and can deal a huge amount of damage. Don't know if any of you tried or mentioned it before, but just saying. This trick can often destroy decent enemies in just one turn.

saving progress?

hi all, if i keep playing this game started it today and so addicted, will my progress be saved, when i change phone? as i build all of the huts and traps will more unlock? loving this and although saw it briefly when it was out have just taken it up again.

A Thank you to the developer

shivering. gasping for air. must find her. the locket glows. must find her... a dark room. completion time: 459 minutes. fastest time: 459 minutes.A message to the visually impaired: I can't imagine what it's like to have a visual impairment.
I also feel. That I will never be able to visualize a world, in the mind's eye, as vividly as you, can.I hope, A Dark Room, gave you a medium in which to paint a detailed world. A world that belongs to you, and only you.May the fire burn bright, and warm for you.Sincerely, A Dark Room.
Hint: Try beating the game without building any huts, essentially a solo run...
End game button at the bottom...
Very kind words. I certainly did enjoy the game.

Desperately needing help with a dark room

OK. So it seems as if the builder has died or some thing.
I have her locket in my inventory.
When I start moving towards the west in the map, as I keep going, the locket starts changing from warm glow to warmer and, eventually, brighter.
Up until the point in which I come face-to-face with a giant lizard.
Well, my question is: can I revive the builder or bring her back?
I would like to know if there is something I can do or am I just wasting time?
Thank you for any help you guys can give me.
I hope some of you are still playing his game.