Today the embattled developers of the hardcore fantasy extraction FPS game Dark and Darker at Ironmace have launched a new alpha test for the game, with a few caveats.
Due to the legal issues with Nexon, which resulted in a DMCA takedown that caused the game's removal from Steam, the developer is skipping Valve's platform altogether for this test (which will be the fifth), providing the client via Torrent. They also decided to exclude Korea in order to comply with the country's game rating regulations.
Here's the announcement shared via the developer's Discord server. We're not including the link to the torrent for security reasons, but you can visit Discord yourself and find it easily in the "announcements" channels.
Thank you for your patience.We apologize for the radio silence. Unfortunately, due to our current situation we must be careful.
Rest assured that we are working around the clock to safeguard the continuance of Dark and Darker. Unfortunately, due to the complexities of our situation, especially across international lines, it is taking time to resolve the Steam situation. In order for us to keep our promise to our fans we’ve had to go old school this time.
To participate in the Alpha #5 Playtest please download the game client through our torrent link below.
DO NOT GET THE TORRENT FROM ANY OTHER SOURCES, AS WE CAN NOT GUARANTEE THE INTEGRITY OF ANY OTHER LINKS! All future patches will also be distributed in this manner, and you should ONLY GET THE LINKS FROM OUR OFFICIAL DISCORD ANNOUNCEMENT CHANNEL.
Unfortunately, due to compliance with the Korean game rating regulations, we are unable to service this playtest in the Korea region. We are deeply sorry to our fans here and will do our best to include all regions in the future. We apologize to our global fans as we were unable to complete the localizations in time for this test and had to remove them from the game.
All future news about this playtest will be communicated only through this Discord channel and our official Twitter account at @IronmaceGames. Please note that all other twitter accounts are NOT official IRONMACE accounts. We hope to see you in the dungeons until the 19th!
The developers also provided further information on how to log into the Dark and Darker Alpha once you have downloaded the client.
The login screen for this playtest was made as a temporary measure and may be confusing. The first time you log into the game, please enter in an ID and password to create your account. You will need to remember that id and password to access that account in the future. Sorry for the confusion.
Recently, Ironmace has shared a large batch of documents about the development of Dark and Darker to bolster its case against Nexon, but we'll have to wait and see what will happen going forward. In the meanwhile, fans can at least enjoy the alpha test.
