A Dark Room ®

A Dark Room ®

Skeepahh 6 Jul, 2023 @ 3:30pm
Love the remake! :) Some thoughts with spoilers.
Spoilers ahead.

Just completed a hut and hut-less playthrough and wanted to post my thoughts here. I've only ever played the web version and not the mobile or switch version, so I'm unaware if there's any differences there.

I love how much faster this is to play. Many of the resource costs in the game have been halved or reduced so its much less grindy. Additionally, a lot more resources are buyable at the trading post. The wait times for actions appeared to be reduced. I also liked having 30 traps instead of 10. I also liked being able to revisit mines to collect resources yourself. Also, dealing 27 unarmed damage!?!?

I also love the changes in the story/dialogue, especially where the player sees villagers as slaves, gets more "bloodthirsty", and the builder resents you. Makes more sense in context than having 80 people work for free.

Also have some bugs/suggestions, though I don't know if these decisions were intentional or not.

Some bugs I found:
  • Resizing the window display changes the entire window into a black/white checked pattern, making the game very difficult to play. Fixes itself on restart though.
  • Pressing ` displays a developer console.
  • One of the enemies is missing an ASCII symbol. Have to replay to find out what it is, though it was in a town/city.
  • Purchasing bait gives you 100 baited traps on your next trap collection, instead of it being taken in increments.
  • In a hut-less playthrough, when the builder becomes unavailable my traps are set to 30. The Scout visitor also doesn't seem to spawn any more, though I might have been unlucky.

Suggestions:
  • Some kind of "loot all" key or "take all" key. Like pressing shift or ctrl lets you collect every item in a stack or 5/10 items at a time. Saves having to click 10+ times when you want to loot everything.
  • When you get visitors, I think you should be able to buy multiple things, instead of the dialogue box disappearing after you choose one. Say, buying multiple sets of bait or multiple maps.
  • From the web version, any plans to add medicine or the ravaged battleship ?
Last edited by Skeepahh; 8 Jul, 2023 @ 11:53pm
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Showing 1-7 of 7 comments
ar  [developer] 6 Jul, 2023 @ 5:36pm 
Really glad you like the polish and pacing updates!

I'll fix the resizing issue thanks for the info.

The developer console was left in there on purpose. I want y'all to be able to tinker around :-). For example: "$game.stores[:wood] = 500" will set your wood supplies to 500 (sure beats carting for it).

I'll figure out which enemy is missing the ascii thanks for the info.

Baits have been buffed and is kinda a freebie given that the ability to make baits was removed.

Wanted to make sure the game isn't grindy in solo-mode so I max out traps when the build becomes unavailable

There are no plans to incorporate things from the web-version (licensing makes it a conflict of IP). But you can mod the game. Let me know if you want more details on that.
Last edited by ar; 7 Jul, 2023 @ 8:14pm
ar  [developer] 6 Jul, 2023 @ 6:34pm 
I pushed an update to fix the resizing bug and the missing ascii for enemies. Lemme know if the resizing issues are resolved.
Skeepahh 6 Jul, 2023 @ 10:15pm 
Thanks for the insight!
Can confirm, the resizing bug has been fixed. :)
ar  [developer] 7 Jul, 2023 @ 7:05am 
I'm quick with the bug fixes :-)
Skeepahh 8 Jul, 2023 @ 12:07am 
Found some more weird things:
  • Opening the game places "Stoke fire" at the bottom of the action list, but it reorders itself after clicking any other action.
  • Having exactly one jewel in your inventory, then giving that jewel to the swamp wanderer leaves an instance of "0 jewels" in the right hand side of your inventory in the dusty path. The instance remains even after going back to camp and back to the world. Clicking minus on the jewel when looting anything corrects this though.
Last edited by Skeepahh; 8 Jul, 2023 @ 12:08am
ar  [developer] 8 Jul, 2023 @ 7:17pm 
I've made note of this to fix in the next release. You rock at finding these subtleties and I appreciate the reports <3
LaShawn 18 Nov, 2023 @ 10:55pm 
After playing several times on the browser I've bought it on steam and also completed a hut-less playthrough, and dealing 27 unarmed damage :). It's quite a scene to see the Builder waving the asteroids away, but I have to say it's quite disappointing to end the game in that way, compared to the browser version's BOSS-like Immortal Wanderer.
Nevertheless, the world outlook of the game is just fascinating, I really hope to see analyses or novels based on it.
Last edited by LaShawn; 18 Nov, 2023 @ 10:57pm
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