Dark and Darker Playtest 6: When Is Next Alpha Starting?

Dark & Darker has revealed new weapons and a new boss with their latest gameplay trailer.

In the latest gameplay trailer, there are exciting updates for the bard class. New textures and weapons, including a flute, have been introduced, along with new songs that can enhance your allies. However, there is no official information on the effects of these spells, so their usefulness is unclear until Ironmace decides to tell us something. Although, we did spot one comment on the video which suggested that one new spell appears to increase attack speed at around three and a half minutes.

Between this latest reveal and the new Warlock class, we do slightly wonder if we're getting closer to another playtest.

Although Ironmace Games are still dealing with their ongoing legal issues, they have (bizarrely) just revealed a brand new Warlock class for the game.

The developers released a YouTube video showing the new class in action, teasing a little bit of what we can expect from the Warlock.

Interestingly, the tweet from the developers also said "hopefully we can test it soon".

It's hard to tell if this is just a throwaway comment, or perhaps a sneaky hint for the next playtest. Hopefully, something is coming soon.

So we didn't get a playtest in June, we wonder if July will bring better news.

Assuming the devs stick to their plan of releasing a playtest every two months, we should hopefully get a playtest for Dark and Darker at some point later this month.

Well, fingers crossed anyway.

Unsurprisingly considering Ironmace's ongoing legal battle with Nexon, the studio has today announced that the early access launch of Dark and Darker has been postponed.

"We truly hate not being able to communicate as freely as we usually do, however, due to the sensitive nature of our current situation, we can’t divulge too much information right now," Ironmace said on the Dark and Darker Discord.

"I know this isn’t the announcement everyone wanted to hear but we needed to let our fans know that the Early Access release has been delayed a bit. Just know that we are working on a ton of things to ensure the game gets out to you as soon as possible. We ask everyone to hold the line just a little longer. Thanks!"

We imagine that with the launch pushed back, it's likely we'll see a 6th playtest at some stage in the near-ish future.

The somewhat unconventional 5th playtest for Dark and Darker has finally come to and end.

The next playtest, if there is to be one, will likely arrive in June and given that we doubt the legal issues surrounding the game will have gone away by then, we imagine it'll be another playtest via torrent; as we saw with Playtest 5.

Amidst the ongoing legal battle with Dark and Darker in which the team was accused of stealing assets, the game was delisted from Steam - however, the team has actually managed to release Playtest 5 today, April 14, as planned.

Given the situation, though, the developers are asking players to torrent the game rather than download it from Steam.

"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," they said on their official Discord. 

The playtest will last from 14 April until 19 April as planned.

Dark and Darker is supposed to hold the next playtest on April 14, but given that there's still much confusion around the state of the game and the ongoing legal battle we imagine it will be pushed back.

The last 'official' news regarding Dark and Darker seemed to revolve around a bizarre GoFundMe campaign which the devs then promptly pulled.

As noted by PCGamesr, an Ironmace admin on the Dark and Darker Discord named Luci published an open letter, which included a link to the GoFundMe.

"We aren't a big ass studio, and we don't have an infinite supply of money like Nexon," Luci wrote in her open letter. "The reality of the situation is that their end goal is to bleed us dry in court fees. Internally, we know this, they know this, the lawyers know this."

As previously mentioned, we don't think it's realistic to expect Playtest 5 to go ahead whilst this legal issue rumbles on.

Dark and Darker has been removed from Steam following allegations of theft by the Japanese/South Korean studio Nexon Games.

For now all fans have heard on the situation is the following statement from Ironmace on Discord:

"To all our fans, we have recently been served a cease and desist letter and DMCA takedown by Nexon regarding Dark and Darker based on distorted claims. We are currently working with our legal team to remedy this issue in the best manner possible. Due to the sensitive legal nature of this issue, we must be careful with our statements so as to not jeopardize our position.”

Quite where this leaves the upcoming April playtest is anyone's guess. Hopefully, we'll learn more in the coming days.

Ironmace Games have confirmed that the next playtest will take place in April 2023, ahead of an early Access launch, tentatively scheduled for late April or early May.

On their official Discord, the devs told fans that the most recent playtest "gave us a lot of clues on how to proceed with development. We realize we still have some important questions that need to be answered. It is for this reason we have decided to schedule another playtest prior to our Early Access launch. We hope to test some pretty substantial additions for this playtest that require a bit more development time than in the past."

The next Dark and Darker playtest is scheduled to start on April 14 and run until April 19.

In addition, the developers explained that whilst the time until the next playtest might be longer than in the past, the team "will work our hardest to make the next one even better than before."