A Dark Room
A Dark Room will run quietly by itself in a tab in your browser with only minimal interaction at first. There's just you, the dark, dwindling wood, and a fire to stoke. But what might that light attract? What could you build if you dared venture the cold quiet outdoors? With gameplay that will remind you of Candy Box! but a decidedly creepier, more intriguing bent to go with simulation and adventure, A Dark Room is well worth checking out.
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Enjoyed the suspense of the game... and had fun creating a soundscape using sounds from youtube to accompany the game! Try searching for eerie music, fire sounds, night sounds, wind sounds, rain sounds, whatever you fancy to set the scene.
Does the game autosave? I can't find a save button anywhere, and I'm a little afraid to close the tab if it means losing all my progress.
Yep, the game autosaves! I love that soundscape idea. This game is so cool, and highly addictive :)
So hold on, when you win, the game just abruptly restarts? Well that's anticlimactic...and what if I wasn't done exploring? Is it some kind of bug, maybe?
So far the game's been great.
One annoying thing:
When you're exploring, I've found picking up weapons can be suicidal. I'm much more powerful unarmed than I am with even the steel sword, yet the sword gets preference. Additionally, it's impossible to attack if you have a weapon that requires ammo, but you have no ammo. I died once after picking up "bolas", and again after picking up a gun.
I found a bug
if you buy a compass from the trader after you already have one, you now have multiple "dusty paths" and cannot change your inventory for travel.
Super disappointing, think I have to restart.
Troy,
I thought I found the same bug, but if you close your browser window and reopen it it'll be fixed. (The game autosaves).
I think I
won!
I'm not sure if this is related to my earlier but but
I also can't view how much cured meat I'm taking with me on my journey
I would really appreciate a save function so I could refresh and see if that fixed my problem.
Luthy thank you so much, that fixed it.
I got a bug where I had negative cured meat available while preparing to embark. All my production numbers seemed to freeze up (cured meat showed "4" perpetually). I reloaded the page.
Now cured meat has disappeared from the production completely, and my 25 charcutiers are showing +25 Wood, +25 Meat, +25 Cured Meat per 10s. O_o
Sorry about the bugs, folks! A bunch of them should be fixed now, though I have no idea what happened to Strangelander... Try fiddling with your job assignments to get things to reset. If you have more info about what happened immediately before the bug occured, send me an email at michael[at]doublespeakgames.com.
Thanks for playing, everyone!
Addicting!
I found a sulphur mine, but I don't know how to get past it. Maybe if I had more bullets and/or bolas... Any tips on getting those?
This game goes from stoking a fire to managing your own village and scouting for resources. Fun!
@Mike
Keep playing... Scouting for resources is just the tip o' the iceberg!
Does anyone know what a charm does? I can take it with me on an expedition.
@wuppie
I used a total of 1 charm on an expedition. It isn't something with unspoken properties, it's very clear when it comes time to use it. (or if there are unspoken properties, I never discovered them)
I cleared out the mine near the village, and was told it was now safe for workers. Should there be an option somewhere to send workers there?
Power of posting... Now it's there, I swear it wasn't before. :)
A tip for people in trouble with not being strong in fights:
Equip all the melee weapons you have and quickly click through all of them. It will cost you extra space, but later on, the small amount of room you lose won't matter if you are a strong-weaponed fighting machine with tons of space.
Don't know if everyone is already doing that, but just want people to know
A couple of possible bugs I noticed:
The cart says it carries more wood but "gather wood" still only gives 10. Maybe it affects the villager gathering.
When the village goes from small to large, the limit on traps is increased. Building more traps doesn't increase the number of traps. I didn't restart to double check this one.
Oh
The traps would have been from them getting destroyed, not a new upper limit.
Does stoking the fire actually have a point? I'm at the point where
you go around and search old houses, battlefields, towns, cities etc. for new stuff
I haven't seen any point for it at all.
Nope, it does not have any point. Anyways, completed the game, though could have had ANY sort of reward/indication of winning.
@Aerineth
Is that late in the game?
I just found out that it is possible to end the game while you haven't explored everithing yet, so I'm starting over to do just that.
this one is really addicting!
i'm at the point where my entire map is open and i've conquered all of the outposts (it's a good way to earn some cured meat when i'm running low hehe).
not sure if this is the end game because i havent been able see what the spaceship does. there seems to be a bug where my space ship wont launch and i dont know why. i used all of my alien alloys and i dont know where i can get more
@Vuph
That's no good! Which browser are you using? Are there any messages in the javascript console?
Have you spent any alloy on the hull? if the hull is about 0, the "liftoff" button should be enabled. Is it enabled? What, exactly, happens when you click it?
* ABOVE, not ABOUT
Can I just take a moment to say how cool it is to see a developer interacting with the community and actively trying to troubleshoot? Thanks, Michael, both for the game and for being so productive. :)
The way I see it, everyone who chooses to take some time out of their day to play A Dark Room is doing me a great honour. If my game breaks and wastes that time, I feel like a jerk!
I'm just glad that everyone seems to be enjoying themselves. Thank YOU Dora, for driving more traffic my way than any other site on the internet. =)
This is very cool.
how do you get rid of the thieves? This really is a fantastic game, and i love how it starts out simple and turns awesome! i really hate the thieves stealin my wood and fur because it slows me down.
I haven't finished the game yet. But I just had to say four words THIS GAME IS AWESOME! I haven't discovered any knew areas to really use in the map, but I have my village fully expanded (to give you an idea how far I am). I like that you are as Dora said "how cool it is to see a developer interacting with the community and actively trying to troubleshoot?" A-lot of developers forget the player. Keep up the good work.
I'm confused after reading these comments. Is the map supposed to keep restarting? I thought it was normal that every time I kept "embarking," I'd be in the exact same spot (in the middle) to do everything all over again. I must have defeated those exact same cave men in the exact same cave twelve times now...
Nevermind. I just realized that the above was because I kept dying needlessly. Did not occur to me until now, for some reason, to return to the village.
On the other hand, great game.
I'm confused about that too Song. Also I'm confused on the whole exploration thing. I defeat a mine and it's safe for workers then I defeat the same cave again. Is there something I'm missing?
@wuppie
re: charm
I used the charm while exploring. I think it was at a swamp towards the southwest, but can't be certain. The prompt specifically asked me for a charm, which I used.
This gives the gastronome ability, which gives you more use out of your cured meats
Huh. I think I won...
So I took my spaceship all the way through without dying, then the screen went back to white and the game restarted. Does that mean it's over? I still had empty map spaces left...I didn't wanna be finished!! :(
Of course, when I find myself disappointed that a game is over, it only means that game was way awesome and I didn't want to stop! :)
One thing I never found out, and one big reason I wasn't ready to be finished yet:
Never found out what the charms do.
Is there any way to
undo the spaceship ride??
Heh. :D
Thanks Song! I stayed in the exploration map until I died also. I can now send Iron workers out! Power of posting!
Typo correction: "replenished"
Oh my god. Guys, this is huge. I've been spelling that wrong my entire life.
Is there anyway to get more steel other that searching for it on the map?
I've got the same bug as Vuph, though I'm pretty sure I know how it happened:
I used up all my alien alloy to get my spaceship to 9 hull and engine, then refreshed the page to check something. After refreshing, the lift off button was no longer enabled.
I also have a few suggestions on how to improve the game:
Give a renewable source for some of the non-renewable items in the game. In particular, I think you could have
an enemy drop bolas
an enemy that can be randomly encountered drop bayonets, and/or a way to craft them
same with grenades - a way to craft them or some enemy that can drop them
a way to get more than one laser rifle, perhaps as an uncommon reward from a cave/city/dungeon that you can go through as many times as you want
alien alloy could perhaps be another uncommon drop from the dungeon you can go through multiple times
It seems reasonable that you would lose all your weapons when you die, but I found it frustrating when I lost the weapons that had limited availability
Have keyboard shortcuts for the options in a battle - number keys would probably work just fine. My laptop's trackpad is not doing so well, so I lost quite a few battles simply because I couldn't click the buttons. :(
@Damon
Yes, there is.
Steel is made with iron and carbon.
Coal is a good source of carbon
There's a coal mine somewhere on the map. Find it, and start mining coal. At some point you'll be given the option to build a steelworks. Once you build that, you can assign steelworkers.
Damn, RobWatts, nice catch. That's exactly what the bug was. I hope you can live with its death on your conscience.
@RobWatts
But I got at least 3 laser rifles when before I completed and I didn't even get all the areas of the map. They're probably just rare and only appear on battlefields (in case you've only found one, there are more)
@Mike
I cleared the entire map and only found one. So there's an element of chance to how many there are. I just got unlucky
I just realised (from peeking at the source) that the Notification area is invisible in Chrome.
I'm not exactly sure why, but setting div#notifications { height: 0px } and unhiding the overflow fixed this for me. That's a weird solution though.
So I've explored the whole map, including taking over all the bases and towns, and nothing has happened. I haven't even gotten
the spaceship
Is there something that needs to be done to unlock that?
Pic please, savvy.
@bluemoose19
What are you talking about? The difficulty doesn't change and only going with a ranged weapon is stupid since, well, the ammo can run out. You don't have to use weapons, sure, but trust me, just go with all the melee weapons you can find and maybe a strong ranged+ammo and you're all set.
When I embark, nothing seems to happen. My screen is frozen with no options. When I refresh, I find myself back to the village and room and with more resources. WHat is supposed to happen?
^ You are supposed to go on a screen where you can sorta move around and you explore areas, clean out caves, mines, old houses, villages, battlefields etc and set up outposts and eventually find
A spaceship
during which you get better weapons and armor, a bigger backpack amd more water to bring so you can go farther out.
@Mark
Here's a screencap of the Firelit room (http://tinyurl.com/ltcrlb7), the village (http://tinyurl.com/m9txs8w), and the dusty path(http://tinyurl.com/mpb6lsf)
where do i get charm?
Great game, but boooooo. Does not play on my ipad with any browser I tested. Not Safari, Chrome, or Terra even changing User Agents. The left notification does not show.
Told a friend and he was frustrated since nothing was happening even after stoking the fire a gazillion times.
So currently, iPad play is a fail.
^ Maybe that's because it's a Javascript game and meant for computers -_-
Also, I already said stoking the fire doesn't do anything (well, after the first few minutes of the game) and besides, the games on this site are mostly meant for computers anyway.
Has anyone figued out the prime amount of workers for each task? I have a population of 80 and so far have
gatherer, charcutier, coal miner, hunter, iron miner, steelworker, tanner, and trapper
Anyone found the perfect amount of workers for each task?
Sorry I missed
sulphur worker
Good game overall, except for one thing.
I hate loop endings.
Makes me feel like the entire game was a waste.
Also
armourer
A suggestion for Michael Townsend (the creator):
What about giving us a prompt along the lines of ''You may not be able to return once you depart'' if you try to use the spaceship?
I honestly didnt expect people to hate that so much. A prompt, I can do.
@Adam: I actually like that about the game.
You discover that the planet you're on is a ruined hell-hole where people can only desperately cling to life. Naturally, your goal is to escape. But once you've sacrificed everything to get on that spaceship, you discover that there really is no escape: the next planet is just as bad, and the next one, and the next. You can't win, because there was a gigantic war, and war causes everyone to lose.
That's my interpretation, anyway; I could be overthinking it, as usual.
I also like how different character builds affect the overall flavor of the game.
The first time, I focused on evasive/defensive skills. My villagers caught a thief (although none of my resources were noticeably missing); I spared him and learned sneaking. I never got the sulfur mine or uncovered more than ~1/3 of the map because I was never strong enough to beat the soldiers. However, I never had a problem with thieves, and I had a constant stream of friendly NPCs coming to the village. I got the space ship and alien alloys through sheer luck, and I was almost sorry to leave everything I'd built.
On my next run, I got evasion and strength ("barbarian"), and applied what I'd learned on the previous planet. Suddenly, fighting was very easy; I got the sulphur mine and was soon awash in bullets. But the friendly NPCs stopped coming. All the cities had been picked clean ahead of me, except for the one full of unarmed squatters (I killed a few of them before I realized they weren't soldiers, and stole their food). My gatherers kept getting shot. It was like everyone was afraid of me.
The simplicity of it is a real asset; I think the game would be less involving and affecting if it had graphics and deeper lore.
I cleared the whole map on Dusty Path, I have max huts and I think I have all the buildings, etc. in the village. I can't figure out the next step ... I have
the spaceship and I've upgraded the engine and hull as much as I can (which isn't very much because I didn't get much alien alloy)
I try to lift off but don't seem to get very far before I'm sent back and have to wait awhile before I can lift off again. Can I get more
alien alloy
?
Slackermom:
Are you using your arrow keys to dodge all the characters coming at you? Every time one hits you, you lose a hull point. Once you get to zero you go back.
Is it my imagination or ...
do the charms have a very practical purpose?
Wearing one saves an item when you die?
I could be wrong, but that was how I used them.
Apparently I beat the game before I saw a lot of stuff, but I am satisfied with what I saw. I like the revelation
that your character is an alien.
Nice job. Nice game.
@Gary Oriber
I don't think so. They should have one, clear one-time use:
When you get to a frog or something in a swamp and give him a charm, you get 20 health per cured meat.
Keeggeek:
You need 5 gatherers and 10 hunters per charcutier, 1 charcutier per miner, 2 coal miners and 2 iron miners per steel worker, and 1 steel worker and 1 sulphur miner per armourer.
If you had a multiple of 87 villagers, you could continuously crank out bullets with maximum efficiency. Since you don't have that many, your ideal loadout depends on what supplies you have on hand:
Lots of extra wood:
18 gatherers
1 armourer
5 charcutiers
2 coal miners
50 hunters
2 iron miners
1 steelworker
1 sulphur miner
Every 10 seconds, you'll lose 7 wood and gain 25 furs and 1 bullet.
Lots of extra cured meat:
29 gatherers
1 armourer
4 charcutiers
2 coal miners
40 hunters
2 iron miners
1 steelworker
1 sulphur miner
Every 10 seconds, you'll gain 5 wood, 20 furs and 1 bullet, and lose 1 cured meat.
Plenty of everything:
25 gatherers
5 charcutiers
50 hunters
This lets you build up a stockpile of cured meat that you and your miners can use later... and also furs. Gawd, what am I going to do with all of these furs?
I'm a bit stuck, I can't get any more...
alien alloy. I collected it all before I found the spaceship but didn't notice it wasn't coming up in my inventory. Then I found the spaceship and tried to upgrade it but didn't have enough alloy. Is there a way to get more or would I have to restart?
Thanks rococoroecocoa but how do I get 87 pop? I have bought all the huts possible! But thank you!
Can anyone please tell me what the purpose of the teeth and scales are in this game? I've already completed it once (loved it!) and realized that I never used them at all....they just kept piling up in my inventory.
If I recall correctly, the teeth are used for the spear. Since you only make one of these, unless you loose it, you don't use very many. I don't think there was any other use for them.
I believe the scales are only used for armor.
I'm greatly enjoying this game. The one annoying thing, though, is the thieves. I can't figure out how to get rid of them. Is it just pure dumb luck, or am I missing something?
My first time through, I never found a
laser rifle. Now I know what those seemingly superfluous energy cells are for!
@Rhiannon Evans
Have you been taking your alien alloy back to your base? If you die in the wasteland you lose everything you're carrying. I don't think there's a way to get more alien alloy.
@keeggeek974
You can't get 87. Which is why rococoroecocoa says, "you don't have that many", and suggests different ways to utilize the max of 80 villagers
@Zanoushe:
There's a random chance that your villagers will catch the thief, and you'll have a choice to hang him or spare him. If you spare him, you'll never have any more thieves ever, and you'll gain the "sneaky" perk, which helps with evasion. I don't know what happens if you hang him.
This was a lot of fun! As far as the thieves go,
Eventually, the villagers will discover the thief and you can choose to execute or spare him.
If you spare him, he teaches you a skill and disappears. I was never bothered by thieves again. (I didn't try executing him; dunno what happens if you choose that.)
I have one request, about charms:
Most things on your list of stuff you take with you remains the same from trip to trip: if you have a sword with you when you get back to town, it's still equipped and ready when you head out the next time. However, there is one exception to this: charms. I assume that since charms are found the same way that teeth and cloth (etc) are found, the code just finds it all and dumps it back at camp. But that's not what I want to happen! If I have a charm with me at the end of a sojourn, I want to take it with me on the next trip, too.
In general, I really liked the sense of discovery for this game; there were lots of cool reveals as time moved forward.
There is at least one use for scales besides making armor.
You can give furs and scales to the scout when she visits.
How do I make more -
bullets? I already secured the sulphur mine and build an armoury, even have an option to build rifles but it is greyed out.
Never mind, power of posting. I totally missed
the new armourer job skill which is near the top of the list
Doh!
Ah thanks chipmunk! and thanks again rococoroecocoa!
Thanks Itt. It seems like there should be some way to sell the teeth and scales for some other type of commodity using the trading post. Except for the very beginning of the game these items are pretty much useless.
For theives:
If you choose to hang the thief, all the theiving stops and his thief friends give back *everything* that they stole
enjoying this, but as am on shared computer have been pretty much forced to abandon my game.
It would be really cool to be able to download it so i dont have to rely on getting the same computer in the library in order to continue my game.
But seriously, awesome game. Will be sending random people (people who are friends, not strangers) the link and telling them to play it.
There's a bug with the most recent update - my craftable weapons have all vanished! If I try to craft any, they still don't show up in my inventory or the list of items I can take with me!
Okay, I just checked using the javascript console - it looks like I still have my weapons, and crafting them does create additional ones, but I can't outfit myself with them.
Which also means if I pick one up I can't get rid of it unless I refresh or die.
I think I found the problem:
In path.js, you're going through all the items in carryable, which you've extended to include all craftables. Then in your if statement you check to see if it is a tool, but not if it is a weapon. So change:
if(store.type == 'tool' && have > 0) {
to
if((store.type == 'tool' || store.type == 'weapon') && have > 0) {
Ah crap, you're absolutely right. I gotta keep my hands out of the code so it can stay bug-free.
I really enjoy this game but I lost all of my progress when i turned off computer. I thought it autosaved? how does this work? I thought my browser settings were ok regarding the autosave but obviously not. argh!!! Want to start again, but not until I know it's being saved. Shared computer and I can't have it going for the entire duration of my quest. Pleeeeease do a save code like candy box!!!
Loving this so much and might be becoming addicted, but I need a little bit of help.
I just found spaceship and have upgraded it a couple of times, but I went out to hunt for more alloy and found some energy cells. Does anyone know what I use them for? I thought they might be for the ship, but I don't seem to be able to access them on the ship's screen.
Saving is done with HTML5 local storage, which is supported by pretty much all modern browsers. Which browser are you using, misandry?
There needs to be another category for games like these, since they are not quite text but not quite like other games either
ASCII?
Fledeye,
The energy cells are for a laser rifle you can find in the wasteland. Sounds like not every game has them appear, though.
Thanks Harrington, I've cleared the entire map, bar one town, and haven't found it.
my leather won't increase even I raise the production rate to 26/10s... what can I do?
@s11883
Increase fur production. You need it to produce leather.
OMG! Too freakin' addicting!
Something's wrong, nobody is coming to stay at the huts. I now have 10 of them, a lodge, trading post, tannery, and smokehouse. Nobody home. Any thoughts?
Ok guys, here's a question :
how do I get more fur ? I know it's not by hunters, I have to build the steelwork and the wagon, but I would need to convert something like 1 million fur and that would take me 4 days of 80 people hunting.
I'm sure I'm doing something wrong. How do I get more furs ?
How do I colonize the villages and stuff around me ?
Please, admins, help me
First off I just wanna say to the creator thank you for making such an awesome game. I really do love this game so addictive too yet so simple which is really part of its overall charm. Now that that is outta the way the problem that I am having with this game is when I'm out exploring "a dusty path" I can't really get anywhere because I'm constantly dying of starvation. Is there anyway around it? I eat meat when I'm battling I still always have plenty of water and there is no way to consume meat outside of battle or am I missing something? Little frustrating but otherwise so far no complaints at all. Keep up the great work man cant wait to see more of ADR or similar!
@adalgisounoqualunque I did it in less than a day between just finding the furs and using what my hunters produce I dont think the price was anywhere near 1mill furs But yeah no way around other than hunters using your traps and randomly finding them on "a dusty path".
Hi glimmi! To explore more
you need to build structures in your town that increase food and water storage, like water towers and the like. You should also be exploring villages and caves since, when cleared, they become safe zones that replenish your water and give you a little meat once per expedition when you come across them again.
Yeah see I have a lot of that sorry that's my bad I should have mentioned that.
I do have both the large water cask and the convoy so I can always hold enough water and food, and what I also don't get is when I do starve to death I always still have some cured meat left in my inventory. Though I have not come up to being able to build water towers in the village how do I go about getting the ability to build stuff like that as of right now I thought I had built up my village as much as I could. I have the cart, max huts, lodge, trading post, tannery,smokehouse, workshop, and steelworks. There are more beyond this?
Sorry glimmi, I meant to say
waterskin, cask, and water tank. They're under the crafting menu, and once you have them, you don't mean to make them again. I honestly can't remember what I did to trigger them as options, but make sure you're hanging out in the village to give the builder time to have the dialogue pop up. If you're still starving with cured meat in your inventory (and it does need to be cured, not just meat) then that sounds like a bug you'd need to report to the author. :( As far as I'm aware, the max water you can carry is 60, so you should be clearing villages and caves to turn them into places where you can replenish that, and the max supplies you can take with you to my knowledge is 70. I have never once died of starvation with cured meat still in my inventory.
DAM, do you have a cart? I don't think anyone comes to the village until you have a cart.
I don't know if this is a bug or fault on my part, but
I've cleared out the iron mine closest to the village (and made it back alive), but I have no option to send workers there...
Power of the Post, I guess some people had to die and new ones move in, because it's working now.
How can I boost the amount of fur being brought in by traps?
About getting Steel
I've got Coal and Iron mines going, more than 1000 each in stock, but no Steelworks available. Am I missign something?
There is something really disturbing..
I have 7954 meats and the game says there are not enough meats and starvation sets in...
Hi G�l?ah ?ahin. If you are getting that message while you're in the village, that's a bug. But if you're getting that message while you're traveling, bear in mind that it doesnt matter how much meat you have in the VILLAGE... you have to take CURED MEAT (not just regular meat) with you, and only what you take with you counts towards keeping you alive. There is no way you could be exploring with 7954 meat in your character's backpack. ;)
Beautiful game, however there's an awkward UI feature that makes combat difficult: when "Shoot" is positioned above "Eat Meat"; the "1 bullet" dropdown on Shoot covers the button below and steals the click event (Chrome 24.0.1312.52). I have to wave the mouse wildly to clear out of the dropdown so I can heal! :(
So glad it autosaves. I haven't shut down my browser in a week!
Somebody asked "what's the optimal distribution of workers" but I really like that there is no static distribution -- as the game goes on you have to change things up.
Great game. Really well done.
The one UI issue I found really annoying is that, when my inventory's full and I'm trading something new for some dumb old thing (like cloth), having to drop-down to reselect each and every time.
I'm not sure what the right alternative is. Maybe a "Repeat that trade" button one could mash on after e.g. dropping a cloth to pick up a cured meat.
Here's another bug.
When moving the mouse cursor over any of the options to build, eat, attack, etc..., the description box will not go away after moving the cursor away from the option box, making it impossible to click that option box. The only way to fix this is to mouse back over the option box and then slowly move your cursor to the left or right.
This wouldn't be a problem if it wasn't for the battles with enemies that attack really fast. I've died several times because I had to frantically move my mouse cursor to try to eat meat before dying. I can't play like this as I've lost so many valuables from this bug preventing me from attacking/healing in the middle of a fight with an enemy on crack.
This is a pretty great game - love the minimalism and all.
Just a small problem -- The button for making lower level items like leather armor or water skins do not grey out after making higher level versions of them. I wasted a good number of minutes trying to get my resources back from building iron armor even though I already had steel. But yeah. Totally sharing this game.
Is this a bug?
Whenever I try to move to the Dusty Path and embark i just stand there doing nothing. and the screen doesnt move or allow me to go back to any other tab. Am I doing something wrong?
i have found a 'bug' that when im on a dusty path i have equipped 9 torches 3 charms 4 bone spears
20 water and leather armour and i cant embark on a jurney can someone tell me why?
@matthewsoloviev You can't embark on a journey if you don't put any cured meat in your inventory before leaving. Make sure you've been trying to put cured meat in your inventory before setting off. :)
where is the coal/iron mine, and how do i hold more stuff other than the rucksack? im stuck on the world!
Hey, Mr. Townsend. Not sure if you know this or not, but:
the ring of orbital debris surrounding the planet is called Kessler syndrome ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kessler_syndrome ) - not sure if it'd make much difference to the game, but it was neat to hit the end and go 'oh crap, I know what's going on here.'
In any case, thanks for an excellent game, and hope to see more from you.
That's awesome, Pratz. Honestly, I just wrote that shit, I didn't think about it. =)
Is it possible to hack the number of things you have (or anything else for that matter) using the javascript console like with candy box?
Yes, it is possible to hack the number of things you have.
Open a Console in Chrome.
For example if you wanted to set your amount of wood you can paste the following code into the console and press enter.
State.stores.wood = 500
Hey man, this game is ridiculously fun for being so simple, nicely done. I, however, am having a problem similar to misandry in that it's not saving after I power down. I'm using Firefox, if that matters. Any ideas?
Hi Kid! I also use Firefox and have no problems. Are you making sure you have cookies enabled and any Adblock programs turned off that might prevent the game from saving?
Kid Carnivore, i think this game uses html5 local storage to save the game. Older browsers do not support local storage. Updating your browser may fix the problem.
Also, it would be neat if the creator added a Save and Load button at the bottom near the share and restart buttons.
The button could prompt for a user / pass combination
Using AJAX + PHP User data could be stored in a MySQL database on the server.
This would allow users to load the game from different computers or continue from where they left off.
Wonderful game! I never really played any text-based roguelikes or anything before, but I quickly got caught up in the resource management, and was happy to see it
becomes much bigger than that.
Failed my first attempt... just lost too many valuable items and decided it'd be better to start again fresh. Well I just finished it!
Upgraded the ship with all the alloy I could after exploring the entire map. Wasn't sure what to expect, but when I saw stuff flying at me, and I knew I had a limited number of hits, I was scared... it didn't let up.. thought I was going to die.. but I made it, safely into space!! I prefer not to think of the events of the game repeating, so I'm done playing.
Fantastic game.. I don't often get addicted like that, but it was great. Thanks for making my week!
I have a problem, I've built as many huts as I can, I have a lodge, a trading post, a tannery, and a smokehouse, but no charcutiers or hunters etc. just 80 gatherers, which has maxed my population, have I done something wrong?
never mind, just figured it out
djrconcepts and Dora, my browser is current (v.22), and to my knowledge, I don't have adblock AND I have cookies enabled.
Great game! Very addictive and fun to play!
Is there any way to get more
alien alloy without trying to make it from teeth and scales? I've worn out the map now and have nothing new left to explore, and for the most part, whenever I found alien alloy I ended up losing it because I died out in the bush. I went looking for more but it isn't showing up. There is just no way for me to get enough scales and teeth to make the alloy unless I leave my computer running non-stop for a month or two which isn't ideal! I just sit around poking the fire now. Bloody love this game though.
Hi. I'm trying to restart my game, as I screwed up too often early on. Now that I have a clue how this works, I'd like to start fresh again.
But when I hit restart and confirm the restart, nothing happens.
When
the wanderer - The Master
shows up, is the only way you can
let him stay the night, is it to somehow have lower population than your population capacity? He's shown up a couple of times, I never want to turn him away but that is the only option available. The other one has several item quantities attached to it, but is greyed out.
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
Gotta get rid of the drop downs. I want to eat meat but I end up shooting!! Ahhhhhhhhhhhh
What Perks have people seen? The only perks I've seen are:
Boxer - Fight enough things with punches alone and your punches go from 1 to 2 damage.
Gastronome - Bring the charm to the swamp and your Cured Meats heal for 20 instead of 10
Stealthy - Spare the Thief and you encounter fewer enemies in the wild.
I've also heard about, but not gotten:
Barbarian - One random perk received from putting up The Master. Increases Melee damage?
Scouting - From the Scout. Unknown effect (assumed increased vision on the Dusty Path)
There's also supposedly two other perks from the Master?
I also
Found several laser rifles but no energy cells
Okay, I think I've completed the list of all possible Perks in the game:
Boxer - increases Punch damage from 1 to 2. Earned by punching enough times (I think around 30)
Scout - Buy it from the scout. Increases your vision radius on a dusty path from 3 squares to 5.
Gastronome - Bring a charm to the swamp. Increases the amount healed by eating Cured meat from 10 to 20.
Stealthy - Earned by sparing the thief when he's caught. Reduces the rate of combat encounters.
The next three are all earned by letting The Master stay the night, which requires that you have 100 Furs, 100 Cured Meat, and 1 Torch handy. Try to either keep these amounts handy at all time, or always keep production of Furs and Cured Meat positive so that if he comes when you don't have enough, you can wait out the last few.
Precision - Reduces how often you miss in combat
Evasion - Increases how often you hit in combat
Barbarian (pick "Force") - Increases your damage with Bone Spear from 2 to 3, with Iron Sword from 4 to 6, with Steel Sword from 6 to 9, and (I assume, I only ever found one Bayonet and I died with it, but all of the others are a 50% increase) Bayonet from 8 to 12)
You can get all of them in the same game. Both the Scout and the Master show up periodically. The only one it is possible to miss entirely is sparing the Thief, as once you hang him, you can never encounter him again.
I have story questions for all, but especially the creator Michael Townsend:
Here's how I interpret the events, with the questions. Spoilered all the way to the end of the game.
Builder and I are not human. We were part of an invading force looking for resources (boreholes), but we met resistance (battlefields). I'm going to assume we invaded Earth otherwise it's not as interesting.
Q: what about all the pawns joining the village? Are they human or us? Either way, why're they coming?
We're multi-handed, I saw a carcass that hinted at that and we can use many weapons.
Q: are we also cold-blooded? Builder can't function if she's cold.
I decide to blow this popsicle stand and head elsewhere in the ship.
Q: am I a commander, or just a real jerk leaving everyone behind?
Thanks!
I missed the scout because I didn't have enough furs at the time... will another scout come, or do I have to restart the game?
There are at least two more perks:
martial artist - punches do even more damage.
Continue barehand fighting after obtaining the boxer perk, and damage increasing from 2 per hit to 6 per hit.
unarmed master - punch twice as fast, and with even more force.
Keep barehand fighting even longer, and punching goes up to 12 damage per hit, with a really short timer.
Ok I love this Game got recommended it after playing Candy Box. The developer posted here so incase they are reading i wanna say thanks and awesome.
I've had various people come wanting wood and fur saying they will bring it back i have given it to all of them (but just the minimum) as i am generous with things that don't exist in the real world. My results
No one came back :O and i've been here all day :( Come to think it none of them even said thankyou... a**holes.
Do these results vary with others? Is it worth giving larger amounts?
Also I know it doesnt make much of a difference but i keep my room hot and i also give to all beggars.
They leave cloth :O Which is more than those pesky cart carriers...
anyway i'm gonna continue until it's completed.
@e.r.ambrosino: Yes, the scout comes by often.
@Barney Mageean:
It happens, but not often enough to be worth it. I've started the game twice and in both cases
the first wanderer who showed up got 100 furs and returned with more but the others just took them and never came back. I tried giving 500 once or twice but it didn't make a difference
The beggars offer a good deal I think.
They always left a few scales to me which was useful when I wanted to make bullets and didn't have the armory yet. I wonder if they leave more when you offer them 100 furs instead of 50. I never thought to check before.
Any hints on approximately how much alloy is needed at the end?
Really awesome game!!
I finished it once and now i am playing it again to try and uncover the whole map.
I looked at some of the comments and saw that the guy that wrote the game looks at the comments posted here and i would like to personally thank him for what is probably one of the best non graphic computer games i have ever played.
I only have one question about the game if anyone cant help me i would really appreciate it:
I got to the swamp and want to talk to the old wanderer but i need a charm, where do i get one? is it by being attacked by the beasts at the beginning of the game? if i am only being attacked by bands of humans now dose that mean i cant collect any more charms?
@Leon Karni
I never figured out how you get them, but I thought there were too few of them to be gained whenever I was attacked. Perhaps they were given by the beggars or wanderers who showed up at the camp from time to time asking for shelter.
Love the narrative arc of this. Slightly, evilly amused that a lot of the "bug reports" are actually nuances of the game. Problematic once the map's fully restored, in that a few too many deaths (yep, I suck at this) means there's little way to replenish some resources, like scales.
Overall game spoiler:
That circular narrative definitely reminds me of Wayward. (That mechanic works SO much better with these two games than with Rebuild 2.) Incidentally, the above problem applies for this game and Wayward -- once you're beefed up, there's almost no challenge. Which is really relaxing for many players, but in my opinion it could use a little, wee bit of Spanish Inquisition at that late stage.
By the by, noting some comments -- bolas is not a melee weapon. It's made of ropes and weights that you swing around to tangle up a target's legs. Used by cattle dudes and primitive hunters.
Two other perks:
slow metabolism - go twice as far per food
To get: die of hunger 10 times.
desert rat - go twice as far per water
To get: die of thirst 10 times. (Try to do this before getting the canteen.
Walkthrough, first part:
1) Light fire.
2) Stoke fire repeatedly until the stranger appears.
3) Click on "A Silent Forest" tab.
4) Gather wood.
5) Click back and forth between "A Firelit Room" and "A Silent Forest", gathering wood when possible.
6) When you have enough wood, build a cart under firelit room, then build a trap.
7) Gather wood and check traps whenever available.
8) When you have 100 wood, build a hut.
8a) Keep building huts until you're at the maximum (20).
9) Next, build a trading post, smokehouse and lodge. You may also want to build more traps.
10) To get meat and fur: Make villagers into hunters and/or check traps. To get teeth and scales, check the traps, or trade at the trading post. (Traps are more effective if you have a trapper make bait for them.) Y
11) Make a charcutier, and make some cured meat.
12) Switch between below tasks as they become available.
12a) Switch to the Dusty path tab, give him one unit of cured meat and embark. Wander around outside until you starve.
12aa) Starve 10 times to get the "slow metabolism" perk.
12b) Build a tannery.
12bb) Convert villagers to tanners until you get 100 leather.
12bbb) Build a workshop. Don't build the waterskin yet. Do make leather armor.
12c) After getting "slow metabolism", make trips into the desert with 5 or so units of cured meat and nothing else. Wander around until you die of thirst.
12cc) Die of thirst 10 times to get the "desert rat" perk.
13) After getting "slow metabolism" and "desert rat", save up for leather armor and rucksack, then build a bone spear.
14) Put the spear and plenty of cured meat in your inventory. Wander around outside, but don't get too far. Return to town whenever you've got enough stuff. (If you die from thirst, hunger, or HP loss, you lose everything in your inventory.)
To be continued.
Walkthrough, continued:
Side events:
- Occasionally, a person will come by, ask for wood / fur, and promise to give you more later. If you offer 100, there's a 50% chance they'll give you 300 later (good deal). If you offer 500, there's a 30% chance they'll give you 1500 later (bad deal).
- Try to keep 1000 fur, 20 teeth, and 50 scales in your possession in case you meet the scout. You'll be able to buy a useful perk if you do.
- After you get 5000 of something, thieves will show up. Eventually, you'll catch the thief (exactly when is random). You can hang the thief (get back everything stolen) or release him (get the "sneaky" perk). You only have one chance to get the "sneaky" perk, so I recommend the latter.
- If you make 50 punch attacks, you get the "boxer" perk (better punch attacks). 150 punch attacks, and you get "martial artist" (stronger and faster). 300 punch attacks, and you get "unarmed master" (even stronger and faster)
Walkthrough, concluded
15) Put a torch and a bunch of torches in your inventory, then look for the iron mine (bold capital I). It will be fairly close to town. Enter it, defeat the monster inside, then return to town.
16) Create one or more iron miners.
17) When you have enough iron, buy a cask, wagon, iron armor, and optionally an iron sword. (If you're sticking with punching, you should have boxer and possibly martial artist by now.)
18) Explore a little further. There should be a coal mine (bold capital C) a little further from the town. Enter it, defeat the three people inside, then return to town.
19) Turn one or more villagers into a coal miner.
20) When you have enough, buy the steelworks.
21) Convert one or more villagers to a steel worker.
22) When you can afford it, buy steel armor, a convoy, and a water tank. Optionally buy a steel sword.
23) Travel still further, and you'll find a sulfur mine (bold capital S). It's well defended, so the first time you see it, don't try to attack. Go right back to town so that everything is saved.
24) When you think you're ready, go straight from town to the sulfur mine. If you're playing as a martial artist, you may be able to take it unarmed. Otherwise, take a number of different weapons (steel sword, bola, rifle, iron sword). Attack with one while the others are cooling down. Gastronomy perk helps here.
25) After you get the sulfur mine, go straight back to town. Build an armoury.
26) Other letters:
- B -> get alien alloys here. bring them back to the town.
- W -> find alien spacecraft. salvage it.
- M -> bring a charm here (found in traps) to get the gastronomy perk (heal more from eating cured meat)
- F -> get advanced weaponry here (avoid if playing martial artist)
Endgame:
- Once you've salvaged the spacecraft (at a W), and gotten as many alien alloys as you care to (get them at a B or trade in town), you can enter the endgame.
- Go back to town, and there will be a new tab "An Old Starship". Select it. Put at least one point into hull and at least one into engine, then choose "lift off".
- Move to the bottom of the screen and dodge incoming letters.
end
Wow, what a great game! I think it was easy to figure out by the end that...
you are a wanderer or alien! I was a little slow about it but when I discovered the starship it became much more clear!
There was a lot of stuff I liked about this game. First of all, the interface was so sleek and beautiful, it was one of the reasons I kept on playing! With so little detail given, it was fun to make up stories in my head about my "character" and what was going on around him/her. This game is also tagged as "horror" but
I was nervous for a very bloody/scary game! The only elements of horror that I found were when the rats attacked viciously (once) or when I have to mindlessly kill a "youth" who is attacking me with a stick. It is probably because it is supposed to be in this post-apocalyptic world, but I felt that the end of the game had a peaceful sort of feeling. I imagined that the character you played as felt bad that all his fellow wanderers had practically destroyed the place, so he slowly built up a safe-ish, strong, large village and gave the people the resources and abilities to continually expand and self-sustain. He/She even went around the large desert and thick woods to scrap all the possible resources for the villagers! Or perhaps he was just giving people a way to get him the resources to explore enough and obtain some kind of starship to get him off the planet. Even so, he/she didn't turn around and shoot the little settlement with his/her ship...the wanderer just let them have their warm, cozy, blazing fire. That might have been a cool twist ending, though, that after all that work at the end your wanderer just destroys the village and goes on his merry way. I'm sure that this game was created to encourage the player to explore and find their own "story" using the world around them! A little criticism under the cut:
I've read a comment or two that I agree with a bit: the ending was very anti-climactic. I may have finished wrong...I couldn't get to whatever the ship was flying to, so it started over...but it seems like this is the default ending. Maybe it was intended to be mysterious, as if the wanderer keeps crashing on these barren planets? But to the player (at least, to me) it was just a bit disappointing. Another minor gripe I had was when battling, the "eat meat" button would get covered by the amount of bullets I needed to shoot the rifle popping up, and this made some battles difficult and annoying at times.
Not only did I find this a very clean looking game, but there were so many little details added to create a great gaming experience. The use of characters instead of graphics was just charming! The pop up bubbles that appeared in your village impressed me; it created a wonderful atmosphere. Trying to juggle the functions when the difficulty increased was very time consuming and made a delightful progression! I just wish I hadn't had to
abandon it all in the end! I miss my little village! Even the fire stoking! :) Is there any other ending than the one I got?
All in all, a very fun game that had me tied over for hours, and I don't typically enjoy this type of gameplay! Thumbs up to the creator(s)!
Hullo JiG... just a lightbulb. I know it's a gigantic pain to add tags, but with comments here and yon over the last month, perhaps the need to have separate "horror" and "suspense" tags has emerged. They may be used together a lot, but it may make sense in terms of wanting to crunch lots of brains vs. the existential meaning of my life was in the stuffed puppy all along.
This game is super awesome! Playing on a Samsung Galaxy Tab 2, but I run into some difficulty when
I hit the world map for the first time, I've maxed out my village and have high stocks of everything, but I can't move on the map wih a tablet. Do I need arrow keys for this?
Also afraid to close the tab in case I lose my hours xD
I finished the game. So I was just wanna try to lift up to see what will it do & hoping that I'll fail but I succeed. I don't want to end the game yet :( . I still haven't found
sulphur mines
and still want to explore more of the map.
So I think as long as you have found
spaceship and alien alloy
you can try to win the game.
@Jake McNamara: Unfortunately, yes, you DO need arrow keys to move around the map! Sorry! :( If you have an external keyboard hook it up, otherwise I'm very sorry!
I've read before that the room displays temperature when you enter it, and the wiki shows other "messages" related to some items, but I haven't seen messages about anything. The only thing that ever pops up for me is "Saved" and the resource costs when I hover over things. Am I missing something?
I wish you could choose whether the hunter would get 1 fur or meat rather than .5 of each.
Does anyone have tips for the proper balance of village roles?
Hooray, a new twist!
Medicine!
But did the mechanic for getting the
steelworks change? I've got plenty of coal and iron, but don't have the option to build that.
So apparently I broke the game. I found the spaceship, and died on the way back; now I have 9 alien alloy and (as far as I can tell) every upgrade and no options to do anything.
I must be doing something wrong...I've got
iron, coal, steel, and sulphur all squared away, but I don't have the option to make an armoury? What am I missing? :(
Otherwise I am so loving this game, I've been playing it more than anything else for the past 3 days off and on after someone posted it on GOG :)
Arrrg! I found this guy called the master, and was all set to let him stay in town, but I had just used my last torch. (However, I had more than enough supplies to make a slew of them) So I had to turn him away! What does he do? Will he come back?? :(
Hey there, this game is fantastic. I'm just about to finish it!
One more suggestion for the programmer (if he's still around):
Can we PLEASE have an option of selling our 'excess stock'??
I have:
over 28,000 bait
over 122,000 wood
and over 702,000 meat
... but I'm still having to wait for enough fur to buy scales to buy alien alloy.
Doo di doo di doo...
I gave 1 medicine to the
sick man
but nothing happened. Maybe I should try not giving him the medicine? (medicine is expensive! 50 scales and 30 teeth!!
Absolutely phenomenal game! Much better than other ASCII timer-based games, even the Candy Box series. It has the right balance of difficulty, patience while waiting for resources to build up, and exploration.
I'd buy an Android version in a heartbeat. A shame there's only an iOS version.
Some feedback for improvement:
The charms are a bit difficult to figure out. Maybe add a spoiler text, something like, "This might be useful someday, but I'm not sure how." Also, after a certain point in the game, they never seem to spawn. I'll get 5-6 charms, and lose them all in the overworld map before I was am able to find the swamp, so I'm out of luck in getting the Gastronome perk. Is this intentional or just my bad luck?
Aside from the compass, the trading post is useless. The only items that were worth trading for were bolos, and by the time you find them, they're not very useful against mobs with guns. Too many non-farmable and difficult-to-obtain resources were relied upon in insane quantities for trade. 150 fur for one scale? 10 scales per bullet? I think everything is overpriced by a factor of 10x. Even at the endgame when I had thousands of wood, 1000+ leather, 200 scales, etc, the alien alloy was so far out of my reach as to be unattainable. Drop the prices of all trade goods (except bolos) to 1/10th, and they might be useful.
The balance of the resource progression is almost flawless, and requires a lot of fine tuning, but this is the draw of survival games like this (Don't Starve comes to mind.)
Hand-to-hand combat is overpowered once you get the final perk. The Master's requirements were too stiff for me to pay early on, and he appears rarely, so I never got any of his perks, but that's luck of the draw.
The hunger/thirst perks are useful, but it's impossible to discover they exist without resorting to a wiki. Maybe drop a spoiler text the third time you collapse from thirst/hunger, something like, "I feel that I may eventually be better able to cope with thirst/hunger."
Being able to simultaneously use multiple weapons at once, each with their own cooldown timer, is interesting, but counter-intuitive. I didn't discover this until I read about it here, I kept the best weapon I could build on me in the overland map. Maybe a note somewhere would help alert players that they can use more than one weapon at a time? Multiple wielding weapons does throw off a bit of balance to the game as well, maybe allow two at a time? Laser rifle ammo is scarce so I never used it. The bayonet is a lifesaver, but extremely scarce. Maybe allow veterans to spawn randomly on the overland map?
Thank you for this game, I spent several days of starting over, learning what I did wrong last time, until finally beating it.
Hey Mike T (or anyone else), I was just wondering if you lose your armour when you die. Thanks.
Michael, just thought you might want to know that
when I have almost everything you can in the list on the village page I can't see the weapons because the page is too short.
This has to be one of the most unique and best games ever!
Simplistic in styling but really evocative and really fires up the imagination. I'm giving it 5 shrooms, but would like to deduct 0.1 simply because
constantly fighting lizards, scavengers and soldiers gets a little too onerous at times
but what I did like was
the creation of pathways that helped to avoid all the wasteland battles
Also noted and appreciated was the interactive and helpful attitude of the game developer.
This game simply has to win a JiG award!
Is the stuff you collect suppose to carry over after you die on the Dusty Path? I got all these bullets and guns and steel but it didn't save. And is the map suppose to always save? I secured a mine, but went back in later and I to secure the same mine all over again. It never saves.
Why did my villagers change to "slaves?" Is there a way to get them to change back to just "villagers?"
It's been a while since I played, but I do remember losing all my inventory anytime I died.
The map is supposed to save, so I'm not sure what's going on there. You have to completely clear a mine or whatever for it to save, so if you leave before killing all the monsters or going through all the rooms it won't save.
I don't recall anything about slaves, however.
Finished! I loved the atmosphere, look, and mechanics of this game!
Well, except for the overpriced trading post; most items were not worth buying there. (Giving up tons of scarce resources should at least award 2-digit amounts of an item, I think.) You get a slightly better deal for scales and teeth from the nomad, but it's best to gather these items from the map (just be careful).
It seems the ending changed since 2013.
I got a "high score" at the end after leaving in the spaceship. Or is the loop in restarting the game? (Although, there seems to be an option to not restart if you accidentally launch early and make it (a confirmation dialogue will pop up when you hit restart).)
@Samantha, and others who may be having trouble on the map,
you need to return to your village to have anything from your outings save (e.g., capturing a mine). I also suggest, except for cured meat or ammo, do not bring more than 1 or 2 of any other item you want to bring on an outing; once you die on the map, you lose any progress you made on that outing, and whatever items you're holding.
Miscellaneous advice:
If you need a charm,
make sure to check your traps. This is where I found all my charms.
If you had to turn someone away because you're missing resources, don't panic. They will come back, but it might be in a while.
The village tab is where you can tell your villagers where to work (sometimes I forgot this).
Some of my observations:
When the fur or wood wanderer comes by,
I've had both cases where they just leave with my resources, or return with more resources. But when you're farther in the game, you'll have so many resources, taking a risk on them might be negligible. I only ever gave 100 of a resource, though, and turned them away when I was keen on building up those resources in the beginning.
You probably never have to craft a weapon for this game. I mean, besides using your fists (which I didn't know was possibly until reading through the comments), I survived mostly by using weapons I picked up.
Well, I'm gonna go and play this awesome game again :)
Thank you Michael Townsend for making this!
Just got done with my second playthrough and came across
a ruined village that gave me a bunch of resources from my first playthrough.
Now I get what people are saying about the ending,
that you're in a "loop", and you're an alien who goes and conquers the land where you crashed your spaceship, and then salvages the spaceship to go to a "new" planet (I'm thinking it's actually the same planet) and repeat the process all over again. I'm thinking the wanderer at the Murky swamp is a past incarnation of the player; the swamp wanderer even says that he wants to make up for destroying places due to wanderlust. Guess the loop was in restarting the game after all :/
This was a fun and simple game! Rad props to the developer.
So...I think I am missing something. Is the spaceship maneuverable? The directional keys do nothing, nor does clicking on the screen, but it seems like people have said you can move your ship. If so, I am at a loss for how. Could this be a bug?
Hi hothotpot,
you should be able to move your ship with [WASD] or the [arrow] keys. If you can't, you might be experiencing a bug, and you need to contact the developer, or try in another browser.
It would appear to be a bug. The WASD keys are completely unresponsive, and when I use the arrow keys, the up and down keys just scroll the window the game is running in. I've tried clicking on the game window to bring it into focus, but it doesn't make a difference. I'm operating Chrome. Anyone else with Chrome experience this?
I also tried exporting my save data and trying it IE, but the game won't even load in IE so that was a bust.
On the whole I am very disappointed. The game was quite fun, and now to not be able to complete it because of a compatibility issue or some other bug is pretty frustrating.
@hothotpot
That's too bad :(
WASD or the arrow keys also didn't work for me when I played in Firefox, but I found that not maneuvering the spaceship worked just fine for me both times. If you don't launch successfully the first time, you can always try again after a cooldown :)
(Not that this excuses broken controls, but the bug isn't that serious I think.)
That's really odd... I just tested in Firefox and Chrome, and the ship sequence is working just fine. Send me an email at michael[at]doublespeakgames[dot]com with info on browser, version, and OS and we'll see if we can get to the bottom of it.
Okay so I have the app on my phone and can't put my phone down. Love it. But I'm at the point where someone in my village is stealing from me and has been for a while. How do I get them to stop? Is there something I can do? It's quite irritating.
Guide to A Dark Room
This guide is not meant to provide a step-by-step walkthrough, but to serve as a guide to the game for those who want to experience it for themselves.
The guide is broken into three parts: General - information and ideas about the game itself, Building/Crafting - costs and timeline, and Dusty Trail - information about the map and events you're likely to experience along the way.
If you'd like to see a step-by-step walkthrough of one possible solution to the game, a thorough one has been written by ralphmerridew and can be found here as Part One, Part Two, and Part Three.
General
Game Hints.
Information.
-
A frequently asked question is "What does stoking the fire do?" In the very beginning, it starts the game. You'll never get out into the Silent Forest if your wood stores don't begin to run low!
-
The game gives you the info you need: for example, building more traps will allow you to catch more creatures, and building a lodge will help your villagers hunt. Pay attention!
-
While it's a survival game in one sense, it's also a narrative. Decisions like being kind to strangers may not have far-reaching implications, but it helps to tell the story. And being kind sometimes DOES have a positive affect.
-
Investigate noises and follow critters, as it may lead to new discoveries and resources when you most need them.
-
The story on the left doesn't always relate to the action, but can provide clues.
-
Rollover an item in a box and, if it isn't greyed out, it will provide you with more information: things you can make show you how many materials you need, things you can buy show the cost, workers show what they create/use, and the items in your storehouse will tell you who makes them and what they cost.
-
If you leave it running, your workers will continue to create what they create, which can provide you with extra resources later.
Building/Crafting.
-
When your population is maxed, it's probably time to build more huts.
-
Building huts and traps early will provide you with a labor force and resources for larger buildings later.
-
If you need to build something, make sure your other jobs are not using more wood every 10s than you gain. Same goes for other resources.
-
Return to the Firelit Room to consult with the builder, move to the Village to deal with the workforce, and follow the Dusty Path to take actions.
-
Certain items are limited--for example, you can only have 10 traps out at once, you can only craft 1 rucksack, etc.
What things (and people) do.
-
Traps will bring in fur, tattered cloth,meat, teeth, charms, etc.
-
The cart helps you gather more wood.
-
Two tiny huts create a Tiny Village. There are some other building options that open up.
-
A Modest Village will add a workshop, and larger villages/more resources, actions in the map will open even more.
-
The workshop opens up a whole new window on the world--crafted items.
-
The trading post has items for sale.
-
The lodge allows your villagers to hunt (if you assign hunters).
-
The tannery will allow you to make leather (if you assign tanners).
-
The smokehouse will allow you to cure meat (if you assign charcutiers).
-
Click on the up/down arrows to assign gatherers to other jobs. You can reset by 1s or 10s.
-
A Large Village has 9 huts and the other buildings.
-
A Raucous Village has 16 huts. There is a limit of 20 huts total.
-
Once the compass is purchased, A Dusty Path opens. For more detailed hints on the map, see the Dusty Path section below.
-
Gatherer = 1 wood / 10s
-
Charcutier = -5 meat, -5 wood, + 1 meat / 10s
-
Hunter = +.5 fur, +.5 meat / 10s
-
Tanner = -5 fur, +1 leather / 10s
-
Trapper = -1 meat, +1 bait / 10s
-
Coal Miner = -1 cured meat, +1 coal / 10s
-
Iron Miner = -1 cured meat, +1 iron / 10s
-
Steelworker = -1 iron, -1 coal, +1 steel
-
Sulfur Miner = -1 cured meat, +1 sulfur / 10s
Workers:
A general rule of thumb for workers: You need 5 gatherers and 10 hunters to provide materials for 1 charcutier, 1 charcutier per miner, 2 coal miners and 2 iron miners per steel worker, and 1 steel worker and 1 sulphur miner per armourer. From that information, you can create the worker team that will best suit your needs at any time.
Workers produce:
Perks.
Readers have identified these possible perks, which can help you accomplish different things. Not everyone can receive all perks. The perks box will appear above your stores on the Dusty Path tab.
-
Boxer - increases Punch damage from 1 to 2. Earned by punching approximately 50 times.
-
Scout - Buy it from the scout. Increases your vision radius on a dusty path from 3 squares to 5.
-
Gastronome - Bring a charm to the swamp. Increases the amount healed by eating Cured meat from 10 to 20.
-
Stealthy - Earned by sparing the thief when he's caught. Reduces the rate of combat encounters.
-
The next three are all earned by letting The Master stay the night, which requires that you have 100 Furs, 100 Cured Meat, and 1 Torch handy. Try to either keep these amounts handy at all time, or always keep production of Furs and Cured Meat positive so that if he comes when you don't have enough, you can wait out the last few.
-
Precision - Reduces how often you miss in combat
-
Evasion - Increases how often you hit in combat
-
Barbarian (pick "Force") - Increases your damage melee weapons by 50%
-
Martial Artist - punches do even more damage.
Continue barehand fighting after obtaining the boxer perk (approx 150 punches, and damage increasing from 2 per hit to 6 per hit. -
Unarmed Master - punch twice as fast, and with even more force.
Keep barehand fighting for about 300 punches, and punching goes up to 12 damage per hit, with a really short timer. -
Slow Metabolism - go twice as far per food
. To get this one, die of hunger at least 10 times. -
Desert Rat - go twice as far per water
. To get this one, die of thirst at least 10 times.
Everyone is going to have a different experience! Be patient! Things are bound to happen.
Building/Crafting
Want to do some advance planning? Here is what everything costs to build or craft.
Build:
-
Cart = 100 wood, one time
-
Trap = 10 wood, then 20, then 30... (limit 10)
-
Hut = 100 wood, then 150, then 200.. (limit 20)
-
Lodge = wood 200, fur 10, meat 5
-
Trading Post = wood 400, fur 100
-
Tannery = wood 500, fur 50
-
Smokehouse = wood 600, meat 50
-
Workshop = wood 800, leather 100, scales 10
-
Steelworks = wood 1500, iron 100, coal 100
-
Armoury = wood 3000, steel 100, sulphur 50
Craft:
-
Torch = wood 1, cloth 1 (unlimited?)
-
Waterskin = leather 50
-
Bone Spear = wood 100, teeth 5 (unlimited?)
-
Rucksack = leather 200
-
Leather Armor = leather 200, scales 20
-
Cask = leather 100, iron 20
-
Wagon = wood 100, iron 100
-
Iron Armor = leather 200, iron 100
-
Iron Sword = wood 200, leather 50, iron 20
-
Water Tank = iron 100, steel 50
-
Convoy = wood 1000, iron 200, steel 100
-
Steel Armor = leather 200, steel 100
-
Steel Sword = wood 500, leather 100, steel 20
-
Rifle = wood 200, steel 50, sulfur 50
Purchase:
Some items can be purchased.
From scout:
-
Map 200 fur, 10 scales
-
Learn Scouting 1000 fur, 50 scales, 10 teeth
From nomad:
-
Scales = fur 100
-
Teeth = fur 200
-
Bait = fur 5
-
Compass = fur 300, scales 15, teeth 5
From trading post:
-
Scales = fur 150
-
Teeth = fur 300
-
Compass = fur 400, scales 20, teeth 10
-
Iron = fur 150, scales 50
-
Coal = fur 200, teeth 50
-
Steel = fur 300, scales 50, teeth 50
After you find your first one of each of the following, you can buy:
-
Bolas = teeth 10
-
Bullets = scales 10
-
Medicine = scales 50, teeth 30
-
Alien Alloy = fur 1500, scales 750, teeth 300
-
Bayonet = scales 500, teeth 250
-
Grenade = scales 100, teeth 50
The only weapon you can't craft or buy is the laser rifle
Dusty Path/Old Starship
Here is where things get really interesting!
-
You can take advantage of the carrying space you have to take items with you. This includes torches, weapons, and food. Cured meat is required to even embark on an adventure!
-
When you embark, you'll enter a map. Movement can be accomplished by WASD or arrow keys.
-
In some browsers, the WASD/arrow keys appear not to work. Click on the map in the direction you want to move, and you'll move.
-
You'll find lots of things to explore here: caves, mines, ruined cities and more. Try to find them all. Some buildings in your village rely on your finding more resources out in the wild.
-
You will occasionally be accosted by an enemy and have to fight, even in spaces you have previously explored. Choose your weapon (including fists, which requires that you carry no other weapons). You have no choice but to fight.
-
Enemies can range from 3-4 hit points up to 50 hit points. Once you have several perks and a strong armory, you can defeat any of them, but watch out! Some hit for more points than you do, while others hit more quickly.
-
You can use food, medicine, and even multiple weapons in each battle. Each has a cool down period.
-
Whenever you have a chance to do so, buy a piece of the map. It can help you figure out where everything that needs to be explored is located.
-
Things will start to move pretty quickly once you find and clear the mines. Use the iron to improve your armor, build a wagon, etc. Use steel for even better, stronger items. You may not need everything, but test yourself in the wild and add to your defenses and the village's resources as needed.
-
By the time you have the mines in operation, you probably don't need wood gatherers any more at all. Put them to work in other places to produce what you need more quickly.
-
Returning to the village from time to time will save what you've explored on the map. It also gives you a chance to safely deliver anything you have acquired.
On the map:
Screenshot
Here is what each letter represents:
-
I: iron mine
-
C: coal mine
-
S: sulfur mine
-
V: caves can provide you with food and water.
-
O: small suburbs can provide weapons, ammunition and even medicine (once completely cleared, it disappears). Clearing them can help provide water and food as well.
-
Y: once great city, now in ruins.
-
P: a safe place in the wilds. Once you clear a cave, a village, or a city, it becomes safe. You can completely replenish your water here.
-
H: house which has some useful items you can pick up (and possibly enemies to fight).
-
B: where you find alien alloy. Get back to town with it ASAP!
-
M: place to use a charm to get the gastronomy perk.
-
F: find advanced weaponry (you only get one shot at what is there, so make sure you have room on your convoy!)
-
W: salvage the alien spaceship
Don't get so caught up in your exploration that you lose track of how much water and food you are carrying (especially if you don't have either the slow metabolism or the desert rat perks).
An Old Starship:
-
Once you retrieve the salvage of the starship, it opens a new tab in the village. If you go in to the Old Starship tab, you can reinforce the hull and upgrade the engine.
-
This is done using the alien alloy you find (or buy, if you can come up with the huge number of scales and teeth needed).
-
You only need one of each to get the starship off the ground.
-
Unfortunately, if you don't have use of your arrow keys, clicking doesn't work for the starship as it did to navigate the map. Reinforce the heck out of your hull and hope for the best! (Hint: the engine only needs 1!)
-
Fortunately, you don't lose any strength in your hull when you crash, and once you have waited out the cool down period, you can try again!
Good luck! And have fun exploring!
Congratulations to Dsrtrosy for this guide :)
Hi, I got this game on ios a few days ago and I've mostly completed it from what I can tell of the walkthroughs. I got the starship, got every available alien alloy from every town, city, house, borehole and battlefield on the map, and completely filled the map in my searchings. I even bought a few alloy to get an even 40.
But every time I go to the starship screen there is only one option. Lift off. And every time I tap it it says that the controls are unresponsive. There is no option to enforce the hull or repair the engine. Did I do something wrong? Every time I stoke the fire it tells me that the forest beckons, so that's why I thought I had to complete the map.
If this is a bug and I just put 15 some hours into an unfinishable game I'll be really sad.
Pretty sure my game has had a bug:
I made a lodge, trading post, etc. but noone's entered them despite having a population over 50 and I can't figure out how to assign them there. Am I just missing something? Afraid to look for help in case of spoilers.
I have explored every corner of the dusty road map, and I can't find the spaceship! Is there some other condition that has to be fulfilled?
i think i've done something wrong in this game:
i've built ALL the traps, All the huts, A cart, The lodge, the smokehouse and the trading post, and the tannery, and my village is FULL, but still, nothing happens except for the random mini events of beasts attacking, traps being destroyed and strangers arriving for the night. And i got the one visitor, but couldn't let him stay the night.
What'm i doing wrong? And how do i fix it?
Also, ALL of my villagers are gatherers. How do i even MAKE them be something else?
I can successfully say that I've finished his game in under two days c:
I have every Place you build, All Huts, Every Weapon and Ect. This only took me 13 hours in total to complete.
This game is simple but yet well thought out.
I saw my boyfriend play this for about a week.. When I got it the first day and when he came home from work he was AMAZED at how fast I Achieved everything.
Splendid Game !! ❤
So nobody else is freaking out about how
you're totally an alien? 'Cos you're totally an alien.
It makes a lot of things that I initially dismissed as game mechanics make sense, such as why there's so many people just sort of wandering around the forest, why nearly every person you meet (outside of your village) attacks on sight, why you don't pay for any goods if you encounter a shopkeeper outside your village, why all of the animals are named "a strange bird", "a feral beast" or something along those lines and why the game doesn't seem to distinguish between human and animal teeth
Also why you can wield 5 weapons at the same time with no detriment to your attack speed
Overall, awesome world building, caught me personally completely off guard
*note: if you let the room get too cold the builder will refuse to work. So yes, there is a use for the fire.
*note2: is there a hidden experience score for your wanderers? I would definitely quickly go through a whole spat of them following a death of a longer-lasting warrior, despite same equipment
Iiiiiiinteresting theory! ;) Have you played the "prequel"? https://jayisgames.com/review/the-ensign.php
Yes, we are killing mad, starving old men and stripping their corpses for teeth and sundry possessions - but they keep running at us with knives and things. And perhaps the odd panicking scavenger who was perhaps not so different from myself, though I at least know better than to jump out at armed strangers without warning. It's hard, but this is a hard world. And yeah, I may have taken over a few mines by killing everyone in them, but I'm fairly sure they would have invaded the village if I'd let them keep the resources...
*enters shanty town*
*people stare*
A frail man steps defiantly into my path
*stabs old man*
Someone in the crowd throws a stone
*shoots crowd to death*
...Wow, I'm kind of a shitbag, aren't I.
wow! i really liked this, especially how more and more of the backstory got revealed as you went!
and i'm glad i got to leave a strong village behind me! godspeed all of you
was there any way to get the thieves to back off or were they just guaranteed?
Leave a comment [top of page]
Game of the week
Walkthrough Guide
(Please allow page to fully load for spoiler tags to be functional.)
Guide to A Dark Room
This guide is not meant to provide a step-by-step walkthrough, but to serve as a guide to the game for those who want to experience it for themselves.
The guide is broken into three parts: General - information and ideas about the game itself, Building/Crafting - costs and timeline, and Dusty Trail - information about the map and events you're likely to experience along the way.
If you'd like to see a step-by-step walkthrough of one possible solution to the game, a thorough one has been written by ralphmerridew and can be found here as Part One, Part Two, and Part Three.
General
Game Hints.
Information.
A frequently asked question is "What does stoking the fire do?" In the very beginning, it starts the game. You'll never get out into the Silent Forest if your wood stores don't begin to run low!
The game gives you the info you need: for example, building more traps will allow you to catch more creatures, and building a lodge will help your villagers hunt. Pay attention!
While it's a survival game in one sense, it's also a narrative. Decisions like being kind to strangers may not have far-reaching implications, but it helps to tell the story. And being kind sometimes DOES have a positive affect.
Investigate noises and follow critters, as it may lead to new discoveries and resources when you most need them.
The story on the left doesn't always relate to the action, but can provide clues.
Rollover an item in a box and, if it isn't greyed out, it will provide you with more information: things you can make show you how many materials you need, things you can buy show the cost, workers show what they create/use, and the items in your storehouse will tell you who makes them and what they cost.
If you leave it running, your workers will continue to create what they create, which can provide you with extra resources later.
Building/Crafting.
When your population is maxed, it's probably time to build more huts.
Building huts and traps early will provide you with a labor force and resources for larger buildings later.
If you need to build something, make sure your other jobs are not using more wood every 10s than you gain. Same goes for other resources.
Return to the Firelit Room to consult with the builder, move to the Village to deal with the workforce, and follow the Dusty Path to take actions.
Certain items are limited--for example, you can only have 10 traps out at once, you can only craft 1 rucksack, etc.
What things (and people) do.
Traps will bring in fur, tattered cloth,meat, teeth, charms, etc.
The cart helps you gather more wood.
Two tiny huts create a Tiny Village. There are some other building options that open up.
A Modest Village will add a workshop, and larger villages/more resources, actions in the map will open even more.
The workshop opens up a whole new window on the world--crafted items.
The trading post has items for sale.
The lodge allows your villagers to hunt (if you assign hunters).
The tannery will allow you to make leather (if you assign tanners).
The smokehouse will allow you to cure meat (if you assign charcutiers).
Click on the up/down arrows to assign gatherers to other jobs. You can reset by 1s or 10s.
A Large Village has 9 huts and the other buildings.
A Raucous Village has 16 huts. There is a limit of 20 huts total.
Once the compass is purchased, A Dusty Path opens. For more detailed hints on the map, see the Dusty Path section below.
Workers:
A general rule of thumb for workers: You need 5 gatherers and 10 hunters to provide materials for 1 charcutier, 1 charcutier per miner, 2 coal miners and 2 iron miners per steel worker, and 1 steel worker and 1 sulphur miner per armourer. From that information, you can create the worker team that will best suit your needs at any time.
Workers produce:
Gatherer = 1 wood / 10s
Charcutier = -5 meat, -5 wood, + 1 meat / 10s
Hunter = +.5 fur, +.5 meat / 10s
Tanner = -5 fur, +1 leather / 10s
Trapper = -1 meat, +1 bait / 10s
Coal Miner = -1 cured meat, +1 coal / 10s
Iron Miner = -1 cured meat, +1 iron / 10s
Steelworker = -1 iron, -1 coal, +1 steel
Sulfur Miner = -1 cured meat, +1 sulfur / 10s
Perks.
Readers have identified these possible perks, which can help you accomplish different things. Not everyone can receive all perks. The perks box will appear above your stores on the Dusty Path tab.
Boxer - increases Punch damage from 1 to 2. Earned by punching approximately 50 times.
Scout - Buy it from the scout. Increases your vision radius on a dusty path from 3 squares to 5.
Gastronome - Bring a charm to the swamp. Increases the amount healed by eating Cured meat from 10 to 20.
Stealthy - Earned by sparing the thief when he's caught. Reduces the rate of combat encounters.
The next three are all earned by letting The Master stay the night, which requires that you have 100 Furs, 100 Cured Meat, and 1 Torch handy. Try to either keep these amounts handy at all time, or always keep production of Furs and Cured Meat positive so that if he comes when you don't have enough, you can wait out the last few.
Precision - Reduces how often you miss in combat
Evasion - Increases how often you hit in combat
Barbarian (pick "Force") - Increases your damage melee weapons by 50%
Martial Artist - punches do even more damage.
Continue barehand fighting after obtaining the boxer perk (approx 150 punches, and damage increasing from 2 per hit to 6 per hit.
Unarmed Master - punch twice as fast, and with even more force.
Keep barehand fighting for about 300 punches, and punching goes up to 12 damage per hit, with a really short timer.
Slow Metabolism - go twice as far per food
. To get this one, die of hunger at least 10 times.
Desert Rat - go twice as far per water
. To get this one, die of thirst at least 10 times.
Everyone is going to have a different experience! Be patient! Things are bound to happen.
Building/Crafting
Want to do some advance planning? Here is what everything costs to build or craft.
Build:
Cart = 100 wood, one time
Trap = 10 wood, then 20, then 30... (limit 10)
Hut = 100 wood, then 150, then 200.. (limit 20)
Lodge = wood 200, fur 10, meat 5
Trading Post = wood 400, fur 100
Tannery = wood 500, fur 50
Smokehouse = wood 600, meat 50
Workshop = wood 800, leather 100, scales 10
Steelworks = wood 1500, iron 100, coal 100
Armoury = wood 3000, steel 100, sulphur 50
Craft:
Torch = wood 1, cloth 1 (unlimited?)
Waterskin = leather 50
Bone Spear = wood 100, teeth 5 (unlimited?)
Rucksack = leather 200
Leather Armor = leather 200, scales 20
Cask = leather 100, iron 20
Wagon = wood 100, iron 100
Iron Armor = leather 200, iron 100
Iron Sword = wood 200, leather 50, iron 20
Water Tank = iron 100, steel 50
Convoy = wood 1000, iron 200, steel 100
Steel Armor = leather 200, steel 100
Steel Sword = wood 500, leather 100, steel 20
Rifle = wood 200, steel 50, sulfur 50
Purchase:
Some items can be purchased.
From scout:
Map 200 fur, 10 scales
Learn Scouting 1000 fur, 50 scales, 10 teeth
From nomad:
Scales = fur 100
Teeth = fur 200
Bait = fur 5
Compass = fur 300, scales 15, teeth 5
From trading post:
Scales = fur 150
Teeth = fur 300
Compass = fur 400, scales 20, teeth 10
Iron = fur 150, scales 50
Coal = fur 200, teeth 50
Steel = fur 300, scales 50, teeth 50
After you find your first one of each of the following, you can buy:
Bolas = teeth 10
Bullets = scales 10
Medicine = scales 50, teeth 30
Alien Alloy = fur 1500, scales 750, teeth 300
Bayonet = scales 500, teeth 250
Grenade = scales 100, teeth 50
The only weapon you can't craft or buy is the laser rifle
Dusty Path/Old Starship
Here is where things get really interesting!
You can take advantage of the carrying space you have to take items with you. This includes torches, weapons, and food. Cured meat is required to even embark on an adventure!
When you embark, you'll enter a map. Movement can be accomplished by WASD or arrow keys.
In some browsers, the WASD/arrow keys appear not to work. Click on the map in the direction you want to move, and you'll move.
You'll find lots of things to explore here: caves, mines, ruined cities and more. Try to find them all. Some buildings in your village rely on your finding more resources out in the wild.
You will occasionally be accosted by an enemy and have to fight, even in spaces you have previously explored. Choose your weapon (including fists, which requires that you carry no other weapons). You have no choice but to fight.
Enemies can range from 3-4 hit points up to 50 hit points. Once you have several perks and a strong armory, you can defeat any of them, but watch out! Some hit for more points than you do, while others hit more quickly.
You can use food, medicine, and even multiple weapons in each battle. Each has a cool down period.
Whenever you have a chance to do so, buy a piece of the map. It can help you figure out where everything that needs to be explored is located.
Things will start to move pretty quickly once you find and clear the mines. Use the iron to improve your armor, build a wagon, etc. Use steel for even better, stronger items. You may not need everything, but test yourself in the wild and add to your defenses and the village's resources as needed.
By the time you have the mines in operation, you probably don't need wood gatherers any more at all. Put them to work in other places to produce what you need more quickly.
Returning to the village from time to time will save what you've explored on the map. It also gives you a chance to safely deliver anything you have acquired.
On the map:
Screenshot
Here is what each letter represents:
I: iron mine
C: coal mine
S: sulfur mine
V: caves can provide you with food and water.
O: small suburbs can provide weapons, ammunition and even medicine (once completely cleared, it disappears). Clearing them can help provide water and food as well.
Y: once great city, now in ruins.
P: a safe place in the wilds. Once you clear a cave, a village, or a city, it becomes safe. You can completely replenish your water here.
H: house which has some useful items you can pick up (and possibly enemies to fight).
B: where you find alien alloy. Get back to town with it ASAP!
M: place to use a charm to get the gastronomy perk.
F: find advanced weaponry (you only get one shot at what is there, so make sure you have room on your convoy!)
W: salvage the alien spaceship
Don't get so caught up in your exploration that you lose track of how much water and food you are carrying (especially if you don't have either the slow metabolism or the desert rat perks).
An Old Starship:
Once you retrieve the salvage of the starship, it opens a new tab in the village. If you go in to the Old Starship tab, you can reinforce the hull and upgrade the engine.
This is done using the alien alloy you find (or buy, if you can come up with the huge number of scales and teeth needed).
You only need one of each to get the starship off the ground.
Unfortunately, if you don't have use of your arrow keys, clicking doesn't work for the starship as it did to navigate the map. Reinforce the heck out of your hull and hope for the best! (Hint: the engine only needs 1!)
Fortunately, you don't lose any strength in your hull when you crash, and once you have waited out the cool down period, you can try again!
Good luck! And have fun exploring!
Posted by: dsrtrosy
|
May 29, 2014 11:42 AM