A Dark Room is a minimalist browser-based game by Michael Townsend, available on PC and mobile. It appeals to players who enjoy slow-burn narrative, resource management, and moral ambiguity. The target audience includes fans of text-based storytelling, interactive fiction, and games with hidden complexity.
Unlike most games that use visuals or dialogue to build immersive settings, A Dark Room relies on subtle narrative progression and mechanical evolution to construct its world. As players unlock new features and slowly gain control over their environment, the world builds itself around them. The game’s elements of minimalist design and narrative intertwine to elicit player investment, not through exposition, but through elements of curiosity and autonomy.
Discovery and Curiosity-Driven Gameplay
A Dark Room constructs its world using a layered, ecological approach, similar to Gabriela Pereira’s model of world building. Rather than beginning with maps or mythology, the game roots the world in the main character who is a nameless, voiceless player figure who starts cold and alone. With no backstory or clear identity, the player becomes the protagonist, acting as both lens and participant. This first-person ambiguity drives curiosity and investment, as players explore to find not only what the world is, but who they are within it.
In the game, the mechanics of resource gathering and expanding the village blend with the dynamics of uncovering narrative details over time to produce aesthetics of Narrative and Discovery. The game’s progression system reinforces this investment. As players gain autonomy, such as unlocking new buildings, traps, and explorations, they become emotionally invested.
Progression of actions I could take in my room (+ even more in my village and eventually embarking on journeys with my compass)
World Building Through Systems and Supporting Cast
Following Pereira’s second and third layers of supporting cast and surroundings, A Dark Room enriches its world not with dialogue or cutscenes, but with systems of labor and expansion. Villagers appear defined only by their function of being a builder, trapper, or tanner. They reveal the status quo of the world, describing how survival and productivity are essential over identity or agency. These characters both support the protagonist and highlight the society’s utilitarianism.
The setting itself is revealed incrementally. As the player continues, new elements emerge, such as visions of branches on the floor, traps with strange mechanics, and travelers arriving at a growing hut. These textual fragments invite the player to imagine the world. This gradual construction mirrors the protagonist’s growing awareness and adds a layer of intimacy to exploration.
Textual imagery in the game that added to the increasingly eerie environment
While I appreciated the game’s ability to drive the player forward solely from curiosity, A Dark Room could benefit from giving slightly more narrative feedback as the story progresses. I could see how some players may feel aimless without clearer connections between their actions and the unfolding mystery. I also felt that some narrative elements felt disconnected from the core game, such as the repetitive scratching noises in the storage room that never lead to any significant events or the external link to “Penrose” near the start of the game. In this sense, A Dark Room feels more like a slow-burning puzzle than a responsive narrative. A potential improvement could involve occasional reflective journal entries or character thoughts triggered by milestones, helping bridge the gap between player action and internal narrative without sacrificing the minimalism.
Ethics
One of the most ethically thought-provoking aspects of A Dark Room was its depiction of people. Villagers are treated purely as unnamed resources. Their traits are fixed and unchanging, and they exist only to fulfill tasks the player assigns. This raises questions about how the game and design implicitly enforces a utilitarian view, emphasizing the notion of tying an individual’s worth to their function. This parallels the Dungeons & Dragons systems that assigned inherent traits based on race, reinforcing harmful ideas about biological determinism.
To shift this depiction, I would propose a mod that introduces cultural or emotional variation into the villagers. Different villagers could come with names, personal skills, or memories that affect how they work and what tasks they resist. For example, a builder who survived a raid may refuse to construct traps. These traits could humanize the characters and invite players to consider the experiences and cultural differences of the players. In doing so, the game would still preserve its eerie, narrative-driven tone but add a new layer of moral complexity and even prompt the user to question the dehumanization in the game.
