Dark and Darker, the medieval dungeon looter game developed by Ironmace, recently experienced server downtime as a result of a sophisticated and powerful DDoS attack, according to an announcement made in the game’s Discord community. Ironmace apologized for any inconvenience caused by the attacks, which have been ongoing since the start of their testing.
Hello everyone, we have been experiencing sophisticated DDoS attacks from the very start of this playtest.
Our server quality has not changed at all from the previous playtests.
As of right now there is not much we can do to immediately fix the situation but we are constantly trying our best to keep them stabilized.
I apologize for the inconvenience.
In addition to the server issues, Dark and Darker has faced a series of problems stemming from a recent legal battle with Korean game publisher Nexon. On April 14th, Nexon filed a lawsuit against Ironmace in the US District Court for the Western District of Washington, accusing the developer of copyright infringement and demanding a jury trial.
The lawsuit alleges that former Nexon employees Ju-Hyun Choi and Terence Seungha Park violated a one-year non-compete clause in their Employee Agreement with Nexon. This clause prevents employees from working in the same line of business that could potentially infringe on Nexon’s trade secrets without prior consent from the company.
To support their claim, Nexon’s lawsuit includes images of both P3 and Dark and Darker, highlighting similarities between the two games, such as characters moving their hands in a distinctive circular motion over chests without physically touching them to open the chests.
As the legal battle intensified, Ironmace found itself unable to host the latest build of Dark and Darker on Steam, prompting the developer to ask players to torrent the game instead. Compounding the situation, a member of the Dark and Darker development team shared a GoFundMe page requesting $500,000 for legal fees. Initially believed to be a scam, the fundraising campaign was later confirmed as genuine. Ironmace had intended to launch a fundraising drive at a later time if necessary, but the developer’s plans were preempted by the early release of the GoFundMe page.
Despite these challenges, Ironmace remains committed to the future of Dark and Darker, stating, “Rest assured that we are working around the clock to safeguard the continuance of Dark and Darker.”
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