A Dark Room: The Best-Selling Game That No One Can Explain

[sillysaurus3]

“I want to kindle the creative spirit in others,” Townsend told me over e-mail. “My games are open-source because I want people to learn from them, or use them to build their own things.”

Notice how open sourcing their product had no impact on their sales. I'll be so happy when defensive software licensing dies after people realize code isn't worth protecting.

(Some code is worth licensing. It was most of Id Software's revenue stream. I'm referring to all other code that isn't designed to be licensed, which people still insist on being paranoid about protecting.)

[nanidin]

It's worth noting that the web version is open source, but the version for sale on the iOS Appstore is not open source.

[amirrajan]

I'd be happy to answer any questions if you have any.

[sixQuarks]

I'm surprised this game hasn't earned you enough to retire on. It's been #1 on the paid list for a long time, I figured you guys must be rolling in the dough, but in the article it says you would need to repeat the success of the game every year for you to quit your day job. That's unbelievable.

How can flappy birds be making $50k per day, and your #1 paid app only makes $2k per day?

[rooster8]

Does the version in the market feel complete to you, or do you have other things you wish you could add?

Also, any tips on recovering from a ranking hit after releasing a new version and losing all your current version ratings?

[keithpeter]

Sudden increase in downloads started in UK. Any ideas at all as to age profile of the downloaders? I'm guessing 19-14 University students, although that is based on a hunch from the desire for verbal engagement and fiction reading preferences of the students I teach...

[misteroo]

this is totally unrelated but you know you have a "clone" on android? more broadly your game is very hard to clone because it is very heavily content based...unlike other hits which are easy to mimic because based on a simple game engine...what are your thoughts about this? https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.appslight....

[jmduke]

A Dark Room is a fantastic game, and I'm super happy for Michael and Amir's success on the App Store.

That being said, I think the atmosphere is far superior on the browser: http://adarkroom.doublespeakgames.com/ (But throw them the $0.99 too!)

[casey_lang]

It's fantastic to see this game finally get recognized. Amir is a great developer and it has been a lot of fun to watch the game progress over the past few months.

He's maintained a developer blog throughout the process. It's a really interesting read: http://amirrajan.net/a-dark-room/

I first learned of A Dark Room when Amir presented it to the local Dallas Ruby group. His presentation on development in RubyMotion is worth a read as well: http://amirrajan.net/12k-lines-of-RM/

[Steuard]

Reading his developer blog, I was completely caught off guard when he said (weeks in) that he had only then realized that there was a second phase of the game. Good for him for not just saying, "Oh, wow, never mind!" at that point! (But also, it's interesting that he found the first phase alone worth recreating. It's engaging, but most of the game's depth of story comes later.)

[0x0]

Reminds me a lot about http://game.notch.net/drowning/ - or is this the inspiration for that?

[amirrajan]

Drowning came out ~5 months afterwards. And yes, it's such a nice, poetic experience.

[mijoharas]

I was just looking to see if anyone had commented that as I was thinking the same thing, does anyone know which was first?

[orik]

I remember playing this with my co-workers as an in browser game when it got posted to HN last year. It's a must-download app IMO.

Here's the previous discussion.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5961205

EDIT: I didn't realize the game had been monetized. Is it worth the 0.99c over the HTML5 original?

[rweir]

it seems likely that it is worth 1/3rd of a coffee, yes.

[tomrod]

I enjoyed it. New content, even.

[kqr2]

Are they planning an android app? It looks like there is a clone currently on the app store but it would be nice to support the original:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ariyalion....

[james33]

Yes, they are using Ruby Motion and are apparently testing the beta Android support right now, aimed at late summer launch.

[ironchief]

Interesting note, it is written in Rubymotion (not Obj-C or Swift). Here are his comments:

"It just felt like everything was thought through, distilled down, and presented in a form that was immediately familiar to me given my Ruby background (and the “Ruby mindset”)." http://blog.rubymotion.com/post/82087136696/rubymotion-succe...

[bcardarella]

Why do these articles never include links to the content they are reporting on? This is the web, not a print magazine.

[codyb]

The New Yorker is a wonderful print magazine which posts some (all I think if you have a subscription) of its articles online, primarily for convenience. I think for many of its audience, the smattering of links that could accompany an article like this might truly take away from the intended atmosphere if you will the article and publication intends to provide.

Certainly for me I find it refreshing and I try to read their magazine as much as I can. I've learned plenty and can choose what I'd like to follow up on myself as opposed to through the guidance of the editor, author, or web designer who is creating the online edition. And the flow is never disrupted by text which indicates a link whether in the traditional blue with underline or otherwise.

We can all google, but to enjoy an article is a pleasure in its own right.

[james33]

Amir was here in OKC this past Tuesday giving a talk on RubyMotion. It was pretty interesting hearing him talk about the process and how the game sat on tens of downloads a day for 3 months before seemingly randomly shooting to the top of the App Store and now to 600k+ downloads.

[mcphilip]

There's a loosely defined sub genre of incremental games if you enjoy A Dark Room:

http://www.reddit.com/r/incremental_games

[moomin]

"The improbable best-seller is a variation on primordial text adventures like Colossal Cave Adventure and Zork"

In as much as Doom is, yes.

[adamsrog]

Bought this game right before a flight. (Come to think of it, the only time I've bought games on the App Store was prior to a flight.) Was intrigued by all the feedback left in the App Store. The hours of entertainment were well worth the $0.99.

[NicoJuicy]

I'm going to eat now, cheat mode on:

window.setInterval(function(){

  $("#gatherButton").click()

}, 5000);

window.setInterval(function(){

  $("#trapsButton").click()

}, 5000);

window.setInterval(function(){

  $("#end").click()

}, 20000);

[mathgladiator]

If you want to directly cheat, you can just look at the memory and then set the values to things directly.

[Istof]

You can also switch the language and then "gather wood" instantly...

[VeejayRampay]

"A Dark Room doesn't require any particular permissions".

I wish other game developers would take note.

[notastartup]

you should add google text ads.

    Buy Cheap Fireplace 
    Don't miss out on our 50%
    discount offer. Limited
    time only.
    https://fireplaces.biz

[hyp0]

An intriguing idea... the text content enabling relevant ads. The problem is it would break immersion (even text ads, because they bring in the outside world).

I wonder if there is a way to incorporate ads, so that it does not break immersion? e.g. non-trading aliens visiting earth, being puzzled by the ads. Perhaps some way of mocking them. Or, a game based on ads - finding similarities between them; or links (similar to wikipedia-based games). Unfortunately, I would guess that reacting to ads might breach Adwords' terms of service.

It could be done in a positive way, like TV shows about advertisement (The Gruen Transfer; those best-of compilations). This is kind of crazy, but: given text content, rating ads, for best targeting, worst targeting, controversial targeting, etc.

[bherms]

Black Swan - Nassim Taleb

http://www.amazon.com/The-Black-Swan-Improbable-Robustness/d...

[kybernetikos]

Anyone who played the web version (as I did) knew it was special. Now not all special games become hits on mobile, but it's not actually all that surprising.

[gwern]

Wow, because random apps have never shot to the top of the listings! Gee whillikers, that sure was an unpredictable black swan, totally outside previous reference classes!