Tag
Text-Based
A Dark Room is a text-based RPG released in 2013 by Canadian indie studio Doublespeak Games. You start in a cold shack. There's a fireplace. There's a button that says "stoke the fire." You click it. Your wood counter ticks down. A short cooldown passes. You click it again. And then, the world expands. Every time you think you've found the edges, A Dark Room reveals that what you've been playing is actually nested inside something bigger and stranger than you expected. We won't spoil where it ends up, but the distance between "click to stoke the fire" and the final reveal is vast.
AT LONG LAST, YOU HAVE ARRIVED AT YOUR DISTRICT'S "SHINE SHELTER." TAKE A BOW. NOW, DEFEND IT WITH YOUR LIFE. -- Instructions -- Game starts when you enter the "radar" program. Every time you submit a word in RADAR, your heat will rise (shown as the biggest bar in the bottom right.) Type 'bind lm' to reset your heat level. If you allow the system to overheat, the generator will blow. If your generator is blown, first access the 'gen' program through your main terminal. Memorize which systems are down ('col,' 'ecu,' or both), and issue the appropriate commands (that's 'reboot col' and/or 'reboot ecu').
Typing · Text-Based · Sci-fi
#gamedevjs 2026 entry You are a language model. A small agency just deployed you on staging. Type carefully — they're watching to see what you become. What it isn't - Not a resource manager. Nothing to grind. - Not multiple choice. There are no preset options. - Not a chatbot toy — the characters don't "respond to anything." They react to the story you're actually in. - Not forgiving of noncommittal typing. A vague reply is itself a reply. What it is A short, text-based workplace drama about an AI that starts small and ends up being more involved. Playable in a sitting. Worth multiple runs to see what the other versions of you would have done.