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Zeekerss Releases Free Text Horror ‘Welcome to the Dark Place’ After a Decade in Development

In new interviews, he says the freedom of text let the project balloon for years.

Overview

  • The game launched on Steam in October 2025 as a free download and has a Very Positive user rating, with 286 reviews recorded since its October 24 release.
  • Development began around 2015 as a Roblox prototype and stretched across years with pauses while the solo creator worked on other projects, including Lethal Company.
  • Zeekerss attributes the lengthy timeline to scope creep made possible by text-based design that let new ideas become playable immediately.
  • He chose not to charge for the release after raising his own standards and because it asks players to map its world, offering an in-game grid paper tool to help.
  • Influences include Zork, Kentucky Route Zero, and Stories Untold, and he crafted bespoke audio using heavily edited free sounds alongside recordings from family and friends.