“ | Death awaits you in Dark Deception, a story-driven first-person horror maze game. There's nowhere to hide & nowhere to catch your breath. Run or die - it's your choice. Trapped in a realm of nightmarish mazes with a mysterious woman, your only hope of survival is to find a way to escape. | ” |
– The game's description on Steam. |
Dark Deception is an episodic first-person horror game and the first story arc named "Shattered Ring" of Dark Deception Trilogy, developed and published by Glowstick Entertainment.
Game's background[]
The pre-alpha demo of the game was released in March of 2014 and was developed in Unity. The demo had only one level. Glowstick Entertainment wanted to make Dark Deception a complete horror game, so a Kickstarter page for it was opened. The alpha demo of the game was released on January 16, 2015, and contained two levels, although the second level was only played by one person, as it was nigh impossible to beat.
A trailer was posted on the Kickstarter page, which said that the complete game was scheduled to finish around April 2015. However, two major problems occurred, which caused the game to not be completed. The first problem was the fact that the programmer of the company, Mark Henderson, had decided that he didn't want to make games anymore, resulting in him leaving the team. The second reason was not enough money being collected for the game's finished project.
In late 2017, the game was rebuilt in Unreal Engine 4 by Vince, Nikson Sita, and Pen Livings. On September 27, 2018, the first chapter of the game was released. On January 22, 2019, the second chapter was released. On June 24, the third chapter was released. On September 28, 2021, the fourth chapter was released. The fifth chapter is planned to be released in 2025.
Plot[]
The game revolves around Doug Houser, who finds himself in a ballroom. There, a woman named Bierce greets them and explains that if they want to return to the living world, they will need to endure many grueling trials. With that, she introduces them to various portals in which the player needs to collect a number of Soul Shards, the remnants of human souls, then they can finally return to the living world. Unfortunately, this challenge won't be easy, for the Shards are guarded by bizarre monsters and their master, Malak, who will stop at nothing to prevent the protagonist from succeeding.
Mobile Version[]
The first information about the mobile version was announced with a video, which was published on Twitter. The game will contain the first 4 Chapters. Differences from the PC version can include:
- Earning Chapters 2-5 for free by grinding shards and watching ads.
Physical Console Release[]
Glowstick Entertainment partnered with Limited Run Games for a physical console release of Dark Deception and Super Dark Deception for PS4/PS5, Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series S|X set to be released in Q3 2023.
Change Log
Pre-1.1.2[]
- Due to the game version not shown during the first update, its name will be called Pre-1.1.2.
- Murder Monkeys - take longer to spawn in the maze. ( Nerf )
- Bonus Shard reveals enemies permanently. ( Buff )
- The Tablet
- now has a detector that points the remaining shards once soul shards have been reduced to a certain amount.
- now has a detector for level objectives.
- Maze map changes when player is in the lobby.
- Checkpoint added - Death no longer restarts the entire level.
- Increased the frequency of Bierce's random lines. (It can be assumed to be her first Ballroom appearance.)
1.1.2[]
- Murder Monkeys
- can now split up to reach the player. Some refer this as a "smart AI". ( Buff )
- can now make an directional attack sound when approaching near the player. ( Nerf )
- have been reduced from 4 to 3. ( Nerf )
- Bonus Shard / Reveal Shard - now lasts 1 minute (was permanent, until death.) ( Nerf )
- New Features:
- 180 degree - Allows player to instantly turn using middle mouse click.
- Toggle Sprint - Allows player to select always run in Options.
- Adaptive FOV - Changes depending on player's speed for vision feedback.
1.1.3[]
- Added an ability to turn Mouse Smoothing on/off in Options.
1.2[]
- Added Steam achievements.
- Added custom mouse cursor.
1.3[]
- Added Chapter 2 levels: Elementary Evil and Deadly Decadence.
1.3.4[]
- Gold Watchers - No longer moves within player's FOV. ( Nerf )
1.4[]
- Restored the Launcher. This allowed players to change their keybinds.
- Added Death Tips.
- Agatha - Increased speed. ( Buff )
- Deadly Decadence
- Shard streaks are now saved into the manor.
- Time spent in Zone 1 is now carried over.
- Tablet
- Added map zoom.
- Added visual cooldown and timer for Powers.
- Ring Altar
- Upgrade stats are now clearer.
- Added Reset button - restores all spent skill points to the player.
1.6.1[]
- Due to typo, this game version was supposed to be 1.5.1.
- Added Chapter 3 levels: Stranger Sewers and Crazy Carnevil.
- Launcher has been removed.
- Added Easy mode difficulty.
1.5.2[]
- Fixed Teleportation exploits.
- Title screen music track has been replaced with Darkness Is Coming.
- Deadly Decadence
- Gold Watcher speed has been significantly decreased in Easy mode difficulty. ( Nerf )
- Crazy Carnevil
- S-Rank is now obtainable.
- Fixed Zone 2 skip bug.
- Received visual improvements.
- Added Roller Coaster Cart trap in Zone 2. ( Buff )
1.6.0[]
- Added languages contributed by the community (& Pen Livings herself): German, Russian, Chinese Traditional, Chinese Simplified, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Polish, Italian, Japanese, Korean.
- Player can no longer change difficulties during the level. When doing so, the entire level automatically restarts in Story Mode.
- Agatha - Increased speed in Normal mode difficulty. ( Buff )
- Malak - Increased speed globally. ( Buff )
1.8.02[]
- Added Chapter 4 levels: Torment Therapy, Mascot Mayhem, and Bearly Buried.
- All previous levels have received an Enhanced update.
- Player can now freely change difficulties during the level.
- Menu settings overhauled. Unfortunately, this removed certain settings such as Motion Blur, Voice and In-game volume, etc.
- Murder Monkeys - Take less time to spawn in the maze. ( Buff )
- Gold Watchers - speed has been slightly lowered in Normal mode difficulty. ( Nerf )
- Dread Duckies - no longer respawns when the player is near certain radius of vacant camouflage spot, fixing the infamous spawn kill bug. ( Nerf )
1.9.6[]
- The leveling system can no longer reach higher than Level 15. ( Nerf )
- Monkey Business
- Removed breakable boards to prevent crashing.
- Restored the smart AI for the Murder Monkeys. ( Buff )
- Added 2 Chef Monkeys camping the ring altar after collecting all soul shards. ( Buff )
- If the player attempts to collect all the soul shards near the ring altar, they will be teleported to the certain checkpoint spot. ( Buff )
- Deadly Decadence
- Restored the smart AI for the Gold Watchers. ( Buff )
- Torment Therapy
- Zone 2 has became darker. ( Buff )
- Replaced breakable boards with a secret door in Zone 2. This was changed to prevent crashing.
- Bearly Buried
- S-Rank is now obtainable.
- In Zone 1, Trigger Teddies can no longer wander towards the player's location. ( Nerf )
- This can still happen when the player is in their certain radius.
Chapters and Levels[]
Devlogs[]
Trivia[]
- Glowstick Entertainment has confirmed that the fonts used in the beginning of the levels are drawn by them.
- Vince Livings confirmed that Dark Deception's gameplay is inspired by the 1980 arcade game, Pac-Man.
- The fact that Dark Deception's premise features a variety of ridiculous and bizarre monsters that the player in each level, each one is different from the previous ones and referencing horror media is some way or another, may be inspired by works such as The Cabin In The Woods, Tales from the Crypt, and Goosebumps.
- Alternatively, the game itself could also be inspired by Silent Hill, since the player is inside of Alternate Dimensions, in which the monsters symbolizes the main character's fears and past regrets.
- It was confirmed that a sequel to the game will be made.
- In the 15th QnA at 48:28 timestamp, it's revealed that Dark Deception will be a trilogy of games, meaning there will be two more sequels after the first one.
- This means that Dark Deception 2 and Dark Deception 3 are confirmed.
Gallery[]
Chapter 1: No Way Back[]
Chapter 2: Into Madness[]
Chapter 3: Retribution[]
Chapter 4: Mortal Ramifications[]
Chapter 5: Fated Conclusion[]
The following information contains spoilers. To view them, click the [show] tag. |
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Mobile Version[]
External Links[]
- Dark Deception on Twitter
- Dark Deception on Steam
- Dark Deception on Facebook
- Dark Deception Merch Store on Teespring
- Dark Deception Merch Store on Threadless
- Dark Deception on Bilibili
- Dark Deception on HearNow
- Dark Deception on TikTok