While Dark and Darker Languishes in Legal Limbo, One Fan Is Trying to Make it in Fortnite

It’s unclear if Dark and Darker will ever see the light of day, but one fan is taking matters into their own hands by trying to recreate the upcoming game in Fortnite.

Reddit user fermelon recently revealed that they are attempting to recreate Ironmace’s game using Fortnite’s creation tool, posting a short clip of a work-in-progress version of the map. The gameplay shows a Fortnite character working their way through a very dark castle with nothing but a torch to light the way.

Commenters pointed out that the minimap displayed in the corner is a recreation of Dark and Darker’s minimap. No enemies appear in the gameplay clip, but it’s still an impressive recreation of Dark and Darker’s setting. Fermelon said they’re planning to share the island code as soon as Epic approves their creator application, so other Dark and Darker fans can check out the recreation for themselves.

Epic CEO Tim Sweeney, for what its worth, is unlikely to be a fan of the recreation, as he recently told IGN that he wants players to make their own creations.

“Works of nostalgia are cool, but most of the time they’re going to be other people’s work and they’re likely not going to give permission,” Sweeney said. “And we really urge everybody to think about what can we really do to create news genres or games and really very original things.”

As for Dark and Darker itself, it’s currently caught in a legal battle between developer Ironmace and video game publishing company Nexon. Nexon has accused Ironmace of using stolen assets and code in the development of the dungeon-crawling PvPvE game, which has led to delays for public playtests, content removals from the game’s Steam page, and drama surrounding a Dark and Darker GoFundMe campaign. 

Creations like this are possible in Fortnite’s recently-revamped Creative Mode. The Unreal Editor for Fortnite — also known as Fortnite Creative 2.0 — runs on Unreal Engine 5 and introduces expanded modeling, textures, VFX, and more. Immediately after the creator tool was unleashed last month, multiple teams started hustling to release recreations of Fortnite’s original island.

Logan Plant is a freelance writer for IGN covering video game and entertainment news. He has over six years of experience in the gaming industry with bylines at IGN, Nintendo Wire, Switch Player Magazine, and Lifewire. Find him on Twitter @LoganJPlant.