Free in the Dark

About

Alone in the Dark is a series of survival-horror games originally released between 1992 and 1995, widely regarded as the genre's founding series; the games follow an investigator drawn into the cursed Derceto mansion in a story influenced by H.P. Lovecraft, and the series also included the short bonus adventure Jack in the Dark. Free in the Dark (FITD) is a from-scratch reimplementation of the Alone in the Dark game engine, targeting the versions of Alone in the Dark 1-3 and Jack in the Dark currently sold on Steam and GOG, plus early support for the 1995 title Timegate: Knights Chase. It requires the original games' data files to run and is built with Visual Studio 2022 and CMake.

How it differs from the original

Currently all supported games have graphical issues and missing features compared to their originals; only Alone in the Dark 1 and Jack in the Dark have been completable at some point in development (Alone in the Dark 1 possibly having regressed since), and support for Timegate: Knights Chase is very early and incomplete.

Getting started

Playing requires owning Alone in the Dark on Steam or GOG (the GOG trilogy is explicitly supported); the project is built with Visual Studio 2022 and CMake, then pointed at the folder containing the original game's data files.

Known issues & limitations

• compatibility: AITD1 was previously completable but may have regressed; other games are non-completable due to missing features.
• graphics: Graphical issues and missing features present in all supported games.
• Some Windows releases of Alone in the Dark 3 are explicitly incompatible with this engine for now.

Media