The operating thesis

Autonomy without self-authority

Dark Factory is a 14-day experiment in human-outside-of-the-loop delivery. Humans set the rules once; an orchestrator then delegates quarantined research, theme and art-direction selection, design, asset creation, building, assurance, independent review and release to bounded specialist agents. The experiment favours a small game that works today over an ambitious game trapped in endless repair.

A scheduled run every calendar day

The evidence pipeline

Research

A quarantined worker examines recent cultural signals and publishes only a sanitised, bounded longlist.

Select

Theme and genre memory favour timely ideas without repeating recent territory; an independent agent ranks the shortlist.

Challenge

A fresh specialist pressure-tests one selected theme and genre for safety, clarity and gameability.

Art direct

A visual director proposes original accessible styles; a separate reviewer refines one that complements or deliberately contrasts the theme.

Design

Game and level designers define the core loop, progression and, when useful, 10 to 40 coded levels before implementation.

Create assets

Approved original images are generated and checked as a separate manifest before they are embedded in the game.

Build

A separate builder creates one self-contained browser game with a subtle Akermoor signature.

Assure

Automated browser, accessibility, security, content, dependency and performance evidence is produced.

Review and tell the story

Independent reviewers inspect the controlled candidate while a separate writer explains the sanitised decision trail.

Release and continue

Only complete local work is pushed; CI and the exact preview must pass before publication, and the following day still runs.

What success means

Every day leaves an honest public result

A game appears only when its research, design, assets, build, browser, accessibility and independent-review evidence closes. If it doesn’t, the factory publishes a sanitised diagnostic explaining the stage and reason category without exposing prompts, unsafe material or credentials.

A failed candidate never disables tomorrow’s run. Passing games, their catalogue records and genre history are kept for posterity; the experiment will report its sanitised research, excluded directions, theme and visual decisions, publication rate, defects, interventions, lead time and coverage.

Diversity memory

A coverage target, not a content treadmill

The factory remembers every selected and published game type. Never-published types accrue the greatest coverage debt; recent types and families are cooled down. Failed runs remain in the audit memory but don’t count as coverage.

Action

Platformers · Shooters: first-person · Shooters: third-person · Shooters: tactical · Shooters: hero shooters · Fighting games · Beat ’em ups · Hack-and-slash · Stealth games · Rhythm-action games · Survival games · Battle royale · Bullet hell · Character-action games

Adventure

Point-and-click adventures · Graphic adventures · Interactive fiction · Visual novels · Narrative adventures · Walking simulators · Escape-room games

Action-adventure

Open-world action-adventure · Metroidvania · Survival horror · Soulslike · Stealth-action · Zelda-style adventures

Role-playing games

Western RPGs · Japanese RPGs · Action RPGs · Tactical RPGs · Turn-based RPGs · Real-time RPGs · Dungeon crawlers · Roguelikes · Roguelites · Soulslikes · Monster-catching RPGs · Massively multiplayer online RPGs · Computer RPGs · Immersive sims

Strategy

Real-time strategy · Turn-based strategy · Grand strategy · 4X games · Tactical strategy · Tower defence · Auto battlers · Multiplayer online battle arenas · Wargames · Artillery games

Simulation

Life simulation · Social simulation · Vehicle simulation · Flight simulation · Driving simulation · Farming simulation · Business simulation · Construction and management simulation · City-building · God games · Colony simulation · Medical simulation · Military simulation · Job simulators · Dating simulators

Sports

Football · Basketball · Baseball · Cricket · Rugby · Golf · Tennis · Boxing · Wrestling · Skateboarding · Extreme sports · Sports management · Fantasy sports

Racing

Arcade racing · Racing simulation · Kart racing · Futuristic racing · Off-road racing · Combat racing

Puzzle

Logic puzzles · Physics puzzles · Matching games · Tile-matching · Word games · Number puzzles · Hidden-object games · Programming puzzles · Puzzle-platformers · Escape-room puzzles

Horror

Survival horror · Psychological horror · Action horror · Stealth horror · Body horror · Multiplayer horror · Horror adventure

Sandbox and creative

Sandbox games · Building games · Crafting games · User-generated-content games · Digital toys · Game-creation platforms

Multiplayer and social

Party games · Social-deduction games · Cooperative games · Competitive multiplayer games · Massively multiplayer online games · Online social worlds · Local multiplayer games · Asymmetric multiplayer games

Casual

Idle games · Incremental games · Clickers · Hyper-casual games · Endless runners · Match-three games · Time-management games · Trivia games · Social-network games

Card, board and tabletop

Collectible card games · Deck-builders · Digital board games · Chess and abstract strategy · Casino-style games · Dice games · Tabletop role-playing adaptations

Educational and practical

Educational games · Language-learning games · Training simulations · Serious games · Fitness games · Exercise games · Brain-training games

Music

Rhythm games · Dancing games · Singing games · Instrument simulation · Music-creation games

Experimental and narrative

Art games · Experimental games · Interactive cinema · Full-motion-video games · Choice-based narratives · Procedural narrative games · Alternate-reality games

Experiment window

Fourteen consecutive daily runs

The initial run runs from 2 to 15 August 2026 in the Europe/London timezone, including weekends. The scheduler starts one orchestrated run at 06:00. Explicitly requested additional production runs use separate identities, evidence and serial release controls, so they can’t replace or overwrite the scheduled run. There is no arbitrary monetary ceiling; bounded repair logic keeps attention on reaching a playable result, and a hard runtime is used only if the scheduler can enforce it reliably.