Lethal Company Creator Releases 10-Year Passion Project for Free, Refuses to Charge Until Most Players Love It
Lethal Company creator Zeekerss shrugs off the hype, refusing to put unnecessary pressure on himself.
If you just shipped one of the biggest indie hits in years, you might chase the next payday. Zeekerss, the solo developer behind co-op scream machine Lethal Company, did the opposite: he spent a decade tinkering on a strange little horror text adventure and then put it on Steam for free.
A 10-year side project that finally saw daylight
Welcome To The Dark Place started life as a Roblox prototype around 2015. After years on the back burner while other projects took priority, it quietly launched on Steam on October 24 as a free horror text adventure. Free as in zero dollars, despite the decade-long journey.
Why not charge? He originally planned to, but after stepping away and coming back, his standards changed. He only wants to sell something if he’s confident most players will genuinely enjoy it. This one asks a bit more from you than a typical horror romp, and he knows that.
Bring a pencil: you’ll be mapping
The game leans hard on navigation and deduction. You follow directional clues through a bigger-than-expected world, and you’ll absolutely want a map. To help, the game hands you an in-game grid-paper tool so you can sketch routes, mark events, or just doodle to take the edge off. He even showed off the grid paper on social media on October 26, 2025, which gives you a good sense of how old-school the vibe is.
He’s not stressing the numbers
Welcome To The Dark Place has picked up 286 user reviews on Steam since launch, sitting at Very Positive. That’s nowhere near Lethal Company’s mountain of nearly 400,000 Overwhelmingly Positive reviews, but not everything needs to be another cultural avalanche to be worth your time.
"After Lethal Company, I just don’t have a reason to put unnecessary pressure on myself."
That’s basically the thesis. He wants to put good games in players’ hands, even if they don’t make a cent. And for this one, charging didn’t feel right anymore.
So... Lethal Company 2?
He has kicked around ideas for a follow-up, and they’re big enough that they’d surpass his current solo ambitions. That’s the kind of thinking that nudges a one-person operation toward building a team, but for now, it’s just a hypothetical. No announcements, no timeline, just a brain full of possibilities.
Where his head’s at now
Post-breakout-hit life is surprisingly normal by his account. Weirdly, not a lot has changed day to day. He still has a handful of game ideas he wants to chase, and clearly, he’s fine taking the scenic route if it means the end result feels right.
- Welcome To The Dark Place: free horror text adventure on Steam, launched October 24
- Origin: started as a Roblox prototype around 2015; developed on and off for roughly 10 years
- Why free: niche, skill-demanding design and higher personal standards after time away
- How it plays: directional navigation, large world, in-game grid paper for mapping
- Reception: 286 Very Positive Steam reviews so far
- Aftermath: Lethal Company remains the juggernaut (nearly 400,000 Overwhelmingly Positive reviews), but he’s not chasing that high
- Future: has ambitious ideas for a potential Lethal Company 2 and is open to forming a team if needed