An Ironmace admin named Luci on Dark and Darker's Discord server released an open letter and acknowledged that the team wasn't aware they'd be making the post, which called for the community to support Ironmace's legal battle through a GoFundMe campaign. The letter said that Nexon essentially plans to "bleed [Ironmace] dry" with expensive court fees and that Nexon Dark And Darker Gold even named a tutorial boss in its latest MMORPG "Leader of the Silver Sun - Terence" to mock the Ironmace developer. The campaign earned upwards of $46,000 toward its $500,000 goal in under an hour before it was taken down.

Ironmace admin Graysun commented on the situation, confirming that the GoFundMe campaign was launched "without approval due to a passionate member of the team taking matters into his own hands." Ironmace appears to be planning another GoFundMe in the future, as Graysun told fans to look out for a future announcement detailing how the GoFundMe will be handled. Since Dark and Darker has been removed from Steam, Ironmace is going to have to rely on crowdfunding if the studio is to have any chance at surviving an expensive legal battle with a firm as large as Nexon, which publishes major titles like Maple Story, Mabinogi, and dozens of others.

Ironmace has issued a statement calling the allegations "baseless," and that any resemblance to the Nexon project is due to the game's nature as a "basic dungeon crawler." Nexon has suggested that Dark and Darker couldn't possibly have been developed as quickly as it was, which Ironmace countered by pointing to the game's heavy use of store-bought assets.Dark and Darker DMCA Allegations Are ‘Baseless,’ Developer Says

Developer Ironmace issues a lengthy statement about the ongoing controversy surrounding its classic dungeon crawler Dark and Darker.

In response to the latest development in the debacle surrounding indie dungeon crawler Dark and Darker, developer Ironmace says that Nexon's DMCA takedown notice is “baseless.” The situation has been growing steadily more serious DAD Gold, resulting in Dark and Darker being removed from Steam on March 25, but it all started a year and a half ago.