Developed and published by Infogrames in 1992 for MS-DOS, the game was eventually ported to Mac OS, the PC-98, the FM Towns, the 3DO, the Acorn Archimedes, and iOS.

To overcome technical limitations, the production team also employed a fixed camera angle system to dramatically frame the movement of three-dimensional characters on top of two-dimensional background images.

Upon its release, Alone in the Dark received acclaim, with critics applauding its unsettling atmosphere, effective soundtrack, and technical inventiveness.

Players choose between a male or female protagonist (Edward Carnby or Emily Hartwood, respectively),[3][4][5] and are then trapped inside the haunted mansion of Derceto.

[23] If the player is incapacitated, their body is subsequently dragged to a sacrificial area and possessed by Pregzt, whereupon the game ends with an image of supernatural horrors being unleashed from the house into the world at large.

[15][27][28] Grimoires found in the mansion's library include the Necronomicon and De Vermis Mysteriis, both taken from Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos.

[29] Finally, several supernatural opponents are recognizable creatures from the Mythos (e.g., Deep Ones, Nightgaunts, Chthonians), and Pregzt even mentions Cthulhu.

When brainstorming ideas for what an adaptation would entail, Infogrames CEO Bruno Bonnell proposed a game where players would use matches to gain snapshot views of a completely dark environment.

Bonnell, however, felt that such a game was not possible, given the technical limitations of the time, and so he assigned Raynal to work on a French port of Maxis's city-building simulator SimCity (1989).

[34] Chanfray played a significant role in developing the nascent game's tone and visual style during this stage of production.

Barroz's submissions emulated the style of traditional paintings, and Raynal found them so striking that he brought her on to help develop the look of the game's environments.

[43] This decision to allude to the author's creations rather than directly adapt one of his works led Chaosium to contend that the game was "too far removed from the spirit of H. P. Lovecraft", and so they subsequently revoked Infogrames' Call of Cthulhu license.

[44] Due to his belief that computer graphics at the time were not sufficiently frightening on their own, Raynal decided to integrate key texts into the game which could convey necessary backstory details: "A few polygons," he noted in an interview with GamaSutra, "[is] not very frightening, so I knew that I needed the text to put the situation into a very heavy background story for the game.

[47] Initially, Raynal had wanted to use photos of an actual mansion built in the 1920s as backgrounds, but this idea proved too ambitious for the 3D rendering tools available, and the team instead resorted to using hand-drawn bitmaps.

[26][48] The soundtrack to Alone in the Dark was created by Infogrames' in-house composer Philippe Vachey with the use of Ad Lib, Inc. sound cards.

[26][33][49] Vachey's "haunting and organic" score incorporated sonic essential elements often found in horror soundtracks, including piano hits and plucked strings.

[9] While most of Alone in the Dark's production cycle was defined by a spirit of optimism and creative enthusiasm, the bug-testing phase wore out the team.

THQ Nordic, the new owner of the Alone In The Dark franchise, published the game for PlayStation 5, Windows and Xbox Series X/S on 20 March 2024.

This remake features the same setting and protagonists as the original, but it has a completely new story written by Mikael Hedberg, a former Frictional Games writer who had worked on Penumbra: Black Plague (2008), Amnesia: The Dark Descent (2010), and SOMA (2015).

In a review of the 3DO version of the game, Next Generation wrote that "Alone's subtle mix of eerie music, grim animation sequences, and suspense-filled storyline create an atmosphere of tense horror that adds an interesting new twist to the standard graphic adventure.

[72] Similarly, GamePro's Lawrence Neves lauded the game's sound design, noting that "weird moaning, zombie laughter, and occasional hands-around-the-throat screams instill the right mood".

[73] Alone in the Dark's fixed camera angle system also engendered critical discussion, specifically regarding its similarity to horror film cinematography.

[75] In her review, Scorpia called the game's camera system its "unique feature": "Years of watching horror movies," she wrote, "have taught us that when the viewing perspective changes, it usually means that something is up".

[72] For this reason, she argued that Alone in the Dark's decision to integrate perspective changes into the game "very effectively [keeps the player] alert and worried over what's about to happen".

[72] In a retrospective consideration of the game, John Cantees of GamingBolt wrote that the use of fixed camera angles was "a great way to set a cinematic tone" while also "work[ing] within the very tight technical limitations of the time.

"[76] Conversely, criticism was aimed at the compatibility of the game's fixed camera angle system with some of its more action-heavy set pieces.