Dummy Darts

What is Dummy Darts?

The Crooked Arrow is a pub with decent ale, darts running late into the night, and regulars who are a lot to handle. Dummy Darts is a 2D sports game about stepping up to that board, and about what happens to the room once the darts start landing.

Five rule sets cover a session. There are 501 and 301 countdown legs, Around the Clock, Cricket, a solo par chase, and an open practice board. Behind the oche sit four regulars with their own habits, and a pass-and-play option lets two people share one device.

Entry costs nothing. The game runs in an HTML5 frame in the browser and also ships as a build for Windows, macOS and Linux, and it arrived on 24 October 2026.

The hook is the mess. A wild dart takes out whatever it strikes, and the tally of broken bottles, lamps, portraits, mirrors, pints, nuts, till parts and candles sits on a Damages Bill that pays out for a Full House.

How to play

Every visit to the oche begins the same way. Hold the pointer down on the board, slide to set the line, then release to let fly. A power meter swings for as long as the dart is held, and letting go precisely on the marked sweet spot produces the tightest throw available. Hold past that point and the arm starts to wander, so the cleanest release is usually the decisive one.

What counts depends on the mode. In 501 and 301 the total runs down to exactly zero and the leg must be closed on a double unless straight-out finishing is chosen. A leg can be a one-off, best of three or best of five, and a checkout hint suggests a route for whatever score is left.

Around the Clock works through 1 to 20 and then the bull in order, with a double advancing two numbers and a treble three. Cricket asks players to close 15 through 20 plus the bull before adding points. Chasing Par is a solo chase for the fewest darts, graded up to five stars from Regular to Legend, and Practice is the open board for settling the aim.

Controls

Mouse and touch use the same gesture: hold, aim, release. On a touchscreen a magnifier lifts the target out from under the thumb, which matters because a finger hides the exact spot being aimed at. The meter also ticks as it sweeps and dings on the mark, so timing a throw by ear is a real option.

Keyboard players aim with the arrow keys or W A S D and hold Shift for fine adjustments. Space or Enter grabs and releases a dart, Esc drops one already held, M opens the menu, and F toggles fullscreen.

A controller works just as well: the left stick or D-pad aims, the A button holds and releases, B drops a held dart, and Start brings up the menu. Every input method covers the full throw, so nothing is locked behind one peripheral.

Tips for your first run

The meter is generous once its rhythm clicks. Short, repeated sessions on the practice board teach the swing faster than grinding full legs, and the sound cue is more reliable than the eye during a fast sweep.

Mode choice matters early. A 301 leg with a checkout hint is the friendliest introduction to counting down, while Chasing Par sets a personal benchmark without an opponent pressing the issue.

• Release on the ding: the meter clicks as it sweeps and sounds off on the mark, so the ear can time a throw when the eye loses the spot.
• Follow the checkout hint in 501 and 301 rather than freestyling, especially when the finish has to land on a double.
• Play a Chasing Par run early to learn how few darts a tidy leg actually takes, then bring that restraint to the regulars.
• Old Reg knows the 20 bed even though his hand shakes, so do not build a plan around his misses there.
• Treat the wild dart as a costed risk: the bottle, the lamp, the mirror, the till and the candles all end up on the Damages Bill.

Content and replayability

Beyond the five modes, the draw is the cast. Old Reg has occupied his stool since decimalisation, throws with a shaky hand but knows the 20 bed; Landlady Glenda has a steady hand, keeps a tidy checkout and does not appreciate being tested; Mad Terry produces either a maximum 180 or the lamp with no way of telling which; and Sharky is the house shark, buying a round, recalling names, and emptying wallets.

Pass and Play covers two-player evenings on one machine. Alongside the matches, the game records best legs and fourteen first-time feats, and the Pub Lexicon collects nine pieces of real darts slang called out the moment they happen, among them Robin Hood, Hat Trick, Shanghai, Bed & Breakfast and Bag O' Nuts.

Breakage is its own metagame: thirteen targets around the pub can be destroyed, and clearing all of them earns a Full House. Add Photo puts a personal picture up on the board for anyone who wants a custom target.

Presentation and performance

The art and sound are produced by the game itself while play is underway, so the pub's look and its audio come from the same runtime rather than a separate media pack. The presentation is 2D and comic in tone, and the title screen uses the Lilita One typeface by Juan Montoreano under an open font licence.

In practice the game sits in an HTML5 frame in the browser and also ships as a build for Windows, macOS and Linux. It works offline, carries no ads, asks for no account and does nothing to track players. Scoreboard and settings are stored in the browser between sessions, and any photo added to the board never leaves the device.

Accessibility has been considered too: a reduced-motion option is available and screen readers are supported, which is worth checking before a first throw rather than after a long session.

Who should play it

Pub darts fans are the obvious audience. The five modes mirror a real board, the checkout hint softens the arithmetic, and four regulars give solo play some personality. Players who prefer a score chase to a duel can spend an evening in Chasing Par, working toward the five-star Legend rating.

Groups get the most from Pass and Play, which turns a single device into a two-player board, and the breakable pub gives every stray throw a punchline, so a bad dart is rarely a wasted one. Short browser sessions suit players who want a leg between other tasks.

Collectors have best-leg records, fourteen feats and a nine-term lexicon to fill in, plus thirteen breakages for a Full House. The accessibility work, with reduced motion, screen reader support and keyboard or controller options, widens the door well beyond mouse users.