The many years of editorial work on the game have led to an extremely detailed and extensively described game world.

It has become the most successful role-playing game on the German market, leaving all contenders behind in terms of sales (even Dungeons & Dragons). However this does not imply a 'black eye' as in a bruise the German expression for such bruising is 'blaues Auge' ('blue eye'). The name literally means 'the black eye'.

The Dark Eye (TDE, German: Das Schwarze Auge (DSA)), is a German role-playing game created by Ulrich Kiesow and launched by the Schmidt Spiel & Freizeit GmbH and the Droemer Knaur Verlag in 1984.