Heart of Darkness took 6 years to develop. These years were spent creating the game's musical score, the graphics, and the FMV sequences. There was a bidding war to distribute the game which Infogames won. Other bidding companies included Sega and Atari. Atari had plans to put the game on the Atari Jaguar CD instead of the PlayStation.
Made by the video game developers of Flashback and Fade to Back.
Criticism was aimed at the game's mild E rating in the USA (meaning 'suitable for everyone'), because despite its cartoony tone, it contained its fair share of scary scenes and monsters. The game was particularly infamous for the many graphic ways in which the player could die, including: falling into chasms, devoured alive by monsters (whole or partially), crushed by objects, pulled under water, spine getting snapped, incinerated by firebolts, drowning, and burned by lava.