Welcome to VS!
Yes, nights are dark without light. First day tasks are stones (flint or obsidian), sticks and 64 reeds (40 for creating your 1st tier inventory & 24 for a storage basket). Sticks and stones for tools (knife and axe) so that you can gather reeds and some firewood for your first night. A shovel is advisable if monsters do not have delayed spawning.
The handbook (press 'H') has a lot of info in it, such as crafting "recipes". If you hover over an item in your inventory (and I believe target a block in the world) and press H the handbook will bring up info about that item or block, including items that can be crafted from it.