Scarlet Hollow News

We're thrilled to announce that The Roads Untraveled, Scarlet Hollow's next major update, will be releasing on March 3rd for PC, Mac and Linux. The goal of this update is to serve as a soft relaunch of the game, complete with large expansions to the first two episodes and an overhaul to aspects of the game's visual and technical design to reflect the skills we've gained over the years.

Overall, these improvements are centered around:

• Improved player agency in the first two episodes of the game. Over 70,000 words of new story content in Episodes 1 and 2 to explore previously unseen paths. What happens if you don't venture into the woods in Episode 1? What happens if you do your best to stay out of any and all danger at the start of Episode 2?
  

A small teaser of what's being added, including new content and a re-draw of some older assets.

• A user interface and visual overhaul. We've also been working hard to update Scarlet Hollow's use interface and visual presentation to be closer to our current quality standards. There's more on that in our previous update, but a small preview is included below for those who missed it:
  

The new textbox is bigger, wider, and its colors and shapes blend more fluidly into the background.



We've tightened other parts of the UI as well.

While the narrative focus of the update is on Episodes 1 and 2, Episodes 3 and 4 will be getting small updates to make sure the new paths available in the first two chapters are fully massaged into the narrative. We're also still working on restoring a cut ending to Episode 4, which will hopefully be finished in time for March 3rd.

We really appreciate your patience while we've been getting all of our ducks in a row. Not only will the first two chapters feel more dynamic once this update is out, but the new and expanded content will better position us to make Episode 5 hit just the way we'd like it to.

All the best, and to all of our cousins, new and old, we look forward to welcoming you home in a few weeks.

Tony and Abby

Hi everyone!

It's been a little while since we've posted an update on Steam, so we wanted to take the time to bring you up to speed on how things are going and what to expect in the new year. A lot of this has been shared on our Discord or our social media channels, so if you'd like to stay as up-to-date as possible, I'd suggest following or joining one of the following:

• Discord
• /r/scarlethollow
• Bluesky
• Tumblr
• Twitter
• Mailing list

With that out of the way, we're entering the late stages of development for a content update/overhaul to the first four episodes of Scarlet Hollow that we're calling "The Roads Untraveled." The first episode of Scarlet Hollow in particular is the first game either of us worked on, and there are areas that we've wanted to improve for a while that we've avoided touching out of fear that we'd be damaging load-bearing pillars of the game's design.

But we've since figured out how to make these improvements work, and we think that they'll dovetail nicely into Episode 5. (And we have the budget from Slay the Princess' success to prioritize quality over rushing to the next milestone.)

You can expect this update on the earlier end of 2025, and Episode 5 later in the year. Some of what will be in it:

• Improved player agency in the first two episodes of the game. What happens if you don't venture into the woods with Stella? How do things progress if you go out of your way to be a Good Cousin?
  
• Restoration of cut content. This focuses more heavily on Episode 4, where we're potentially restoring a cut route where a romanced Kaneeka can join the player at the clinic. (Still assessing whether this makes the clinic less interesting, so no guarantees.) There's also a major late-episode choice that we cut for time that we're eying to bring back.
  
• A user interface and visual overhaul. We've also been working hard to update Scarlet Hollow's use interface and visual presentation to be closer to our current quality standards. More on that below.
  

Our goal with this interface update is to make the game feel warmer (and less sterile), as well as to improve the general experience. So, starting with the most important part of the user interface in a visual novel, the text box.

On top of the added embellishments, you'll notice that this new box is taller, meaning that we can fit more options before you need to scroll. You might also notice that the scrollbar is located further to the right, meaning options can be longer before flowing onto the next line. (Again, meaning there will be less scrolling.) On top of making it easier to process menus with a large number of options this should also smooth out the controller experience.

You'll also notice that we've moved the quick menu into the textbox, which should avoid a few scenarios where it directly clashes with character sprites and backgrounds. (In particular, I can point to a scene where a specific Tabitha sprite had the "gear" icon positioned directly over her eye, making her look like a cyborg.)



Next up, we've got the main menu, where we've added some extra character. The logo is smaller and has some color so it feels less stark. The font choice is tighter, and we added a border where the text options start to improve the feel of things.



We've made similar changes to the in-game menu. Again, we're using thematic shapes to provide better flow and separation. We've also added a wooden "frame" around each save game thumbnail give them a more natural feeling. You'll also notice here that we've moved this menu always showing the outside of the estate as the far background to displaying the current game screen instead.



On the subject of the in-game menu, we've also changed the confirmation screen so it feels closer to the in-game textbox. The transparency on this one still needs further adjustment. I think it's a little *too* transparent right now.



We've replaced all of the illustrated assets in the journal, too, and instead of a generic cross-hatched background, we add a semi-transparent black layer so you can still see the game world behind it.



The last UI change I want to share is the character creation process, where, on top of fleshing out the design of the various header boxes, we've also replaced the generic background with background images from the game.



We didn't just change the one background either — each stage of the process has a new image. Here's the trait selection screen.



Thank you again, so much, for following along with our work and for giving us the space to make Scarlet Hollow the best game it can possibly be. This new update is going to kick ass >:)

Best wishes and happy new year!
Tony and Abby!

All of the things we've had to keep under wraps have finally been unveiled to the public, so we thought it'd be a great opportunity to catch folks up on the workings of our studio for the past couple of years!

A "State of the Studio" sounded too grim, so we're calling it a State of the Union instead, which still works, because we're just the two of us, and are married and spend all of our time making our games anyways.

Link: https://medium.com/p/51a84536d604

A TL;DR if you don't want to read a 4,000 word essay on running an indie studio (though you shouuuuuld)

• We wrapped our full time work on Slay the Princess — The Pristine Cut about a month ago, meaning we've been back at it for Scarlet Hollow for a little while now, but we've also been juggling that with unpacking at a new place and planning an actual wedding to make up for the one we had to do in our tiny apartment for covid reasons! A lot of life events had to be put on hold to make room for the 80 hour work weeks that were needed to keep the lights on for our studio. But everything is finally starting to stabilize!
  
  
• Prior to Slay the Princess being announced, Scarlet Hollow's funding was in a precarious spot (we were each making $5 an hour and that was going down every month). But now with Slay the Princess' success, we're able to comfortably self-fund the entire rest of Scarlet Hollow's development, meaning we get to stick to our original vision without publisher interference and without running the risk of having funding pulled. I'm not sure how much folks have been following studio closures in the game's industry this past year, but they've been absolutely merciless. While it was a struggle to stabilize without outside support, we're now in a much better position to make the games we want to make moving forward, which means we won't have to pull any punches with Scarlet Hollow's final acts ^^
  
  
• We'll be getting out the first alpha builds for Episode 5 to testers later this year, probably mid-fall.
  
  
• Episode 5 will come out some time in 2025, but we don't want to pin down any specifics until we're confident about our timing.
  
  
• Expect more regular updates as we move into July and August — right now there's still a lot of script to go, which isn't very exciting from a sharing perspective (Episode 5 is multiple fantasy novels in length.)
  
  

I know how frustrating it can be for something you can care about to take longer to finish than you'd like it to—we've also felt a lot of that pain over the past few years—but it's important for us to do our work the right way and free from any external compromise. And thanks to all of your patience and support, now we can do that!

So from the bottom of our hearts thank you all so much. You mean the world to us, and we're so excited to give you the best possible version of Scarlet Hollow!

~Tony and Abby

Hey folks!

First thing's first, we know you've all been incredibly patient with us as we've tackled the MOUNTAIN of work that is Episode 5. We don't have any firm updates for you at the moment, other than it currently being our primary focus as a studio. For those of you who might have missed updates on its development earlier this year, it's currently shaping up to be about the size of Episodes 2, 3, and 4 combined, and a hell of a lot more complicated than any of our prior work, so we're taking our time and making sure that we do it right while also shifting into a more sustainable development cycle for us as human beings.

We founded Black Tabby Games in March of 2021, and since then, I don't think a week's gone by where we haven't worked at least 60 hours a piece. While we love our work, that ferocity has taken a toll on our overall health, so we're working to scale that back to a healthier 50.

That said, as we get deeper into the year, you can expect more regular updates in terms of sharing new art and spoiler-free/spoiler-lite progress.

Anyways, LudoNarraCon is finally upon us, and boy do we have a MOUNTAIN of things for y'all.

First thing's first, Scarlet Hollow and Slay the Princess are each going to be 20% off, starting at 1pm EST on May 9th. So if you've been itching to pick one of them up, now's the time, and you can also pick up both game's bundled together for an extra discount here: https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/33452/The_Black_Tabby_Games_Collection/ If you already own one of either Scarlet Hollow or Slay the Princess, I'd suggest buying the other through the bundle, since you'll still be able to apply the extra discount there.

At 7pm Eastern on Thursday May 9th, we'll be doing a retrospective Twitch stream where we'll play through the ORIGINAL demo cut of Slay the Princess as well as the first episode of Scarlet Hollow. This'll be broadcast on http://twitch.tv/black_tabby_games/

On Friday May 10th, we've got 2 panels that will be broadcast on the LudoNarraCon Steam page.

At 4pm Eastern, I'll be doing a fireside chat with Meredith Gran where we talk about narrative design.

At 8pm Eastern on the 10th, Abby and I are on a panel moderated by Patrick Klepek (formerly Vice, now Remap Radio) alongside Ben Gelinas (Times * Galaxy, formerly Bioware + Remedy) and Gareth Damian Martin (Citizen Sleeper.) The topic of this panel is balancing storytelling with player choice.

On Sunday, May 12th, at 1pm Eastern, we'll be doing an art stream, specifically going through some of the process of how Abby makes assets for our games! This one'll be simulcast on both Twitch and our Steam page!

All the best, and can't wait to share more updates with you all!
Tony and Abby