AHH @abby-howard - Tumblr Blog

A couple scenes from a little gay vampire story I was kicking around a couple years ago! I sometimes do little pencils-only scenes for things and never post them. But I was looking back at these and was like why not? They're cute!

I have a whole story for these two, but just for funsies, something to do every now and then when I need to let loose.

abby-howard

(she will eat them though)

#vampire lesbians #my art #comics #toxic yuri #female monster

A couple scenes from a little gay vampire story I was kicking around a couple years ago! I sometimes do little pencils-only scenes for things and never post them. But I was looking back at these and was like why not? They're cute!

I have a whole story for these two, but just for funsies, something to do every now and then when I need to let loose.

#vampires #comics #my art #mature themes #lesbians #vampire lesbians #yuri #toxic yuri #extremely toxic for real #blood #are there triggers for this? idk #romance comics #comic

blacktabbygames

new scarlet hollow devlog! it's 16,000 words long, so some casual monday morning reading for you

* Look, it’s been a long time since I wrote an analytics devlog, okay?

abby-howard

NEW DEVLOG ALERT, Tony did a big write-up diving into user data from our surveys!

If you wanna know about choice breakdowns across people's playthroughs, or if you want a fairly comprehensive summary of the winding web that is Scarlet Hollow's narrative structure, here's where you find all that :]

And big shout-out to all our players for helping us balance the game during our Early Access period, your survey data is SO helpful 🙏

#scarlet hollow #devlog #game development #indiegamedev

Spoons is 15 today, happy sweet fifteenth spoons!!

#spoons #my cat #she's as spry as ever #cat pics #i tried to give here a churu to celebrate but she gets confused by most foods #so it's the same dry food as always for her i guess

blacktabbygames

been having fun digging into the episode 5 survey data! it and episode 3 are neck and neck for being people's favorite episodes to date, and the spread across our romance options continue to tighten

will be doing a longer writeup soon, but in the meantime, enjoy this infographic!

abby-howard

We're starting to sift through the survey results :]

#scarlet hollow #episodes 3 and 5 are fan faves yay #thanksss!!!

Check this out...

Bat sisters >:3

New little art dolls I made!

Their wings are poseable!!

They have joined my clown baby

#ooak art doll #bat sister dolls #it's sooo nice to have a little physical art project to tinker with #art doll #bats #sculpture #i did somewhat more abatomically accurate bat feet on one #then switched to not-realistic talons for the other #because i wanted to mix things up :]

Hi, you mentioned you would share another decision tree (decision braid) for episode 5. The post where you said this was like two years ago, but I just stumbled into it while looking for something else. I totally get it if you changed your mind, though, given the episode's scope.

Anyway, love both your games! I hope you guys aren't overworking youselves 🥰 I'm forcing my boyfriend to play SH and he seems to like it, too

Aw, thank you so much for your interest, and for playing!! I think I would perish if I had to draw out a decision tree for Episode 5 XD You're entirely right that the scope is a bit large for it at this point. As an example, the part after you leave the Estate where you choose who to turn to has 27 possible scene variants, most of which are determined by decisions made in previous episodes. Charting that would be..... horrific lol.

They say the most accurate map of the world is the size of the world.... so if anyone is curious about a decision map, the game files themselves will probably serve you better than any simplification I could provide! Maybe some brave soul will attempt a tree at some point, though what a cursed undertaking that would be.

#scarlet hollow #asks

How do you feel about the reception Stella's been getting post chapter 5?:0c

I'm not sure what the reception has been, from other people's POV! We have a lot of discussion with the alpha testers as we release scenes for testing, so we can get a handle on whether the narrative is landing the way we want it to. But once it's all out there, I tend to disengage from fan spaces. So I only see what Tony shows me, or fanart that comes across my feed :]

My impression of the reception is that people see her the way we wanted them to, with all her flaws, and many find her more compelling than ever for that. I'm sure that means there are some who now feel like she isn't the person they thought she was, but that's inevitable when people are engaging with an ongoing story-- we can foreshadow all we want for how a character arc is going to play out, but that doesn't mean everybody is gonna pick up on it until it starts to unfold!

~

TWO DAYS AFTER SAVING THIS AS A DRAFT: Okay now I'm seeing some Posts

Interesting XD

#scarlet hollow #stella richmond #stella scarlet hollow #overall i feel people are entitled to their opinions on characters #i definitely don't write characters in the hopes that everyone will like them and be nice to them #if a character doesn't have haters are they compelling?#i feel some are perhaps judging Stella based on her worst selves #perhaps not seeing how her worst selves are reflections of her best selves #meant to show a three-dimensional picture of a character that's unique to the medium of games #should all Stellas be treated as if they have done the thing their worst self has done #simply because they have the capacity for it?

In an ideal world where Dr. Kelly was honest with Reese and they tried to work through his condition together, how would've that turned out? If that's not too spoilery to ask.

They absolutely could have dealt with it.

But of course, the tragedy is that they didn't, and now it's too late. She chose a path, and tried to deal with the problem in a way that made sense to her, and a way that she could control. And now their relationship is so thoroughly damaged by the betrayal of trust that her worst fears have manifested— she made them real by believing them to be real— and there's no going back and trying to fix it now.

Unless the MC is so so charismatic and beautiful, of course.

#scarlet hollow #i'll also note that Reese is not dissimilar #kids tend to echo their parents in ways they don't realize #so reese also has a tendency to feel like controlling reality to keep someone out of (perceived) harm is how you show you care #reese kelly #reese scarlet hollow

okay literally no one cares for this poor wretched man but i just need to ask when will we see more of pastor daniel bc god. i love how weird he is. unappreciated freak of the lord <3 also not related but god i love duke n bo so much. they're sweetiepies <3

We'll be putting out a patch for Episode 5 that includes the church as a location to visit! You're certainly not alone, we've had quite a few people ask about the Pastor. Which is good, I'm glad people want more of him >:]

Really looking forward to adding it, and wish we could have fit it in before launch. But alas, we have to pick release dates many months in advance, so it can get pretty down to the wire, and we didn't want to rush it (and delaying is a whole Thing, so that wasn't an option either lol.)

Thank you so much for enjoying these characters!! I'll make sure to post about the patch when it goes live :D

#scarlet hollow

I love episode 5 and I find that directions that Oscar character is going very intriguing, but I must ask the burning question that I'm sure is on EVERYONE'S mind: is Hawaiian shirt Oscar dead, or will he make his comeback in the final chapters?

It is true... Hawaiian shirt Oscar is no more U_U

He is simply not having a good enough time for such joys now. And I didn't wanna draw all that U_U

#oscar scarlet hollow #scarlet hollow #though saying that #i did draw entirely new sprite sets for him across several different scenarios #expressions and outfits? no problem #I will draw as many as he needs #but i draw the line at a patterned shirt #that's avery's thing anyway

I bought Scarlet Hollow forever ago, but am an impatient player so I've been avoiding playing it until reccently, now that 5/7 is out, and it has NOT dissappinted. What a beautiful, fascinating, and at times revolting game all about choices and happenings in the classical creepy small town.

I have a bit of an open question, but we're any of the townsfolk characters originally meant to have an entirely different role/personality compared to the final version? It can be interesting to hear like, for example, "Oh Reese originally wasn't going to have the twist he winded up having, the plan was for him to just be a sick boy, the change came much later in the writing process" or something to that effect. I have a vested interest in character studies of each companion character, especially Avery, so any extra nuggets of info would be delicious. Sorry if this is an annoyingly big question.

Thank you for such a lovely message!!! ❤️❤️

I know that question in particular was just an example, but Reese was indeed always planned as what he became, right down to the major conflict in Episode 4. Though the very first draft of his character (when he was still in the sketching stage) was a bit more misanthropic. More like Julius in ep 5 compared to the nice sensitive boy he turned out to be when we actually started writing!

Avery is the one whose personality probably changed the most, though. They were originally much more dorky and nervous, entirely different than the way they are in-game. I do imagine they were like that when they were younger, though, before they figured out how to bury that side of themselves to try to be more appealing to others.

#scarlet hollow #reese kelly #avery scarlet hollow #avery belle

What are your thoughts on selling one time merchs of StP or SH on conventions? It lies somewhere in between of one time commissions and also mass producing merch, so I was curious on your thoughts on it

I have no issue with this! I'm not sure if we've posted an official merch policy or anything, but personally, I would be delighted to see fanart/fan merch in an artist's alley.

And for anyone else who might have questions, here are some very unofficial guidelines: online sales items that might be mistaken for official merch is where it starts to get iffy, and we have a hard rule against monetized fan games.

^Again, unofficial!! I think we'll be writing up a more specific policy at some point, once we are no longer post-deadline zombies.

#scarlet hollow #slay the princess #black tabby games

sorry if this has been asked before and I just couldn't find it, but I'm curious if there's a particular reason Kaneeka only has nails on one hand? If you'd rather keep that in the headcanon of the player's mind I understand :-)

Because it's hard to use your fingers when you have long nails ToT

It's meant to convey that she wants to maintain her personal choices for self-expression, while struggling to make that mesh well with the reality of her daily life. In retrospect, of course, it's a difficult detail to maintain because it makes her sprites asymmetrical. But I do it! Anything for you, Kaneeka <3

#scarlet hollow #kaneeka scarlet hollow

Aw thank you for enjoying the game!!

Yes, other characters do have relationship stats, which we keep hidden for immersive purposes (we don't want the characters reduced to numbers, we'd rather they feel like people!) Here's that writeup Tony did about the relationship system early on in development, for anyone curious.

Major events also carry enough weight that they often tip the scales in one direction or another as far as characters are concerned, so they become pretty important for how people in town feel about you! This only really applies to the main characters, so the major love interests.

With the exception of Wayne. He already knows how he feels. Even if you run away from him at every opportunity, he doesn't mind. Even if you start dating somebody else, he might question your choices, and insult your LI at every opportunity, but he's okay with it. He can wait.

#wayne scarlet hollow #sam wayne #scarlet hollow #he gets jealous #but he pretends he's not