Hollowmoor

Hi! We are Small Town Ghosts, a two person + one puppy team making Hollowmoor: an upcoming game of farming, friendship and witchcraft.

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Hi friends! We're super excited to share our new trailer with you! We're still working on more mini-games and events, but wanted to share all we've done so far and would be thrilled to hear your feedback! 💜 Hollowmoor is our indie game in development, you can wishlist it on Steam here: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2026730/Hollowmoor/ 💜

You can also follow us on: Instagram https://www.instagram.com/small_town_ghosts_ Reddit https://www.reddit.com/r/Hollowmoor Discord https://discord.gg/BAc6369vdB Bluesky https://bsky.app/profile/smalltownghosts.bsky.social

Thanks for looking!

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Writing some dialogues for the cryptids today, really embracing my inner gnome <3 (Text in the screenshot:)

"Be careful where you step, there are newborn shieldbugs here! ",

"What can be better than sitting under the shadow of a tree, and to listen to the birds singing?",

"Good day."

"This year's moss is of exceptional quality.",

"Humans think that Gnomes, Leprechauns and other Faefolk struggle to get along but we are all perfectly fine living together in harmony.",

"It is not that hard to respect and care for one another."

"Something has upset the snails again today."

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Plucking some plums, just to record the washing line, really.

💜 Hollowmoor is our indie game in development, you can wishlist it on Steam here: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2026730/Hollowmoor/ 💜

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We have a new capsule art! Upon some much appreciated feedback and reflection, we realised our old art was not representing Hollowmoor very well. Since our game is all about exploration, friendship, magic and cryptids we're hoping this is better.

Fellow gamers, for a pixel art game how do you feel about a capsule art that is in a different style? Should the capsule art match it in that way? Old capsule below for fellow before & after lovers:

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So this is what your farm in Hollowmoor can look like, after devoting some time to it! Lots of herbs and plants for your potions, charms and other witchcraft needs, and with the cryptids that visit and help, if you have a good relationship with them :) Flourishing!! No sign of capitalism or shareholders just a witch hyperfocusing on growing stuff! Living in harmony with other beings! .. Anyway, here are some of the sprites:

Plants (mostly traditional ones from British folklore, and a few more unusual ones just for the witchcraft's sake) include: lavender, foxglove, pumpkin, dandelion, eye of newt (mustard seed), toe of frog (buttercup leaf), wool of bat (holly), mouse’s ear (forget me not), snake grass, venus flytrap… also some of our fantasy creations, such as crystalline daisy, tidal sprig, brierberry… 💜 Hollowmoor is our indie game in development, you can wishlist it on Steam here: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2026730/Hollowmoor/ 💜

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We can now talk to a (pretty cheeky) fairy near the derelict castle! Also a quick glimpse at our sound controls, it's all set up now~

And you may have noticed, we only have a mana bar now. Since we decided not to have any combat at all and have a completely cosy gameplay, we don't need the health bar anymore. I considered having a stamina bar but we use magic for all actions from summoning to farming so we'll just go on with the mana!

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Last month I had the privilege to do some research for our game Hollowmoor, on witchcraft, history and folklore at Chetham’s Library! It was truly magical to get to [very, very] carefully turn the pages of these books from 300~ years ago!

Because they’re so old and fragile, we’re required to place them on cushions and not force open wide. And to use the ‘snake’ which is a fabric covered metal chain to keep the pages down/minimise touching the papers.

Chetham Library is an ancient building, first built in 1400s (and renovated a few times or course). It’s fascinating, I’d really recommend visiting it, the tour is really great, and visiting to read books is free(!!), although you need to book beforehand. https://library.chethams.com/about/history/ 💜 Hollowmoor is our indie game in development, you can wishlist it on Steam here: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2026730/Hollowmoor/ 💜 💬 🧙🏻‍♀️ 🧙🏼 🧚🏻 Chat to us on Discord! https://discord.gg/BAc6369vdB

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Market stalls at the dock of Hollowmoor~ 💜 We're a 2 person team and Hollowmoor is our indie game in development. You can wishlist it on Steam here: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2026730/Hollowmoor/  Demo coming soon!💜 💬 🧙🏻‍♀️ 🧙🏼 🧚🏻 Chat to us on Discord! https://discord.gg/BAc6369vdB

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A snapshot of game development from our house ~ As you may have noticed we've been a bit quiet over the last couple years, we had to take a bit of a break.. because we welcomed our little sprout into our life! We're back though and working on Hollowmoor more than ever! It's hard to share updates very frequently, sometimes it's a day of bug fixing or making sprite sheets which might not be very interesting to look at / talk about. But know that we're still developing Hollowmoor and really want to release our demo in a few months!! If you have any questions or suggestions feel free to reach out, here or on our Discord: https://discord.gg/PXghYjHFTX

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Some of the cryptids you can summon in Hollowmoor with the offering stone!! In the last screenshot you may notice there was a small mishap... a gnome/leprechaun/unicorn mishap to be exact 🤦

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Our offering stone is finished! We summon the magical creatures by placing objects on it~ We also have some new ambient sounds! Hope you like birds singing because they sure do!

[mermaidenmystic]

The Unselfish Mermaid ~ 1898 ~ from the book “The Magic Nuts” ~ Rosie M. M. Pitman (English illustrator, 1868-1947) 

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Here's our water-scrying mini game! (Don't mind the gnome) I personally never liked fishing mini games, and there are so many of them. (DO NOT mind the gnome) So we decided to make this scrying game which fits with our theme of magic and witchcraft, a bit puzzley, and no animals are harmed as well. Not quite finished but close! (Again, do NOT mind the gnome. Please!)

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*Trumpet sounds (haunting)* Friends, we have a GHOST!!!

Finally the cemetery in Hollowmoor is sufficiently haunted!

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Hello! Did you know you can go to the bookshop-boat's terrace? Enjoy a cup of tea with the owner Mabel sometime. I've been fully focused on our npc's movements recently, so our dock is finally getting busy, I still have some work left, but hopefully we can share the final version soon with ambience sounds and all the locals present!

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Our very own good boy is finally in Hollowmoor! <3 We finally had some sunshine here in the North West England, and I am very grateful that I got to work on Hollowmoor in nature to the sound of birds singing (or magpies going bonkers). We're working hard developing lots of different areas, from UI to music, sound effects, NPCs and more... hope to give you a more comprehensive update soon! Hope you're enjoying some good weather too.

[enchantedbook]

'The Night Fairy' by Amelia Jane Murray (1800 - 1896)

[countesspetofi]

Where the bee sucks, there suck I: In a cowslip’s bell I lie; There I couch when owls do cry. On the bat’s back I do fly After summer merrily.

--from The Tempest, by William Shakespeare