Scarlet Hollow
Small Price Increase in January (Does Not Affect Current Owners!)
After talking to a bunch of our mentors and thinking about the expanding scope of Scarlet Hollow, we've decided to do a small price increase in January following the Steam Winter Sale. The base price of the game will be increasing from $19.99 USD to $24.99 USD (alongside small updates to regional pricing to reflect Steam's updated guidelines/recommendations there). This price change will also help position us better for future console ports. (Nothing to announce there yet, but it's definitely something we've been actively thinking about)
Since we're not doing paid DLC, this price change won't affect any current owners, nor will it affect anyone who purchases the game before these changes go live. But we're making this announcement in advance, because we wanted to make sure that folks had a significant heads up/buffer time before this change, so if you're someone who's been on the fence about picking up the game early, you'll still have multiple opportunities to buy it at a discount before price changes go into effect.
On top of the current Episode 4 launch discount, we'll be running the same 20% sale during the Steam Winter Sale, so plan accordingly!
Thank you all so much for your support!
Tony and Abby
(p.s. thank you to everyone who's helped get the Wayne plush funded over the past week. It's going into production in 5 days, so there's still a chance to pick one up, if that's your thing.)
12/10 Patch Notes
* Various bug fixes
* Steam Deck fix should FINALLY work for everyone (fingers crossed)
Marathon Livestream Starting Today and Episode 4 Content Update Roadmap!
We're going to be doing a marathon live stream of all four current Episodes of Scarlet Hollow with some special guests starting today, at 1pm EST on our Twitch channel: https://www.twitch.tv/black_tabby_games
It'll probably take us two days to get through everything, so if we need a second day, it'll be starting at 1pm EST tomorrow, again, on our Twitch channel.
While we've got you here, I also wanted to give a short roadmap on the content updates we have planned for Episode 4. They're less substantial than previous Episodes, but:
- We'll be making some changes to how Mystical functions in the Tea Room to bring it a little more in line with its performance later in the Episode. These changes will be informational, so don't expect different outcomes for that scene, just a little more fluff!
- Some time next week, we'll be releasing a whole new ending for the Episode 4 dilemma. We won't say anything beyond that, but it'll be neat!
- Alongside the above patch, we'll also be adding a few more achievements to the episode that were cut during our crunch. Y'all have been 100%'ing this too fast, but mostly we thought it'd be fun to add in some extras that highlight some truly rare worldstates.
- It looks like the Nightly build of Ren'py has the steam deck fix we've all been waiting for, so expect a patch for that shortly!
We've already started work on Episode 5, and we're extremely excited to see how it's been shaping up!
Cheers,
Tony + Abby
12/6 the smallest patch in the world
Patch Notes for December 6th
Highlights:
* Hot gets additional slight bonuses to relationships with other characters. (Already a hidden benefit of the Hot trait, but we amplified its effect slightly.)
* Doctor Kelly romance post Episode 4 no longer locked exclusively behind the hot trait.
* Late Episode 4 cutscene remastered. Final shot lingers less + music is sync'd better. (Whoops I loaded an earlier cut of the animation into imovie for the release build)
* Added some extra dialogue to a couple of post Episode 4 big decision branches.
Scarlet Hollow Episode 4 Player Choices Survey and Patch Notes
Big thanks to all of you for a truly special episode launch. The reception's completely blown beyond our expectations and we can't express how much it means to us to finally have been able to share this chapter with the world.
We just put out a patch that addresses most of the reported day 1 issues and makes some minor balance tweaks.
Most notable change is to the scene with Stella at the end of episode. If Tabitha is present and has a sufficiently close relationship to the player, she will insist that the player helps her talk to Stella, so it's easier for those two to reconnect without robbing the player of the emotional catharsis of the scene.
We also have a survey ready for you to share your choices with us, which, as always, we'll compile into a write-up and dev log! Here's the link to the survey: https://forms.gle/bgLfn4Hmk97pt3RSA
Thanks again!
Tony and Abby
Another round of hotfixes
12/3 Hotfixes
Episode 4 is here.
It's been a long time coming, but Episode 4 is finally here. Enjoy! :)
To celebrate the launch, we've also included an extension on the Wayne plush crowdfunding campaign, so check it out if that sort of thing interests you! Our composer also decided to make the entire Episode 4 soundtrack pay what you want on his Bandcamp for the next week, so pick it up now while you still can: https://brandonboone.bandcamp.com/album/scarlet-hollow-episode-4-official-soundtrack
There have been a few changes to earlier episodes over the course of Episode 4's development, with the most notable one being an overhaul of the Mystical trait. Both Wayne and the carvings have their own themes as of Episode 4, and we've also replaced the Original Sin track in earlier episodes with these new recordings.
If you want to join in the community discussion, please check out our Discord (discord.gg/blacktabbygames) and the Scarlet Hollow subreddit (https://www.reddit.com/r/ScarletHollow/).
The Discord is also the best place to report bugs! Alpha testers did a great job with the new episode, though, so hopefully there won't be too many to find! If you run into weird issues early on, try verifying the integrity of your installation through Steam — I know the first round of patching was a little funky for some of our testers, but that should clear most things up!
Aside from bug fixes and a celebratory stream (date TBD), we'll be taking a month or so off some time off to recover from this deadline. And then it's going to be straight into work on Episode 5 and Slay the Princess.
Thanks so much for your support, and welcome home,
Tony + Abby
PS: As a note, Episode 4 is an escalation over prior chapters, so if you happen to need content warnings, we've updated our website to have an episode-by-episode breakdown: https://www.blacktabbygames.com/content-warnings-sh
Episode 4 Tomorrow at 1pm EST! (The final delay i promise)
We need one more day for the finishing touches. I underestimated the visual complexity of implementing some of the animated sequences in the new Episode and I wanted to make sure we got them right. And we did! But it took a little longer than expected, so I'm still adding the finishing touches to a small handful of scenes, and then want to spend some time this evening making sure every major bug is ironed out before we share our new content with the world.
Hate to delay yet again and I know a lot of you have been so excited to play today, but every delay has gone into making the new chapter hit harder and look better.
Episode 4 tomorrow at 1pm EST.
Thank you so much for your patience,
Tony