I was immediately hooked the moment I stepped into Black Tabby Games’ cryptid and sepia-filled world of Scarlet Hollow. The decision-based visual novel has everything that I could want stitched into one game: horror, a mystery to be solved, romance, and even an opossum named Dustin that you can talk to. Its second of seven episodes was recently released and further stoked my fervor to figure out what the hell is going on with the town, and to start romancing its inhabitants!
Scarlet Hollow is, frankly, one of the best horror games that I’ve played in recent memory, so I leapt at the opportunity to discuss its development with Abby Howard and Tony Howard—the duo that are running the show. We talked about what it’s like crafting cryptids, speaking to animals, forming a game development studio during a pandemic, and more—check it out below, but beware of (very minor) spoilers!
Bloody Disgusting: One of the main features of Scarlet Hollow is “a heavily branching narrative where your choices matter.” The second episode has the characters trying to uncover the mystery surrounding the town and the mysterious Ditchlings. Will Scarlet Hollow feature multiple endings, and if so, are they related to whether the characters are successful in solving the mystery?
Tony: Oh, there are multiple endings alright, and in a much different way than people might be anticipating. The Witcher 2’s second act is completely different depending on what major choice you pick at the end of Act 1, and that’s going to be how Episode 7 of Scarlet Hollow plays out. You’ll be experiencing the same story, in a sense, but from wildly different perspectives depending on how you’ve chosen to engage with the themes, narrative and characters. In terms of how we’re looking at things right now, Episode 7 is probably going to feel like 2 or 3 separate games, with a multitude of endings in each of the main story branches.
I know that those are big promises and that people have been let down by stuff like that before, but as someone who’s personally been let down by weak endings in choice-driven narratives, I care a lot about bringing things together in a meaningful way. There’s a reason that there’s no voice acting in the game, and there’s a reason that there aren’t any minigames or rgameplay outside of talking to people and making decisions. All of our technical resources are going into making sure the narrative actually branches.
Abby: Like Tony said, we’ve got a fun bouquet of endings planned, and whether you solve the mystery or not isn’t as important as the way you choose to engage with the mystery. The pivotal choices at the end of each episode will play a part, as well as choices you make when interacting with other characters—when we say choices matter, we mean it! We’re tryin’ to weave an elegant tapestry for each player’s decisions, and hopefully, they’ll be able to feel the impact of their role in the narrative rather than feel like someone who was just along for the ride.
I also want to mention that we aren’t designing a “true” ending—we’re making sure each ending will feel satisfying and conclusive, though I’m sure that will vary based on what sorts of endings people are expecting. But, of course, folks can always play through again to see if there’s an ending they like better!
BD: The cast of Scarlet Hollow is very diverse. Characters of different races, body types and gender identities are all represented, and you can select your preferred pronouns at the beginning of the game. How important was the representation of diverse communities when creating the cast?
Tony: In terms of pronoun selection, one, it was pretty easy to code, and two, it is absolutely integral to the narrative of Scarlet Hollow that you experience it as (roughly) yourself. Obviously, there are a few things we dictate about the player’s backstory. You were raised by a now-dead single mother. You lived in a city. You are, for better or for worse, a blood relative of the Scarlets. A central theme in the game is about exploring the sins of the past, and exploring a town where you don’t know anyone, but where everyone thinks that they know you. I think those themes are a lot more powerful when the player character is a blank slate that the player can impose themselves onto.
As for the rest of the representation in the game, it’s almost a weird question to try and answer. There’s a very strange status quo in games right now, so I get that Scarlet Hollow might stand out, but why wouldn’t you want a diverse cast? Why wouldn’t you want a diverse set of personalities and body types and characters to explore? I feel like it only makes the final product better.
Abby: As far as character design for the romanceable characters, we wanted to show a wide range of body types, skin tones, and personalities—we wanted players to have an interesting spread of people to flirt with, rather than “big anime boobies” vs “enormous anime boobies.” Folks are, of course, allowed to make and enjoy games where that’s the case, but this is what we wanted for ours! Especially since I, as a chunky lass, rarely get to see myself represented in games, especially as a love interest. But no one can stop me if I include a couple chunky love interests IN MY OWN GAME!
BD: There are many factors of Scarlet Hollow that compound onto the mystery surrounding the town. While the townsfolk are certainly peculiar, animals appear to tie into the events of the game very prominently—this is further emphasized with the inclusion of the most recent character trait, “Talk to Animals.” Care to elaborate on why that may be? (Do animals tie into the lore prevalently?)
Tony: I really, really liked Pet Pal in Divinity Original Sin 2. The tag system in that game was a big inspiration for the trait system in ours, and when we were originally brainstorming what kind of traits people could pick, I half-jokingly suggested adding in Talk to Animals, which seemed like both a lot of fun but also like a lot of work, so it wound up becoming a pretty nice carrot on a stick to motivate our community during and after the Kickstarter.
Abby: As someone who wishes they could talk to animals irl, I was thrilled when Tony suggested we add it, if also a little horrified by the prospect of having to write it into the game. But I’m so glad we did—it adds a fun dimension to your investigations and interactions (animals can give you extra information, but the other characters are weirded out by your character talking to their pets like people), and it’s a wildly popular trait. Because who wouldn’t take the opportunity to talk to a pug, or the opossum who lives in your dresser?
BD: The characters and the setting of Scarlet Hollow are unique and vibrant, and it’s been mentioned that the creatures inhabiting the area are influenced by Appalachian myths and cryptids. Would you say you were more inspired by real-life elements when creating the game, or by other works of fiction?
Abby: It’s hard to say—I think a healthy dose of both is always good, as the blending of the two is really beneficial to good horror. For instance, in the case of the Ditchlings in Episode 1, we had a “creatures that chase you through the woods”-shaped hole and built them to fill it, though the Ditchlings aren’t necessarily based on a particular cryptid. I loosely based their doughy appearance on the Fresno Nightcrawlers, but their grisly reproductive habits are stolen from parasitic wasps, and I feel like that folklore + realism combo is what makes them interesting. (If indeed they are—I won’t toot my own horn.)
Overall, I think most of my critters and ghouls come from the sort of real-life horrors I expose myself to. I consume a lot of nonfiction, especially nonfiction about upsetting topics, and it informs a lot of my work. For instance, in my recent collection of short horror comics, The Crossroads At Midnight, there’s a story where (spoilers) a character contracts Toxic Epidermal Necrolysis, and her skin falls off. It’s a condition I learned about back in high school that stuck with me, so when I had a story where something bad had to happen to a character’s body that was in many ways worse than death, it slotted in perfectly.
Oddly enough, we didn’t set out to make a cryptid game when we were first developing Scarlet Hollow. I’m not a huge fan of cryptid horror, though I do find myself intrigued by bits and pieces of the legends, especially how they tie-in to the real-world situations that spawned them. That was the case with the creatures from Episode 2 (which I won’t name to protect folks from spoilers)—I can’t say I’d ever seen an adaptation that dove into the aspects that I found most intriguing about these particular legends. So I took the opportunity!
Tony: I guess from my end, there’s always the question of, “Well, what counts as fiction?” especially if the fiction you draw from is already drawing close to real life. We have a list of usual suspects that we point to for general inspiration that fall firmly in the fiction bucket— Night in the Woods is a huge one (and a wonderful game if anyone reading this hasn’t checked it out yet). Return of the Obra Dinn was also a big inspiration in terms of leaving the kind of supernatural breadcrumb trail that’s solvable, but that makes players feel good about figuring things out. Layers of Fear was a big one in terms of character-driven horror that derives from the character’s past. The list could go on and on, and it could go really on and on if we started bringing movies or comics or books into it too.
I also listen to a lot of Bruce Springsteen (I’m from New Jersey, but also he is one of the greatest songwriters of all time) when I’m doing my part of the writing. So many themes of Scarlet Hollow revolve around the slow decay of small town America, and around being forgotten by the rest of the country and by the rest of the world. I think I listened to Youngstown over 50 times in the week or two of crunch leading up to Episode 2’s release.
For better or for worse, the town was an economic powerhouse a century ago, but by the time the player arrives, it’s been teetering on the brink of ruin for decades, and it’s filled with people who want nothing more than to leave, but who, either through obligation or circumstance, stay behind while watching their dreams dry up and their bodies age. Tabitha doesn’t want to run a coal mine, but it’s a life she’s been locked into. Kaneeka doesn’t want to run a general store, but as soon as she managed to leave the town the death of her father dragged her back. Stella… has a hard time letting things go. There’s a hopeful, compassionate sorrow in so much of Springsteen’s songwriting and it’s the kind of emotional palette that I hope we’re able to bring into our game.
BD: With the release of Scarlet Hollow’s second episode, the mystery and danger are heating up, and the stakes are getting higher. Care to drop some hints at what we can expect with the upcoming episode?
Abby: Perhaps a haunted house…Perhaps…
Tony: We would never reveal our secrets. Except for when we already have and yeah, there’ll be a haunted house. Oh, and you’ll finally get to maybe meet Reese a lil’ bit. Maybe.
BD: You’ve established Black Tabby Games as an indie game development studio after the release of Scarlet Hollow’s first episode. How has it been integrating into the horror game community with this new studio? How long have you been planning this venture, and have you faced any challenges?
Tony: Ooh, there’s a lot to dive into with this question. Okay, so the good parts first—tons of people have been awesome and super supportive. The Boston indie space, in particular, has been pretty warm with that, and I think we’ve made a lot of good connections with a bunch of lovely streamers and a handful of other studios. And there’s a lot of great horror folks who’ve been really supportive!
That being said, there have been some challenges too. I think a lot of that can be attributed to the pandemic. It’s hard to really integrate into a community when there aren’t any events and there aren’t opportunities to meet new people. We did an interview a few months back with a Boston indie dev group (Boston Indies, lovely folks, please check them out and support their work!) and something that came up was that it was a little surprising that we opened our studio, and launched our game, and ran a successful Kickstarter, and still just…slipped under the radar there. Because there weren’t in-person events, so how were people supposed to know about us? Though, we also didn’t really seek that stuff out. Once we started working, we put our heads down pretty much the whole time until the project (Episode 1, in this case) was done.
I do also think that there’s stigmatization around visual novels as a games medium that’s made it a little harder to break into some circles. You start running into a mentality of, “Oh, well that’s just text over art, it’s not really a game.” That’s an obstacle we’ve had to be mindful of when we’re selling Scarlet Hollow to people.
I love visual novels. I think that they’re an incredible way to tell the right kind of stories, and that it’s the perfect medium to tell the story we want to tell with Scarlet Hollow. But they also have a lower barrier to entry gamedev-wise than pretty much any other genre, which means, understandably, that there’s a wide range of quality. Unfortunately, a lot of folks’ perceptions are anchored around the lower end quality-wise than the huge number of incredible titles out there. And of course, you’ve also got the elephant in the room with the genre—there’s a lot of sexy anime visual novels, which is wonderful and we have nothing against that. But it’s one: an unbreakable association a lot of people are going to have with the genre, and two: a dealbreaker for some people. And of course, even though romance is a big component in Scarlet Hollow, we’re not a sexy anime game, which means that if we describe our game with those words, we have a bunch of people who don’t think visual novels are real games or are too horny for them, so they’re skeptical. Then there’s another bunch of folks who only want horny visual novels, so the descriptor doesn’t work there either.
And again, there hasn’t really been anything necessarily said out loud, but I can sometimes feel that quiet resistance in games spaces. Which is okay, and it’s something we expected coming in. One of the things we want to do with Scarlet Hollow is to show people that, hey, there’s really cool stuff you can do with this genre, and maybe you’ll actually like it, and maybe you’ll decide that you can tell your story by making a visual novel. Anyways, I’m rambling.
Abby: As for how long we’d been planning Scarlet Hollow and our debut in the games scene, it was around October 2019 when Tony and I were tabling together at New York City Comic-con. We were joking with a friend about a demon dating simulator, and later I turned to Tony and said I’d always wanted to do a visual novel. It got both our gears turning something fierce—especially since we were both at a bit of a junction with our careers. I was working on lining up my next project after The Crossroads at Midnight, pitching a new graphic novel that I wasn’t super enthusiastic about, and Tony had just wrapped up their startup. We were able to start work on Episode 1 in March of 2020, once I’d met my deadline for Crossroads.
The game’s evolved a lot since then in ways I don’t think either of us could have expected, and we’re both proud of what we’ve accomplished. It’s my first time collaborating with another writer, and while it was a challenging process at first, it didn’t take long for us to start vibing with each other, and the story is so much better for it. We have very complementary strengths!
BD: Scarlet Hollow surpassed its funding goal by over three times the goal amount, with over 2,500 backers. How has it felt gaining such eager support from so many fans regarding the development of the game?
Tony: So that level of success is something that my wonderful wife, Abby, is pretty familiar with (though it was also still a noticeable leap over her past few Kickstarters). But it’s entirely new to me! It’s been incredible to get the support we needed to make the game we want to make, on our own full-time.
I’ve also been blown away by the way our Discord community has grown, especially following the release of Episode 2. People have really been diving into the details and going after the breadcrumbs we’ve left up to this point in the story, and it’s been so amazingly cool to watch people do sleuthing about our game in real-time.
Abby: It’s always wonderful when people connect with something you made. That feeling never wears off, no matter how many Kickstarters you do—knowing that there are enough folks out there who want to support your project that they’ll help fund your vision, giving you the creative flexibility to make what you want instead of what a publisher wants to sell.
This is also one of the first times I’ve had such an active community around one of my creative projects. The Last Halloween, my horror/adventure webcomic, had an active community in its heyday, but I never had a forum or Discord or anything, so the most I saw of it was in the comments section. This is an entirely different beast, and it’ll be wild watching it continue to grow as more episodes are released!
BD: What are each of your favorite characters in Scarlet Hollow, creatures and humans alike?
Tony: Dustin is the best animal, and I think Tabitha is probably my favorite human character. She’s fun and easy to write, but she’s also incredibly complex and conflicted. She’s not really a good person and it’s constantly on her mind, and it’s something she’s struggling against, even if she’s not really able to fully break out of her own patterns.
Abby: Dustin!! (The aforementioned opossum, who lives in your drawers.) He’s so fun to write. And while I also love writing Tabitha, I think my favorite human character is Reese—one of our dateable characters. You haven’t met him yet, but I designed him for my pining-for-emo-boys high school self, and I’m very excited to finally be able to draw him for Episode 3.
Scarlet Hollow: Episodes 1 & 2 are out now on PC via Steam. Episode 1 is free to play.