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Black Tabby Games recently released the first episode of Scarlet Hollow, a horror visual novel and choice-driven adventure game set in the mountains of Appalachia. After the initial release, they put up a Linux version too!

It's made by the award-winning graphic novelist Abby Howard whose previously works include the comics of 2013: The Last Halloween, Junior Scientist Power Hour and The Last Halloween - all of which had very successful Kickstarter campaigns. Scarlet Hollow will have hand-drawn backgrounds mixed with animated sprites together with a "complex relationship system to bring to life an immersive world of charming (and terrifying) characters".

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Your choices are supposed to matter here and while I haven't seen exactly how far that goes, the character build options you get to pick were interesting in how it affected conversations and actions. With my own play-through I picked the Powerful Build option, which definitely made for some amusement. I was able to partially intimidate an annoying person on the bus thanks to it, who ended up giving me a bag of…dripping peanuts? Well, Protein is Protein. Oh there's an old smelly takeaway in the fringe? Well Protein is Protein - gotta stay buff. Wait isn't this a horror? Some of the writing made me laugh but I don't want to spoil too much more.

Looks like it's going to be a fun series if this first episode is anything to go by. Great music, some wonderful artwork and with a really good atmosphere too. I don't often manage to get sucked in with visual novels but this is great. Seems users on Steam agree with is getting a Very Positive rating so soon after release.

You can play the full first episode free on Steam, with a Kickstarter campaign launching October 1 for the rest. We'll follow along and let you know how it goes.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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I am the owner of GamingOnLinux. After discovering Linux back in the days of Mandrake in 2003, I constantly came back to check on the progress of Linux until Ubuntu appeared on the scene and it helped me to really love it. You can reach me easily by emailing GamingOnLinux directly. Find me on Mastodon.
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3 comments

whizse Sep 30, 2020
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Penny-pincher sense is tingling - free game!

Kidding aside. I'll call it a winner. This particular mix of fun characters, horror interlaced with humor works well for me.

Also a genre that's new to me. Most of these games seems to be an excuse to ogle scantily clad manga ladies so my eyes sort of glazed over every time I heard "visual novel". Guess I've been overly prejudicial.
whizse Oct 2, 2020
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The Kickstarter has launched!
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The Kickstarter was funded!
Liam Dawe Oct 8, 2020
Quoting: whizseAlso a genre that's new to me. Most of these games seems to be an excuse to ogle scantily clad manga ladies so my eyes sort of glazed over every time I heard "visual novel". Guess I've been overly prejudicial.
This is actually quite often why I avoid them too, there's a number of developers who just keep pushing those out and for a while it seemed like on the outside that's all there was. I'm glad to see more varied VNs.
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