Scarlet Hollow
A downloadable game for Windows, macOS, and Linux
Warning: this game contains flashing images. If this poses a health risk to you, please proceed with caution.
Scarlet Hollow is releasing episodically. If you'd like to try it out, you can download Episode 1 for free, which will share a save folder with any build you download here.
The first four episodes are out now — a single playthrough of all 4 takes about 8 hours, though over half of our players play through at least twice.
Buying a key on this page will get you access to all of the remaining episodes as they release, in the form of free updates.
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Abandoned mines sealed off after a deadly collapse, strange creatures preying on livestock, houses infested with vengeful spirits— the sleepy town of Scarlet Hollow has suddenly come alive with horrors, just in time for your arrival.
This was supposed to be a quiet getaway in the rural mountains of North Carolina where you’d finally meet your cousin and comfort her through the funeral. But instead, each new day welcomes new nightmares. You only have to survive a week. But you may not make it to the end in one piece.
Features
- A heavily branching narrative where your choices matter. The relationships you forge and the decisions you make will dramatically alter your journey.
- Terrifying and funny. Charming characters and snappy dialogue flip to pulse-pounding horror at a moment's notice.
- Trait-based dialogue and role-playing. Scarlet Hollow's dialogue system is driven by role-playing elements that let you choose who you want to be. Are you quiet and observant? Hot and clueless? Can you talk to animals? 21 different character builds change how you interact with the world and how your story unfolds.
- A deep relationship system that changes how characters act around you. Characters don't just like or dislike you. Become friendly rivals, bitter adversaries, best friends, or mild acquaintances with everyone in town based on how you approach the story.
- Original monster designs inspired by Appalachian myths and cryptids. You won't find any predictable vampires or zombies here.
- Lots of romance options! Whether you're into goths, dads, Youtubers, mysterious recluses, actual monsters, or lo-fi beats to study and water your plants to, we've got all your bases covered.
- Dozens of meticulously hand-drawn and traditionally inked backgrounds. Every background in the game is drawn by hand and inked on massive 19x24 inch paper.
- Hundreds of immersive sprites. Each major character has dozens of hand-drawn sprites that interact with backgrounds and capture a full range of lighting, emotion, environment, and outfit changes.
Scarlet Hollow is a horror game and is not intended for all audiences. If you require a detailed list of specific content warnings, you can find one on our website.
Purchase
In order to download this game you must purchase it at or above the minimum price of $24.99 USD. You will get access to the following files:
Community Copy
Support this game at or above a special price point to receive something exclusive.
Community Copies
Thanks so much for getting us so far!
Development log
- 5/6 PatchMay 06, 2023
- 4/19 Update Patch NotesApr 19, 2023
- 3/2 Patch NotesMar 02, 2023
- 2/8 Patch NotesFeb 08, 2023
- 1/14/23 PatchJan 14, 2023
- 12/21 fixesDec 21, 2022
- 12/18 FixesDec 18, 2022
Comments
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Don't like the characters look
This was the first visual novel in my life and gods, it worth it so much!
I have too many playthroughs, it's safe to say I'm obsessed with this absolute masterpiece. The art is gorgeous, the story is intriguing and has so many layers, the branching is mindblowing!
Scarlet Hollow has a special place in my heart with Reese sitting on top. 💜
i never get a copy. feeling so sad :(
Never clicked so fast in my life
when will the next update be? love this <3
Looking like next year! Next chapter is like episodes 3+4 combined in length, so it's taking us a while to get it right!
Love this game so much, has to be one of my favorites.
I can't wait for more of this!
Intrigued by this game, I am wondering how to purchase a key from this page?
I'm fairly sure that it's just the buy now button that the dev was talking about.
Is this game still in active development? Please don't feel offended but updates and information log became a bit unfrequently.
Pretty sure it is! Chapter 5 is supposed to release this year.
can't wait for more episodes!!!!!!!!
Can't wait to play the next chapters!
The cousin is still my favorite character by far.
Will episode 5 be ready this year? :3
Probably not.
They did say that it will be released this year. We shall see if that happens. The game is super fun. Chapter 3 is by far my favorite.
This game looks interesting but is there any walkthrough?
Hi!
This game is amazing, without a doubt one of the games I loved.
I only have one small problem, which is when I start a new game.
The screen doesn't read with TTS which is a problem for me as I can't figure out what I need to set ETC. Could you adjust this so that the game's TTS reads it? Thanks!
Other than that, the whole game is playable with TTS, which I really appreciate, hehe.
Very good Congratulations.
A horror visual novel with non-animesque artstyle? I'm intrigued...
I have not been this impressed or in love with a story since stranger things. Everything about this game is exquisite, characters, dialogue, story, art, music...this is a masterpiece. I haven't been able to play it myself but me and my bf recently discovered gab smolders and have been binging her playing these games. It's really getting me through some tough personal stuff. Keep up the incredible work!
This game has been awesome and really fun to play through so far, I can't wait until Chapter 5 comes out. I just finished streaming Chapter 4 on YouTube and am excited to see where my choices lead to eventually before playing through again. I chose Keen and Powerful Build, but next playthrough I'm really curious about talking with animals. Thank you for making such an awesome game!
Dustin c:
Awesome characterization and great writing generally. I love being a Hot idiot with Powerful Build. Thank you Abby Howard!!!
So this is what a masterpiece looks like :0
If you like games and media like their comps (Life is Strange, Gravity Falls), you’ll probably love Scarlet Hollow. Great characters and a diverse array of people, genre appropriate but still surprising narrative beats, and genuinely different experiences for multiple playthroughs make this my favorite visual novel of the past few years.
Played through the whole thing (so far!) once and was impressed by the gripping story and heartfelt characters, embedded in a deeply unnerving world.
Played through a second time and was awestruck by the nuanced ways characters reacted differently to even very subtle differences in my behaviour and build.
If it continues like this, this game will be a masterpiece.
This game creates a small world inside a little mining town in Appalachia.
It considers not only what actions you take but what actions you don't take, and the story will continue without you if you, maybe quite wisely, choose to have your Character try and sit out events as they unfold.
The characters think about if you are kind or cold and respond accordingly and so you make choices without a dialogue box just by deciding what sort of impression to make on the people of the town. Options are carefully chosen and thoughtfully worded, so you won't run into many TTG "Glass Him" sort of options but instead will have to consider how your choices will impact beyond the immediate. As of episode 4 the horror is almost entirely the sense of something dreadful, or the knowledge of something secret and awful. So if you're looking for jumpscares, you'll be hard pressed to find them here.
I can't wait until all the episodes are out. An incredible experience
The best video game visual novel on itchio and steam. Worth the money, worth the wait, worth the emotional pain. I love this game
I keep forgetting itch.io even has a space for reviews or comments, anyway I love this game and I love Dustin god bless you lil buddy
my very flavorite
Wow, just wow. This game and its details is just amazing. Iam looking forward to the next episode and I hope there will be a second season too! This is really the only visual novel game that caught my eye. Hope the next episode will be here soon and will be twice as long as the previous one.
Curious thought, but would it be possible to have the game on mobile?
we'll look into it once episode 7 is done, but file size is going to make that tricky without setting up an in-app installer/downloader (which I don't know how to do... yet!)
Genuinely one of the best games on itch. Couldn't recommend this enough <3
Reese just became my favorite and I want to give him a big smooch so bad
Wayne>>>
Just finished Episode 4...
...I'm still trying to process it all. Wow. Just...wow.
Whatever I was expecting, it was certainly not that. I feel like a lot of things are going topsy turvy now, and I'm loving every. freaking. second of it. You guys are amazing and I am eagerly looking forward to what you all show us whenever Episode 5 is released. Hope you both have a very happy holiday and be well. <3
Circling back to this game is always a delight. Love the replay as each "skill" gives different dialogue options. So excited to see the next episode. :)
Just bought your game from Steam (a tiny support from me). I really like your hand drawn background! Some people/characters are quite intriguing and listening to the animals is fun. Hopefully this will leave early access soon. Best wish for your continuous/future success.
PS: Ep.3 almost gave me heart attack at 1am.
when you say, date a monster do you mean like literally or just like a metafore ?
Newest update reveals that it's meant literally
This was just, insanely good. I'm really excited for the rest of the episodes