Dearest Cousins,
We just got back from PAX, where we had a wonderful time meeting some of you and catching up with other devs.
It's been a pretty scattered month between traveling and some cool behind the scenes stuff we can't talk about for a while, but we still made further progress with art and coding. Abby's finished another six backgrounds (now up to 20 total for the episode) and I finished the final touches on three script files.
But most importantly, we also figured out a much better way to tackle the middle arc of the Episode, and have had to dedicate a couple of weeks to reworking those sections of the script. We usually find ourselves doing edits to this extent at some point during development, so this isn't too unusual for our process.
And thankfully, we're already most of the way through this draft, so taking that extra time shouldn't throw development too far off schedule. But hitting our original target release date in early December was already going to be a tight deadline, and at this point, it no longer feels like a reasonable goal. We can very comfortably commit to two things, though:
Episode 5 will release in Q1 of 2026.
We'll announce a firm release date before the end of the year. I will say that we have a specific date in mind, but a short-form announcement on Steam isn't the place to share that information. We care a lot about Scarlet Hollow and want to make sure it has the opportunity to participate in showcases and reach an even larger audience.
We know that this is disappointing news, and that you've all been incredibly patient while we've plugged away at this, but it's important to us to communicate clearly and honestly with you all, rather than stringing you (and ourselves) along until the scope of the remaining work forced us to delay last minute.
We strongly believe that this new draft elevates the episode to new heights and is worth the extra time. We can't wait to devastate all of you >:]
Best,
Tony and Abby