Happy New Year!
Keeping this update short, since we are in the thick of development right now, but things are coming along great with Episode 5! Right now, we're continuing to hack away at the middle third of the chapter, but we're rapidly approaching the point where it will finally be time to move on to the climax.
Here's where we are, in numbers:
Over 140,000 words of script have already been fully implemented for the episode. That's writing, art, music, sound design, code, and bugfixing, all essentially locked in. For reference, that is about as much content as there was in all of Slay the Princess on release.
723 sprites have been finished, as well as 64 backgrounds.
11 new tracks of music have been finished.
If you want to check out what's finished, preview builds are available for the Alpha Tester tier on our Patreon, which also has a dedicated section on our Discord to discuss new content and help us eliminate bugs before release.
Episode 5 has a lot of branching and player agency in it, and it's also the first time the story can become locked in to early conclusions, though these endings will still have additional content waiting for them in The Final Chapters. They'll also be heavily (diegetically) signposted, and it will be difficult to reach these branches accidentally. This will be the most replayable Episode to date, with many routes to explore with the same start of chapter save file.
One thing I'd also like to highlight in this update is what the remainder of Scarlet Hollow's development is going to look like. While the game is still going to have seven Episodes, the last two are really just a single unit, split into two chapters. They'll be released as a single update together, and it's best to view Episode 5 as the penultimate "Episode," as well as the game's final cliffhanger. So this will be the last opportunity to hop on the train while still leaving room to theorycraft alongside the community. This also means that the conclusion of Scarlet Hollow is probably closer than you think!
All the best, and Happy New Year! We're almost there.
Abby and Tony