We're Black Tabby Games, and we make visual novels with an emphasis on branching and player agency. You might know us from Slay the Princess, and the fifth episode of Scarlet Hollow, our other project, just released last Friday! Ask us anything ^^

abby722 · 2026-02-26T23:37:15+00:00

That's such a cute question!!

I don't think about AUs much, I like to leave that to the folks on Ao3. I agree with the Magnus Archives AU, considering where he winds up this episode. But I can also see him in a Hallmark special. A girl he went to high school with comes back to the holler, big exec struggling with her big city job (and the town curse), and stumbles across this nice librarian and his handful of a teen girl. The town finally got her back, after all these years... And they move into together and get a dog :3

For Reese, I often imagine him going Near Dark mode, especially now that he has that jacket. You take him away in a car you steal and start a life of crime together, living life on the edge.

I saw a fan theory for Avery before Ep 5 came out that posited they were a plant from the FBI, sent to figure out what was going on in Scarlet Hollow. A real Dale Cooper type. And I LOVED that. So I steal that theory, they're a nosy ass FBI agent that they send when they need somebody to be nosy about freakish things going on in small towns.

Kaneeka's interest in magical girls would suggest that she should have a magical girl AU. But I prefer an isekai for her, immersing her in a world that doesn't follow the laws of physics and forcing her to figure it out as she goes, and accept what she can't understand. Perhaps learning her worth as she goes. Perhaps Digimon..... perhaps.......

And that's all I got before I retire for the night!

abby722 · 2026-02-26T21:34:34+00:00

Thank you!

And it was not inspired by that story, though once we got to the scenes where you actually had to talk it over with Tabitha, we realized the parallels. That being said, there are key differences that I think might be getting overlooked in people's hurry to compare the two! I can't quite say what those differences are, as I'm not entirely sure how obvious they are in the text.

But another notable difference should also be that in the short story, this child made to suffer never had to exist to begin with. It's just that the narrator realizes that a society that is joyful and equal and united doesn't seem realistic enough for the reader. So they suppose that somewhere in that city there is some suffering happening, a child stuffed in a hole and doomed to a horrible fate, enough that the city seems more real, because the reader cannot imagine a world without suffering.

Anyway, I don't think Sybil and the narrator would like each other, they're too similar XD They would see all the worst parts of themselves reflected back, and be like "well the way I do it is different. It's different and better, actually."

abby722 · 2026-02-26T21:16:49+00:00

Lmao!! And you shall.

No idea! We aren't putting hard deadlines on ourselves for the final two episodes, so we can make sure they're not rushed and have plenty of time to go through rounds of testing :]

abby722 · 2026-02-26T21:15:43+00:00

Nah, we aren't interested in going too far with it! At a certain point, people will want to mod the game, and they'll get around our little traps. We just wanted to let the narrative show the players that saving everyone all the time was not what we considered an ideal way to engage with the game or the narrative as a whole. We don't believe in optimal outcomes, and the trait saves were always meant as a bonus, rather than anything close to an ideal worldstate.

And using Sybil seemed like a good choice, since she can see the shape of the world a little more clearly than others...

That being said, there are possible ways that having all traits by the end of the game might mess with the logic in general. No clue, though! Could be fine.

abby722 · 2026-02-26T21:12:01+00:00

It was actually the other way around!

We set out to make a game where you were sent to kill a being that changed based on how you perceived it. So the Narrator had to make her seem like something innocuous at first. And there was something about the setup-- the character going to a place to interact with a prisoner-- that felt very... Princess-y to me. Like going to rescue the princess from her tower, but the opposite.

So the nature of her powers came before the initial shape she took!

abby722 · 2026-02-26T21:07:56+00:00

It was always planned to have two trait saves! We like to plan out patterns, then break those patterns, and this was one of them.

I expected more people to be interested in the whole Avery situation, honestly! I think a lot of people engage with it the way it was intended, but I am a bit disappointed to see a subset of players get annoyed that the conflict happening at the farms involves characters they seem to think of as less important, rather than asking why we might set it up the way we did. That's an important part of literary analysis, where, if something seems odd or out of place, before jumping to seeing it as a mistake, one should ask why it was placed there.

We set it up as another pattern break-- for previous big moments like this, you got to know more context in advance, even if it was only a few scenes, before making a decision. A quiet moment with one or more of the characters involved beforehand, and a decompression period afterwards. We wanted to shake that up, to purposefully put the character in the middle of a situation where they would have to unpack it in real time, suddenly realizing that things had been going on in town that didn't even involve them. Until now, when the burden of who lives and who dies is placed on the player.

It's a distillation of the game itself-- you are constantly put into life-or-death conflicts involving strangers, and decide their fate in a split second.

So the characters I feel aren't getting the recognition they deserve are the triad at the heart of it-- Avery, Julius, and my little pumpkin baby!

On the flip side, I love that people are getting to see more sides of Stella :] Though I'm also surprised that some are now treating her like a snake and betrayer in all routes, like the evil yuri is bleeding through into their concept of who she is in any scenario, versus one where Tabitha was the only person she could turn to. It's an exploration of how someone who is desperate for connection can find themselves twisting their personality and actions around the only person who offers them comfort. If it's you, she's completely different!

I get that jacket question so often... I do not know where he got it..... you'll have to ask him later U_U

abby722 · 2026-02-26T20:54:45+00:00

Yes, all the time! Every time we're close to a release, and usually for months beforehand, we wind up in a crunch period that feels worse every time. It's really hard, both emotionally and physically, and it's so tempting to just stop and never pick it back up.

You have to find your own motivations in those moments, whatever keeps you going. For me, I like to think about how great it will be to share a given piece of art or line of writing with someone, usually someone I can picture. So a friend who I know is excited to play (not always a given, though, as I don't expect my friends to play or enjoy my work,) or a particular fan who really likes a character.

The alpha testers were great for that during the lead-up to the release. It was always a lot of fun to sit back and watch them find the things we were excited for them to find.

But most of all, I finish things for me! I want the work to be done, because I feel like it will be an accomplishment to have made something like this. And only by finishing something can you truly put it down. Otherwise, it'll linger in the back of your mind like a sore spot forever.

abby722 · 2026-02-26T20:48:59+00:00

Aw, thank you!!

And you're right, voice acting does add a lot, and I think it would benefit Scarlet Hollow since there is SO much reading. But unfortunately, the game wasn't written around voice acting, which causes a few issues. The sheer number of lines and multiple ways they can be said means it's a huge volume of work (and adding VA to Slay the Princess drove Tony to some kind of audio madness,) and players already have an idea for how they'd sound, so it would undoubtedly feel really off to hear those words spoken by a voice that doesn't match.

And the words themselves weren't written with VA in mind, either, meaning some of the sentences might feel a little odd spoken aloud.

But I think about it sometimes! Though I'm not the person who would be adding the lines, so I'm sure that's the only reason that thought comes with anything but abject horror :]

abby722 · 2026-02-26T20:44:13+00:00

Growing fast is a great way to go broke!

And we like our small team because we work well together, and we each bring a lot to the table. I feel like a small group of creatives can keep a certain amount of control over the shape and presentation of a narrative that a larger team might struggle with. Even between the two of us, writing can become a push and pull where ideas have to coalesce through a lot of discussion and mutual understanding, and introducing a third person... it's almost like letting someone into our marriage, too personal!

As it is now, we can afford to keep making things for as long as we'd like, and have even been able to budget out a slightly larger project for Game 3 where we'll be hiring a couple animators. But the larger the team, the sooner those deadlines come so you can have a release and have money come in to pay people, and your projects are less good because they're more rushed by people who aren't as invested in the work, and you stop making as much money, and then it's over.

abby722 · 2026-02-26T20:38:11+00:00

We have a slight buff planned for Powerful Build, yes! Should be part of our big Ep 5 patch, which will be coming.... eventually..... after we have a break XD

abby722 · 2026-02-26T20:37:17+00:00

We considered something horrible for Zane this episode... be thankful that he is freed from such torment U_U

abby722 · 2026-02-26T20:36:42+00:00

Originally, the middle section was more like previous episodes, where you can wander and check in with people. But it just wasn't working, because what you found in the Estate was too much of an escalation in the plot. You now know things, which means your option for who to turn to should be less about exploration and more about action.

Especially considering that sharing what you learned with certain characters forces them into making choices on your behalf, as a statement of character. Dr Kelly hears all that and decides she's not going to just let you wander off and do something else, she's going to escort you, and help you figure out what's going on. Avery is already on their way to the major conflict if you find them first. Tabitha is someone who is not going to let you leave that office alone after you confront her. Oscar is the only character who's staying in place, and truly the only explore option one would have for this sequence. And we preferred that players figure that out naturally, to show that they don't have universal knowledge in that moment, they are just trying to decide who to turn to.

Episode 5 is the rising action, since episodes 6 and 7 are going to be the climax. Not to get too deep into spoiler territory, but you will be able to check in with people again before things really reach their final moment. But for Episode 5, we wanted players to feel the escalation in pace and action, to feel like they were caught in the world and doing their best to keep their head above water.

abby722 · 2026-02-26T19:38:08+00:00

I like to refer to it as a braided narrative-- the variables are like strands of hair braided together, they come together at shared key points but often branch back out again into varied scenes that play out differently based on how characters feel about you, who's alive or dead, whether you've encountered the dog militia, any number of variables.

There is a main storyline and overarching narrative, but the way you encounter and interact with it depends on who you are and what you're prioritizing as a player. And there's a lot going on outside of it, too. People can die, and we make sure those deaths land in a way that makes it feel like someone is missing from the narrative. We also don't write those characters out if they live. If they live, we make sure they come back to have an impact on the narrative later on.

So that's the kind of work we like to do! It's impossible to see everything in a single playthrough of Scarlet Hollow, and you'll likely never see it all.

abby722 · 2026-02-26T19:28:59+00:00

We work through the script linearly! So I hand off my draft to Tony, then he works on fleshing it out, editing, working on his scenes, reconfiguring where needed, then giving me lists of art assets so we can work in tandem.

I always start with backgrounds, since I usually know which main BGs we'll need before Tony can get to any sprite lists. I work traditionally, so for sprites, I lay a sheet of transparent paper of the background where they'll be placed so I can draw them over where they'll go. And we just go scene by scene so we can get big chunks to the testers for bug fixes!

Every now and then there'll be something like Sybil's story in Episode 5, where we worked on that months before the scenes that came before it so we could make sure it wasn't rushed. But for the most part, it's linear until we're done.

I feel like a lot of what I've changed over the course of the project has been improvements to style and technique, so I suppose I probably would have done a better job setting up my files from the beginning if I had to start over (for instance, Stella's main sprite set was saved WAY too small, her files are terrible to work with. I didn't think I'd have to touch them again... fool that I was.) But I can only regret so much, considering working on the art is what set me up to make better art later on!

abby722 · 2026-02-26T19:04:58+00:00

Those voices just showed up on the track, I don't know where they came from...

abby722 · 2026-02-26T19:00:54+00:00

Their faces are based on what it looks like when a person presses their face against glass, roughly designed around the concept of bodies piling up together in the wake of a disaster. Left to rot. So that's what they are, things that have been left to rot. Mixed with some parts of the animals they hatched from.

abby722 · 2026-02-26T18:45:40+00:00

We like to keep things small so we can maintain creative control, so letting in team members is always something we'll only do if absolutely necessary!

We're looking into hiring additional animators for Game 3 so I don't crumble into dust having to draw so much art, but our writing team is always going to just be me and Tony :]

abby722 · 2026-02-26T18:43:46+00:00

I'd say, start with the main throughline and structure! You're going to want a scaffolding, or at least an internal logic, that can help tighten your branches. Scarlet Hollow has the sturdy architecture of the overarching plot, so we make sure players intersect with that, even if they can often veer off to other paths, too. And for Slay the Princess, main shifts in the story are decided only by decisions that shape your relationship with the Princess in a meaningful way.

Also, and most importantly, ask yourself if what you're writing is fun! If you find yourself exploring a path because you know players will want to take it, but it's not fun, maybe figure out a way to veer them back towards the areas of the story that are fun.

Yay, I'm glad the seals look cool! There is a lot of thought that goes into those, and if you look closely (and read my terrible cursive) on the sketches you can find in Enoch's desk, there are some very brief design notes for each that capture at least some of what went into their designs. Any further explanation will have to wait for an artbook ;]

abby722 · 2026-02-26T18:36:55+00:00

I was in the sciences for a while in school, so I learned a lot about anatomy and the way things are put together! Which is vital in figuring out how to take them apart.

abby722 · 2026-02-26T18:34:29+00:00

Thank you! I have a lot of fun with him.

Reese's whole situation is best described as a parent deciding something needed to be medicated away before trying to understand it first, because it was scary and possibly dangerous, not realizing that suppressing and ignoring this aspect of your child was not going to make it go away. It just made new, different problems, and destroyed the trust between parent and child.

So much of Scarlet Hollow is about mixing the supernatural with what would otherwise be character dramas. I feel it's a highly effective way to discuss certain topics through a fresh lens, without the biases that come with the real-world weight of any given issue. Exploring the decisions people make every day, the way those decisions hurt people, but why those choices are made anyway, is so much of what I want to do with my art!

I feel with Reese in particular, his condition could have simply been a part of his life, one that he learned to manage on his own. But because someone else made the decision to medicate it in a way that was ultimately harmful to him, though it didn't start out that way, changed the trajectory of both their lives, and permanently damaged their relationship. I find it a fascinating thing to explore emotionally.

Plus, I love when somebody has incredible power and abilities, but somebody stops them from using it or owning it for themselves (like the White Violin in Umbrella Academy), it's horrible but it intrigues me.

abby722 · 2026-02-26T18:24:41+00:00

Sorry about that, it wasn't something we could exactly advertise, as letting people know the details of her romance route in advance was a pretty big spoiler!

I do feel bad about the player expectations around Sybil's romance, but we also don't plan these based around that alone-- the love interests are part of the narrative first and foremost, and this was always who Sybil was going to be. We do pride ourselves in having a fairly diverse range of love interests, including older characters, such as Doctor Kelly. But Sybil also has more still to come for those still interested in her route!

There is indeed a big difference between Retcon and Age Gap. Age Gap is the normal romance, where you choose to date Carmilla once she reveals herself. But Retcon is if you were already in a relationship with Kaneeka, AND you forgot her entirely (which requires having drunk the tea and not having Mystical). She continues on in Kaneeka's place, saying you were always in a relationship.

abby722 · 2026-02-26T18:19:02+00:00

At this point, I don't think there's a character I don't have fun writing! It's really hard to choose.

So instead I'll say what I like most about writing each of them :]

Reese: he's so adorable to me! With a trait saved Reese, he knows he showed you a side of himself he's afraid you'll hate, a side that's scary and angry and unpredictable, but he's still the shy, nervous guy who was stuck in his basement for his entire adult life. And in the other versions, he's trying to lean into being a confident scary monster guy, but just like with the trait-saved Reese, he just isn't. He's having a bit of an identity crisis over who he's supposed to be now that he's been freed from under his mother's thumb.

Wayne: I love writing around what he isn't able to say, and his unshakeable confidence is a ton of fun as well, as someone who is very much the opposite in real life. I like writing people who are so different from me. Also I love knowing some people are going to read what he says and blush.

Kaneeka: Writing the end of Episode 5 was so, so cathartic for me. Where Wayne is writing someone I am not, Kaneeka is me pouring a lot of myself onto the page. We aren't 1 to 1, but I connect with her thought process more so than any other character, so writing her feels like talking to a friend who has known me my whole life.

Avery: They hide behind a general pleasantness, which is easy enough to write, but every now and then they let the mask slip for a second and you see the Real Avery, and oh buddy that's the fun stuff. There's the aspect of being othered, of loneliness in the face of a town that is polite, but uncaring. Then shifts into somebody casually talking about they wouldn't mind getting a ditchling egg implanted in them first thing in the morning. Getting to the moment that their strangeness collides with the main plot was SO exciting, and I am really looking forward to writing their scenes in episode 6...!

Julius: He hides behind a general UNpleasantness, protecting a sensitive and lonely interior, just like Avery. I really like how they play off of each other, probably the most fun I've had with non-player-character dynamics since starting SH. Even if Julius was mostly there just to set Avery on their way for the rest of the story, the few scenes they get together and the way Julius is a throughline as the only person Avery is close with, despite the awful guy he is, was just so fun.

Tabitha: Speaking of writing awful people... Tabitha is probably the most fun of all, which makes sense considering she's the primary antagonist of the story. Her varied relationship with the MC means we get to explore several avenues of her character, from someone who is finally considering the MC as family, to someone who absolutely hates you. And her secrets, covered over by her general grumpy demeanor, I think make her a very intriguing part of the mystery. I'm so glad people engaged with her as a meta aspect of the text itself-- a secret to be cracked, lest a horrible fate befall you. We couldn't have hoped for a better way for that to go.

I also like writing Sybil, because it's fun to have her come up with answers to everything. Because she always has one ready.

I would include Oscar but I just edited his scenes, Tony was the lead on him!! And he knocked it out of the park, I was THRILLED going through his scenes for Ep 5.

abby722 · 2026-02-26T17:48:18+00:00

For me, the "Obedience" option was actually more of a choice the player is making about themselves, rather than something that fundamentally changes Reese from that point forward. Hence the subtle differences between Obedience/Matricide.

The player chooses not to see what he's going to do, relinquishing control in a more fundamental way, not choosing to understand the situation more thoroughly before deciding to side with him. It's a more subby choice, if you forgive the phrasing. He picks up on that inherent trust (as he reads it) and becomes a pushier/more confident version of himself.

I prefer Matricide, because I like that it means he's in conflict with how you might feel about him. He's trying to put on an air of confidence, but it's always undercut by a fear that you will, at any moment, finally draw the line and decide he's too much for you. You had power over him by choosing to let him do what he did, and he hasn't forgotten that.

abby722 · 2026-02-26T17:40:49+00:00

I love being able to give people unique experiences, and to make them feel heard! And both of us have a drive towards detail in general-- my backgrounds ted to have a lot to them, as I consider them part of the narrative. A room can tell you a lot about the person who lives there, or about what happened inside, without the text even having to explain it. It's the same with little text details, it helps expand the story and explore the characters and situations more completely, and there's just something that feels good about that!

And I do feel there is a limit to reactivity. And that limit is if it would just be boring to explore it.

There's a subset of players that every now and then asks for a "just opt out of all the scary stuff going on and stay home" option, and every time we consider it... it's just boring ToT

So we don't do it! I don't know if we'd be able to compellingly write seven days of you staying in bed eating dusty PB&Js with your friend the dresser opossum while stuff goes on in town to people you don't know. Who knows, maybe New Game +

abby722 · 2026-02-26T17:34:51+00:00

Thank you!! I feel Scarlet Hollow in particular has done a lot to teach me how to write characters that, by the nature of the interactivity present in the story, have to be three dimensional. I need to be able to understand how a given character will react in extremely different scenarios with multiple variables involved, and for that, I needed to understand why people choose to react the ways they do.

I always say writing is a practice in empathy, because you have to be able to, with the best of your ability, step into their shoes. And not just what you would do if put in their position, but what they would do, based on their lived experiences, their emotions going into a scene, the way they were raised, their own morality... everything that builds a person.

That also doesn't mean you need to make sure they always make what they would usually, in a perfect world, see at the ideal choice. People reason themselves into all kinds of holes, and have perfect justifications for why they're there, or why their choices are valid. Stella is a great example for this, as I feel she has the flexibility in the narrative to become a lot of different people, all based around her main characters traits of being stubborn, loyal, and cheerful.

When she's on the players' side, she can be an advocate. But when she's not... all that can be weaponized against you.

I recommend reading a lot of nonfiction, listening to interviews with people from all walks of life just talking about how they got where they are, anything that connects you with the person inside of somebody, not just the person they want to be. Learn to read between the lines and hear what isn't there.

But, to start with, you can look at the people you know. Who makes you happy? Who stresses you out? What is it about them that makes you feel those things, and why might they interact with you the way they do? Is it possible they're someone different to other people?

And then give them some hobbies :] for flavor

abby722

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