Steam deems LGBTQ+ horror visual novel Scarlet Hollow ‘not a great fit’ for Halloween event
On Wednesday evening, the developers of LGBTQ+ horror visual novel Scarlet Hollow Black Tabby Games were told by Steam that their game is “not a great fit” for the platform’s upcoming Halloween sale event, according to screenshots they posted on Twitter.
Black Tabby Games apparently noticed that Scarlet Hollow wasn’t included in the upcoming Steam Scream Fest event, and sent a message to the platform requesting for this to be fixed. Mary from Steam support responded to the inquiry saying that the game is not “a great fit for this themed event.”
“It looks like this game is not a great fit for this themed event. Keep an eye out for a future event that might better fit the theme of your game,” Mary wrote in the reply. “To see the criteria for this and other events, go to the Upcoming Steam Events page. You’re more than welcome to participate with an in-game themed Halloween event. Once your event is reviewed and meets the eligibility requirements, your in-game event will be included in a dedicated section on the Steam Scream Fest event page.”
According to Steam’s eligibility requirements for the Scream Fest, “this event is targeted toward games and in-game events primarily designed around spooky and festive themes. Appropriate games and in-game events would be centered around these themes vs. merely including one character or cosmetic.” The relevant tags for the event include Survival Horror, Horror, Vampires, Werewolves, Supernatural, Dark Fantasy, and Lovecraftian.
When you look at all of the tags Scarlet Hollow has on Steam, there are actually several from this list, including Horror, Supernatural, and Lovecraftian. Beyond that, the game also has the Psychological Horror and Gothic tags. In his response, Black Tabby Games’ Tony Howard Arias also noted that the episodic visual novel has already been recognized as a horror game by multiple outlets and streamers, including Kotaku and Bloody Disgusting. The developers also elaborated on why not being included in this sale is such a blow to them as horror developers in the Twitter thread.
“October is the month where folks who aren’t die-hard horror fans dip their toes into the genre and play things they wouldn’t normally play. For something like Scarlet Hollow, which doesn’t use jump scares and is a good genre entry point, this is the best time to get new players,” Black Tabby Games wrote in the thread. “Because of this, we often structure our entire development schedule around Halloween. Last year we put out a huge content patch. This year we’ve been working tough hours (10-12 a day!) to try and get Episode 4 ready for the holiday! It’s incredible difficult, but the consequences of not hitting that window are painfully real (and we’ll have plenty of time to take a break once it’s released) To get a canned response saying we can’t participate for arbitrary reasons takes a wrecking ball to that labor.”
At the time of writing, Steam doesn’t seem to have responded to Black Tabby Games. The developers are coping by posting through it with memes. Update: Steam has now fixed this issue and added Scarlet Hollow to the Scare Fest event.
