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EmaceArt3 days ago

Hey, I really like how honest you are about both the scope and the delays - that’s something a lot of us can relate to. That mix of locations (forest, graveyard, isolated cabin, later maybe hospital or space station) is basically several separate biomes inside a single product, so the hardest part is probably going to be keeping a consistent style across all of that.

I work on horror environments myself and from experience it helps a lot to treat the first release as a tight core: a polished forest/graveyard combo with a few strong hero assets, and then add the other locations later as clearly labeled themed updates. It makes it easier for devs to understand what they’re actually getting, and it lets you keep quality and pace under control.

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Matthew L. Hornbostel2 days ago

Thank you for your input and for being understanding of the issues I have recently faced. 

Yes, the first release will be the forest / graveyard setting and other areas will appear in the early months of 2026 as updates, and everything will be organized in different subfolders as it arrives so it shouldn't be too hard for people who have the collection to find what's relevant to them in it.

The first set of material is pretty much done right now as of quite recently along with three other unrelated things, and the plan is to launch all of that in just under 48 hours, around the time the bundle sale begins. December 24th, that afternoon. 

It is odd seemingly to push things back by a few days - why not release immediately the moment it is all done? - but though some aspects of itch's algorithm seem a bit vague it appears that the week or so after a release or update offer higher ranking in search, and increased visibility right at that time. So if the release is *right before* the peak of itch holiday sales, when a sale discount also is accessible on my shop, that seems likely to boost public awareness of the collections. Maybe help people find this package I just spent a ton of time building.

And everything I've got is quite inexpensive during those types of events so hopefully volume of activity can compensate a bit for the lower end pricing per sale made.

And ideally these packages once widely seen and priced low, prove useful to a lot of small developers. Maybe I will see some of this material showing up in some imaginative indie games here, which would be great.

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EmaceArt2 days ago

Really love how clearly you laid all of this out. There’s something oddly comforting about reading someone else wrestle with timing and scope instead of just smashing the publish button the second the last asset is “kinda done”. I end up in that “ok, basically finished... but also not really” state way too often, so the way you’re framing the delay feels a lot more intentional than just a stumble. In that light, pushing things by a few days really does read like strategy.

I also really like the idea of the forest / graveyard set being the first chunk of the path, with the other locations growing out of it over 2026 instead of everything shouting for attention on day one. With the kind of folder structure you described, it’s easy to picture people just diving in, grabbing what fits their scenes and getting to work without digging through a mess of directories. And the lower pricing during sales sounds like it nudges folks toward experimenting rather than overthinking if it will “pay off”. Hopefully the bundle timing lines up, the algorithm is in a decent mood, and we start seeing these spaces pop up in all sorts of strange little horror projects here and there, instead of only living forever as a “nice collection in the editor”.

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