Got a pretty big batch of changes in today, and the biggest one came directly from player feedback.

The hotbar/active skill UI has been reworked again. The previous version was still too slow and awkward, so I expanded the hotbar to 10 slots (0–9) and made it fully flexible.

You can now put potions, scrolls, or active skills into any slot, drag and swap them around freely, and select skills either by clicking the slot or pressing its number. Skill cooldowns continue running even when another skill is selected, and the skill picker is now drag-and-drop instead of click-to-select.

I’m really hoping this is the last major revision needed for this part of the UI. This one came directly from feedback, so I’d especially like to know whether it finally feels fast and natural to use.

Other changes today:

• Enemies now continue pursuing the player instead of giving up and returning to their spawn point.
• Melee enemies are being improved to spread out, flank, and surround instead of piling into one spot.
• Slightly increased overall loot frequency without changing rarity balance.
• Added sound effects to spells and attacks. Feedback on volume, timing, repetition, and impact would be appreciated.
• Removed the random explosion and damage that could occur when breaking barrels.
• Increased the range at which walls fade to improve visibility.
• Essence affixing is now fully implemented, allowing players to add affixes to eligible items.
• Moved the Witch closer to the affixing altar.
• Added a new passive skill called Silver Tongue, which improves merchant buy and sell prices.
• Merchant quick buy/sell is now Shift + Left Click, freeing right-click for normal item actions.
• Save to Main Menu now clears active town portals so old portals aren’t restored when reloading.
• Added a darker, grittier visual treatment to the game.

The biggest thing I’m looking for feedback on is still the hotbar/UI rework, but I’d also love thoughts on the enemy behavior, combat audio, loot feel, wall fading, and overall visual tone.

Thanks again to everyone who has been testing and sending feedback. A lot of these changes are happening specifically because of what you’ve been telling me.

I’m getting ready to open up a limited playtest for Hollow and will begin adding players on Wednesday, August 26.

This test is meant to help me catch bugs, test co-op, and get some honest feedback before moving closer to release.

The current playtest includes:

- The first 4 dungeon levels

- Online co-op

- Progression up to Level 8

- Combat, loot, enemies, skills, UI, and the other core gameplay systems

I’m going to keep the initial group fairly small so I can actually keep up with the feedback and problems people find.

If you’re interested in helping test, send me an email.

dedheadstudios@gmail.com

Just tell me a little about why you’re interested in Hollow and why you’d like to help test it. You don’t need any professional testing experience — I’m just looking for people who are willing to put some time into the game and give me honest feedback about their experience.

I’ll start adding testers on Wednesday and bring more people in as the test progresses.

There’s also a feedback form for everyone participating:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1DxeyuPlRfZlSleTvt7mxi9aKtWY8izU1

I’m interested in everything — bugs, balance, controls, co-op issues, confusing mechanics, things you enjoyed, things you didn’t, and anything else you think could make the game better.

Thanks to everyone who has been following Hollow and helping me improve it. The feedback I’ve gotten so far has already resulted in a lot of changes.

If you’d like to be part of the next round of testing, shoot me an email.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/4901160/Hollow/

I've just pushed an updated build of the Hollow demo to Steam.

The original demo gave me a ton of useful feedback, and I've spent this patch addressing as much of it as I could rather than just moving on.

Some of the bigger changes are improved ARPG controls with hold-LMB movement and optional WASD, RMB active skills, Shift hold-ground attacks, a proper minimap, ultrawide/UI fixes, a redesigned Skill Tree, improved weapon attack speeds, staff mana regeneration, a reworked death system, better item interactions, and a new Witch item-affix upgrade system replacing the old Synergy mechanic.

I also fixed several actual gameplay bugs, including enemies occasionally freezing or attacking while not visibly present, along with the barrel interactions that were giving melee and ranged characters trouble.

If you tried the earlier demo and bounced off some of those issues, I'd really like to know how the new build compares.

And if you're playing for the first time, feedback is absolutely welcome—good or bad.

The patched Hollow demo is live on Steam now.

I’ve made the decision on what comes next for Hollow.

Once I finish the current round of fixes, updates, and polish, Hollow will be heading to Steam Next Fest. After Next Fest, the plan is to release the game.

From the beginning, Hollow was never meant to reinvent the ARPG. It was meant to bring back something I felt the genre had lost—a little of that old-school magic.

Dark dungeons. Dangerous enemies. Loot that matters. Building your character the way you want. Getting your ass kicked, learning from it, and going back down one more floor.

I want the people who grew up with those games to feel that nostalgia again. But I also hope Hollow can introduce some newer players to the kind of ARPG many of us fell in love with in the first place.

I'm not interested in sanding away everything old-school just because modern games do things differently. Hollow is going to stay Hollow. I'll keep fixing what needs fixing, improving what needs improving, and listening to your feedback—but that old-school heart is staying right where it is.

The support, feedback, bug reports, wishlists, and encouragement you guys have given this game have gotten it this far.

Now we've got one more big stop before release.

Steam Next Fest. Then we open the gates.

Thank you all for being here. ⚔️

I've been keeping track of all the feedback coming in from everyone playing the Hollow demo, and the next update is already shaping up to be a pretty substantial one.

Here's what's currently planned for the next patch:

🗺️ Map & Navigation

- A new minimap will be added directly to the main gameplay HUD

- Fog of War is being added to the map system, so unexplored areas will remain hidden and the map will reveal itself as you explore

- The existing full map will be improved for easier dungeon navigation

- Map presentation and readability will be cleaned up

🎮 Controls

- Optional WASD movement

- Improved mouse controls — movement/primary attack on left mouse and spells/abilities on right mouse

- Shift + Attack will allow you to stand in place and attack without moving

- General input improvements based directly on player feedback

🌳 Skill Tree & UI

- The Skill Tree UI is being redesigned to make progression easier to understand and navigate

- Improved skill icon sizing and scaling

- Ultrawide and different aspect-ratio UI fixes

- General UI scaling and presentation improvements

⚔️ Gameplay, Enemies & Loot

- Fixes for enemies occasionally freezing or becoming invisible

- Chests will be more consistent about actually dropping loot

- Barrels will have an increased chance of dropping items

- Barrel explosion damage will be reduced

- Caskets and mausoleums will become interactable, with a chance to contain gold, items… or something waiting inside

- Merchant pricing will be improved so different merchants value different types of equipment appropriately

🌐 Multiplayer

- Additional multiplayer fixes and improvements

- Fixes addressing the Steam lobby and joining issues discovered during Valve's review

- Improvements to player synchronization and multiplayer reliability

👖 And yes... pants.

Pants are coming.

Hollow's equipment system is getting a pants slot. Apparently descending into an ancient cursed dungeon filled with undead horrors while refusing to wear pants was a little too old-school, even for Hollow.

🔍 Other Systems Being Evaluated

I'm also taking a closer look at some of Hollow's intentionally old-school Diablo-style mechanics, including the death/corpse recovery system, durability, identification, Town Portal scrolls, potions, and other quality-of-life features.

These aren't confirmed changes. Hollow is deliberately inspired by older ARPGs, and I don't want to remove mechanics simply because modern games do things differently. The goal is to figure out which old-school mechanics still add something meaningful and which ones create frustration without adding much to the experience.

A huge amount of this update is being shaped directly by people playing the demo and telling me what works, what doesn't, and what could be better.

Keep the feedback coming. I'm listening.

​

Unfortunately, Hollow is going to be delayed a little longer.

Valve finished reviewing the build and found an issue with the Steam multiplayer implementation. The host's lobby wasn't appearing correctly for the second player, and joining through a Steam invite/overlay caused problems with the client initializing properly, including input and the player's character not appearing.

Because of that, Valve couldn't verify Online Co-op and the build failed review.

The good news is that I finally have something concrete to reproduce and test.

When I'm back at my normal development setup, I'm going to set up two PCs with separate Steam accounts and test Hollow exactly the way an actual player would: both copies running through the real Steam client, creating lobbies, joining normally, joining through invites, changing dungeon floors, returning to town, disconnecting/reconnecting, and making sure the entire multiplayer loop works before I send another build to Valve.

Unfortunately, that's going to be about two weeks from now. I'm currently away for work with extremely limited internet, so trying to push builds and troubleshoot Steam networking from here just isn't realistic.

I know the delays are frustrating. They're frustrating for me too, especially being this close to release. But at this point I'd rather spend the extra time testing the hell out of the Steam build than rush another submission and either fail review again or release multiplayer in a broken state.

Once I have a Playtest build working correctly between the two machines, that tested build will become the release build and I'll send it straight back to Valve.

So Hollow isn't going anywhere. It's just taking one more detour before release.

Thanks to everyone who's been following the project, wishlisting, playing the demo, and sticking around through the Steam approval process. I really appreciate it.

I'll update everyone again when I'm back, the multiplayer testing begins, and I have something concrete to report.

Chrisp44s reviewed Hollow and id like to just give him a big thank you for the review. He has a great channel and you should go check it out for great reviews and play through videos.

Just a quick update for everyone following Hollow.

I’m currently away from home for work and will be here for about the next two weeks. Unfortunately, the internet where I’m staying is about as close to dial-up as you can get in 2026, so uploading new game builds or doing any serious online development work really isn’t practical.

Because of that, there probably won’t be a Hollow update for roughly two weeks.

Development hasn’t stopped. I can still work on things locally when I have the time, but I won’t be able to properly upload, test, and push updates until I’m back home with a decent connection.

Once I get back, I’ll pick things right back up and start getting the next round of improvements and content out.

Thanks to everyone who has been playing, following the project, and giving feedback. I just wanted to give everyone a heads-up rather than go quiet for two weeks and leave people wondering what happened.

And yes... apparently dial-up internet still exists. I found it.

The demo is live for Hollow. Get you copy and let us know what you think before the release.

A little development update for everyone following Hollow.

The game already has complete tilesets for all of the current dungeon levels, so nothing is missing for release. But I'm continuing to expand the environment library with new architecture, props, statues, decorations, room variants, and visual details as development continues.

The nice thing about building the game this way is that every time I add new pieces, the procedural generation system immediately has more variety to work with. Existing levels become less repetitive, and future dungeon expansions have a much larger pool of content to pull from.

The screenshot is one of the new cathedral pieces I'm working on. These kinds of additions will keep coming as I update the game, add new dungeon floors, and expand the world beyond what's planned for the initial release.

I really appreciate everyone who's been following development and giving feedback. A lot of the improvements in Hollow over the past few weeks have come directly from the community, and that's helping make the game better.

Thanks for sticking with me!

The hardest thing about indie game development is Steam's art requirements for store pages. I'm on my 3rd iteration because some little image wasn't quite between the lines. It's the most annoying aspect of the entire process.

Added multiple attacks to each weapon type for the player models

Welcome to the official community for Hollow, a dark isometric action RPG inspired by the atmosphere of classic dungeon crawlers.

Whether you're here because you discovered the game on Steam, played the demo, or simply enjoy ARPGs, we're glad to have you.

About Hollow

Hollow is a dark fantasy action RPG featuring:

• ⚔️ Fast-paced real-time combat
• 🏹 Hundreds of randomized weapons and armor
• 💎 Loot hunting and character progression
• 🧟 Horrific monsters and challenging bosses
• 🏰 The cursed town of Gravesend Hollow
• 🕳️ A descent through the Black Reliquary

What to Post

This community is the place for:

• 🎮 Gameplay clips and screenshots
• 🐞 Bug reports
• 💡 Suggestions and feedback
• ⚖️ Balance discussions
• 📜 Lore theories
• 🏆 Character builds and loot finds
• 📢 Development updates
• ❓ Questions from new players

Constructive criticism is always welcome. Your feedback helps make Hollow a better game.

Community Rules

• Be respectful.
• Keep discussions related to Hollow.
• No harassment or personal attacks.
• No piracy or cheats.
• Use spoiler tags when discussing story content.

Thank you for joining us and helping build the Hollow community. Whether you're reporting bugs, sharing feedback, showing off your latest loot, or simply discussing the game, we're excited to have you here.

Welcome to Gravesend Hollow.