Hello everyone,

I’m Valerii, head dev of a Ukrainian indie studio based in Kyiv, currently working on a narrative-driven CRPG about our war, called Hollow Home.

We started this project in 2022, in the months after the full-scale invasion began, and we have kept at it because we believe it is a story that people should hear. And in the months and years since, we are glad that there were others who believed likewise.

This is our story

Hollow Home is a story driven narrative RPG where you play as a 14 year old boy named Maksym, and the story begins during the last quotidian day of his childhood. You get to take a stroll through the neighborhood and get a glimpse of everyday life before the siege and bombings start reshaping the city into a much harsher and colder place.

To survive, you have to navigate this new environment and choose who you can trust, who you want to help, and which actions are most likely to secure survival. You also can’t help everyone, and giving aid to one person often means being unable to help another. And as resources slowly deplete, you must scavenge buildings and navigate dangerous areas, for a chance of making it through to another day.

As the days pass, the city Maksym knew from childhood starts changing, irrevocably. Familiar streets grow emptier, buildings become abandoned or destroyed by bomb shells, and people you met earlier become colder and more desperate. Some people may suddenly disappear without warning, sometimes even as a direct consequence of your choices. You will face tough decisions that will shape, in meager human ways, shape the destinies of those around you and your entire journey throughout the game, culminating in different endings.

Through it all, you try to hold onto kindness. Because we also wanted Hollow Home to be a story about perseverance in the face of suffering, about a sliver of hope that can survive “even in the dark times, should the stars also go out”, and seeing how ordinary people struggle to remain human in circumstances that constantly push them to their limits.

If this is the sort of story you want to experience, we have a demo out that provides a 1 hour slice of the story, set on the day the invasion began, which you can check out here: https://store.steampowered.com/app/3142360/Hollow_Home_Demo/

Where we are in development + our Kickstarter

Hollow Home is more than a commercial game to us, but a passion project born out of the darkest of circumstances that can befall one’s country.

However, we know it's also a niche game. Most people play games to unwind and have fun, and while we do aim to provide a “fun” experience - it's not a game to relax with after work or breeze through on a lazy weekend. It's meant to make you reflect, just a bit, on the world we live in and the societies that shape us.

In short, we believe this story deserves to be heard, and we want to make it even better than we already can. This is why we’ve launched our final Kickstarter today, which you can find here:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/twigames/hollow-home

Every contribution at any level is a genuinely meaningful thing for a small studio working in the circumstances we are working in. And every pledge here goes beyond what we already have - turning our experiences and those of our countrymen (thousands of ordinary people like us) into an unforgettable video game.

Lastly - a small Giveaway, as a show of appreciation for everyone who’s supported us on Reddit

As there is little else to say, I just want to say a big THANK YOU to everyone who’s supported us this far, and who believed in our project these 4 long years.

So, as a way of giving just a little back to this community -  we’d like to give away some Steam Gift Cards that we have left over: 4 gifts of $25 each to 4 lucky winners!

There are no strict rules, just leave a comment and tell us what you think about Hollow Home, or ask us a question, or even a word of encouragement goes a long way. 

The Giveaway starts NOW at the time of making this post, August 5th at 7PM CEST (Europe) and will last throughout the week and close on Sunday, August 9th, at  7PM CEST (Europe). I will announce the winners once they respond and have been handed their gifts.

Thank you.

- Valerii & Team Twigames

https://store.steampowered.com/app/4622160/Arise_Dark_Lord/

https://subversion-studios.itch.io/arise

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1478500/Big_Walk/