Trivia / Heart of the Woods

• Creator's Favorite: According to the artbook, Morgan is the team's favorite, which is why she ended up having more of a presence in the story than her original role as a side character.
• He Also Did: The developers also worked with Studio Coattails (as Alienworks) to develop Highway Blossoms.
• Queer Character, Queer Actor:
  • Tara is voiced by Stephanie Arata, who is also a trans woman herself.
  • Morgan is voiced by Kira Buckland, who's non-binary.
• Shout-Out: During the scene where Maddie searches for Abigail's name in the Book of Baby names, the first name she spots is Amber, a reference to Amber Golley from Highway Blossoms.
• What Could Have Been: There are some noticeable differences between the demo and the final product.
  • There's a prologue scene in which Tara records a video announcing that she and Madison will be going to Eysenfeld. It takes place before Madison tells Tara about quitting Taranormal, so Madison is worried about how Tara will take the news. While the creators thought it was a good scene that established Madison and Tara's characters, was cut due to the creators believing it set the wrong tone, since the scene on the train better established "the moodiness and growing tension between (Madison and Tara)."
  • Abigail claims that she's been a ghost for 100 years, not 200 like in the final product. A scene transition conversation has Madison mention that Abigail was a ghost for 200 years, so the transition was probably written after the scene preceding it.
  • In the scene transition before one of the last featured scenes in the demo, Madison mentions that "At this point in the story, (Abigail)'s also able to talk, which makes things a lot easier." It's possible that in the original story, Abigail somehow acquired the ability to talk while being a ghost, or Madison's line may have been used to obfuscate what actually happened- Madison dies and becomes a ghost, so she's now able to hear Abigail.
  • The last scene featured in the demo ends with Madison deciding to try to convince the forest spirit to let her go, a plotline that never comes up in the actual game. In the game, the forest spirit didn't trap her there as much as it saved her soul after her death in the snowstorm.
  • The art book mentions that Madison was "originally envisioned as a barista." In the final game, she mentions in passing that she had a job as one, which she quit in order to focus on Taranormal.
  • According to the art book, there was originally a fourth ending to the game, in which Geladura would die, but Morgan would replace Madison as Fairy Queen. The author's note says that the creators "didn't have the means to include it."