Slay the Princess

Slay the Princess is a narrative adventure game featuring a branching storyline and light RPG elements. How the story unfolds depends on the player's choices and dialogue responses. Time resets after the first chapter, though certain elements are different after each reset. Additionally, dialogue choices that do not immediately seem impactful have an influence on the "build" of the player character, also affecting the narrative.[3][4]

An unnamed hero appears in a forest and is instructed by an off-screen narrator to slay a princess trapped within the basement of a cabin in the forest. Who or what the Princess is isn't clear, but the Narrator insists that she is a threat to the world and must be killed. Whether the Hero will try to slay the Princess or save her is up to the player.[5]

Slay the Princess was developed by Black Tabby Games, an indie studio solely consisting of husband and wife Tony Howard-Arias and Abby Howard who previously developed the episodic narrative game Scarlet Hollow. The developers described Slay the Princess as "The Stanley Parable meets Call of Cthulhu with a dash of Disco Elysium." Black Tabby Games started development on Slay the Princess with the goal of creating a complete game with fewer assets and a smaller scope than Scarlet Hollow while continuing work on the latter. The core concept of the game spun from the idea of the player character being ordered to kill a seemingly innocent person with minimal context. From there, the title was derived as a play on the "save the princess" trope. The hand-drawn pencil art seen in the game was initially used as a time-saving measure to skip to necessity of ink and coloring processes, but the devs said that they were pleased with the artistic style produced. The initial demo was produced within the space of a game jam.[6]

Voice acting was provided by Jonathan Sims and Nichole Goodnight as the Narrator and the Princess respectively.[7] Sims and Goodnight also provide the voices of multiple versions of each character in the game. In an interview with SUPERJUMP magazine, the devs stated that Goodnight was cast after they watched a Twitch steam of her playthrough of Scarlet Hollow in which she voiced all the characters. Sims was also chosen in large part due to his vocal work in The Magnus Archives.[6]

Black Tabby Games announced Slay the Princess as their second game in July 2022.[2] In the two weeks following the announcement, the title garnered 25,000 wishlists on its Steam page.[8] A demo of Slay the Princess was publicly released for Steam Next Fest.[9]

Black Tabby Games was present at PAX East 2023. There, they showcased an extended demo featuring four new endings and altered versions the seven shown in the original demo. The new demo was positively received, with several gaming outlets naming among the best of the event.[10][11][12] PAX East included Slay the Princess among the ten finalists of their Rising Showcase.[13]

On September 6, Black Tabby Games participated in Feardemic's Fear Fest, debuting a new trailer announcing a release date of October 20, 2023.[14] However, due to last-minute issues regarding the game's Steam certification it was delayed to October 23.[15]

• Official website