Black Tabby Games announces Slay the Princess
On Monday, Black Tabby Games – developers behind queer, Southern gothic horror visual novel Scarlet Hollow – announced their next project, a psychological horror and dark comedy visual novel called Slay the Princess. It is currently planned to release sometime in 2023.
In this game, players are tasked with killing a princess who is allegedly going to bring about the end of the world if you don’t stop her. The princess is in the basement of a cabin at the end of a path in the woods. Our mysterious narrator is adamant that she must be killed:
“She will do everything in her power to stop you. She’ll charm, and she’ll lie, and she’ll promise you the world, and if you let her, she’ll kill you a dozen times over. You can’t let that happen. Don’t forget, the fate of the world rests on your shoulders.”
Slay the Princess features the titular, extremely human, not-a-cosmic-horror princess, who you apparently should not try to romance. But beyond that, it has a branching narrative “with the story taking some very dramatic turns right away based on your early decisions.” According to the Steam page, this game has no time loops and is a “strictly linear concept,” but likely does have some kind of looping element, given the crossed out text. It’s also fully voice acted by Jonathan Sims and Nichole Goodnight.
Currently, patrons of Black Tabby Games at the alpha tester tier of their Patreon ($10 a month) can access a demo of Slay the Princess. Each playthrough should take about 15 minutes, but there are 7 separate endings, so the demo’s total play time is around two to three hours. This demo will be available to the general public to try out soon.