Genre: Point-and-click, Role-playing (RPG), Simulator, Adventure, Indie, Visual NovelSlay the Princess
10/28 Fixes and Patch Notes
Adjusted that One Breaking Glass sound to be quieter. Hopefully it's finally at the correct balance where it still has an emotional impact, but no longer causes issues for players using headphones.
Assorted fixes to volume levels on lines that were too quiet, small typos in the script, and voice lines that were slightly different than the subtitles.
Changed the file structure in the supporter's pack so that wallpapers are sorted into separate folders based on resolution.
Slay the Princess Supporter's Pack Now Available!
I can't express enough how incredible this release has been. Slay the Princess has been a deeply, deeply personal project for the team, and to see it emotionally resonate so strongly with so many people has blown even our wildest hopes out of the water. So from the bottom of our hearts, thank you so so so very much.
We've seen a lot of requests these past few days for a Supporter's Pack, and we're happy to share that we've just launched it. It contains the entire OST as well as 163 HD wallpapers from the game, each of which is available in 1080p, 1440p, and 4k UHD (16:9 aspect ratio.)
You can pick it up here: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2642210/Slay_the_Princess__Supporters_Pack/
In terms of what's next:
We're going to be doing a special livestream on November 18th to celebrate the launch. Exact time and details pending, but we have something really exciting planned for it, and you won't want to miss it. You can follow us on Twitch to get notified when we go live: http://twitch.tv/black_tabby_games
Localizations and Ports!
The game's outperformed our sales expectations, so I feel pretty confident saying that we'll be looking to tackle console ports and localizations for some time (probably late) next year. We're still figuring out the details, but at the very least, we're planning to localize to Chinese, Japanese, and German, and we've seen a ton of interest in Spanish and BR-PT as well. Apologies if you're waiting for a localization to play, but we're a two-person studio and we want localizations to be ~excellent~ so we're being cautious about how we commit our time as a resource.
Game Updates:
Slay the Princess is the game we wanted to make, and thanks to our last-minute delay, we were able to restore the only significant cut content in time for the official release. (In case you're curious, the cut content was DO NOT READ IF YOU HAVEN'T FINISHED A PLAYTHROUGH the white on black illustrations that introduce each vessel the Shifting Mound summons in the game's climax.
Because of that, the main updates we're looking to do are general quality of life fixes. The most significant ones:
- Adding a CG gallery accessible through the game's menu where you'll be able to look at art from key moments you've unlocked over the course of playing.
- Text-scaling for alternative fonts selected in the accessibility menu isn't working as desired, with the Princess' font significantly bigger than the dialogue menu and narrator fonts. This is a complicated issue to fix and might take a while for us to figure out a work-around.
- Some players have had off-experiences assuming that like DDLC, Slay the Princess relies of metadata across all of your save files. We're currently considering ways to implement a warning that this isn't the case the neither feels immersion breaking in the moment nor spoils anything about the structure of the game in advance.
These updates might take a little while for us to put together — it's been a long year of work developing Slay the Princess, and we're finally starting to ease into a well-earned break. In the meantime, if you're looking to enjoy more of our work, Scarlet Hollow is currently on sale, and you can pick it up at an added discount through our studio bundle on either game's Steam page.
https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/33452/The_Black_Tabby_Games_Collection/
Thank you again to everyone for helping make this a lifechanging launch, and we can't wait to share more projects with you in the future.
Best,
Tony and Abby
10/26 hotfix
~Various fixes re: typos and parallax clipping.
10/25 Hotfix
Fixed an issue that would allow players to repeat the Tower multiple times on a single playthrough.
Various assorted fixes to text.
Issues that we're currently investigating:
1. There seem to be rare instances where players can get soft-locked on the [Slay the Princess] menu in chapter 1. I believe I've plugged the remaining holes in the logic there, but please report if you run into this issue.
2. There's an issue where switching to another font through the accessibility menu can cause sizing issues. The Princess' font, by default, appears smaller per "point" so it has a higher point value to adjust it to be more legible, but these size differences carry over to alternative fonts. Fixing this one is probably going to take some time.
3. There's a rare issue caused by the the Steam overlay that causes the game to crash (frequently when players try to load a save.) This seems to be an issue for some other games, too, but if you run into it, you can resolve it by turning off the overlay. Will continue to investigate further.
A couple of people have asked about trading cards and point shop items. They're definitely on our radar, and we'll start looking into them once we've had a little time to recover from launch.
Thanks so much for being so supportive!
Tony
10/24 Fix 2
Should no longer be able to get to the Wild from the Beast if you've already gotten there from the Witch
Quick Load button re-enabled. It seems that there's a rare issue with the Steam Overlay interacting weirdly with load functionality. I'm assuming this is an engine-level problem, and have opened a ticket on the Ren'py Github sharing the details folks have reported. If you run into issues where loading crashes the game, if possible provide traceback information in the bugs channel, and also try validating your install before resuming your game.
10/24 Hotfix 2
Players who had previously encountered the Fury via Tower were rarely able to subsequently reach the Fury again through Adversary
10/24 Fixes
Fixes below:
That one Razor achievement should work now (but you'll have to satisfy the conditions from scratch.)
The quick load button has been temporarily disabled until I can figure out why it's crashing the game for some people. You can still quick save as normal, and you can access your quicksaves under the "Q" tab in the save games screen.
A particularly loud breaking glass sound effect was tuned down a little bit.
There was some missing logic on the Witch route that occasionally allowed you to visit a third chapter you should not have been able to visit. (Being intentionally vague here, but feel free to look at the bugs thread for details)
Fixes to various small typos and visual glitches.
Hope this helps, and a big thanks to everyone who's made this an unbelievably warm release!
Cheers,
Tony
Day 1 Hotfix
Framerate should now be by default set to your monitor refresh rate rather than 30fps
A couple small visual fixes.
Slay the Princess is Out Now!
There are no premature endings. There are no wrong answers.
There are only fresh perspectives and new beginnings.
This is a love story.
After a little over a year in development, Slay the Princess is finally here, and the early reviews have been glowing! Here's what some people have been saying:
“An existentially horrific visual novel, with an incredibly well-written plot, a beautiful score and graphics that will enrapture all senses. One of the best narrative games of 2023.”
10/10 – Voxel Smash
“There isn’t a single thing I don’t like about Slay the Princess. The presentation is beautiful, the story is fantastic and moving, the voice acting of amazing characters is done phenomenally well, and the branching paths of the story give you what feels like unlimited possibilities.”
10/10 – Try Hard Guides
“Slay the Princess will stay with you for a long time, I think. It’s absurdist and dark and haunting in a way that not a lot of games are. If you have an itch for something that’s spooky but also morally confronting and you will be thinking about it for days to come, it’s impossible not to recommend this.”
A- – Player 2
You can pick up the game right now and play on Windows, Mac and Linux. The base price is $17.99, and there's also a 10% launch discount, as well as a Steam bundle with Scarlet Hollow that adds an extra 15% off. If you already own Scarlet Hollow on Steam, you can still complete the bundle to apply that extra discount!
Thank you so much for supporting us, and we can't wait for you to play!
~Abby and Tony
Postponing the End of the World Until Monday
I know you've all been extremely hyped and patient for Slay the Princess' release, but we had some issues passing certification on Steam that forced us to delay until Monday. Those issues were finally resolved as of this morning, but that resolution happened after we already had to confirm a delay for other storefronts, and we want to make sure everyone we work with gets to launch the game at the same time.
The new release date and time is Monday October 23rd at 10am EST.
We're probably even more upset about this delay than you are — we've been working around the clock for months to get this game as good as possible for release, but fortunately it's just going to be a few more days!
And we're going to be taking advantage of these extra few days to restore some content we had to cut to make tomorrow's release date. You'll only get to play Slay the Princess for the first time once, so we're excited for the opportunity to make a lot of people's first experiences even better.
On a brighter note, early reviews for the game have been absolutely glowing, so you're going to be in for a treat. Here's a snippet to keep your hype train going:
- "An existentially horrific visual novel, with an incredibly well-written plot, a beautiful score and graphics that will enrapture all senses. One of the best narrative games of 2023." 10/10 - Voxel Smash
- "There isn’t a single thing I don’t like about Slay the Princess. The presentation is beautiful, the story is fantastic and moving, the voice acting of amazing characters is done phenomenally well, and the branching paths of the story give you what feels like unlimited possibilities." - 10/10 - Try Hard Guides
- "Slay the Princess is a prime example of why visual novels are one of the most powerful and hard-hitting offerings in gaming today. It’s an astounding tale where nearly every aspect elevates its narrative to new heights." 9/10 - Press Space to Jump
- "Pierced throughout with evocative, hand-drawn visuals and flawless voice-acting, Slay the Princess might have just slashed its way to the top of my favorite games this year." The Indie Informer - 9.5/10
- "An all at once engaging, intriguing, funny, satisfying, and deep experience." 9.5/10 - PC Invasion
- "Slay the Princess will stay with you for a long time, I think. It’s absurdist and dark and haunting in a way that not a lot of games are. If you have an itch for something that’s spooky but also morally confronting and you will be thinking about it for days to come, it’s impossible not to recommend this." A- - Player 2
Thank you so much for bearing with us, I know this sucks, but the extra wait will be worth it on the other side!
And before you say anything, yes we know the release date on the Steam page still says the 20th — we have to open a support ticket to change it, and I don't know if that ticket will be resolved by Monday!
See you Monday, Slayers!
Tony and Abby