Video Games

Slay the Princess developers are working on a new project

Abby Howard and Tony Howard-Arias will soon be saying goodbye to their award-winning game with the release of its definitive edition

Georgina Young

Slay the Princess
Slay the Princess / Black Tabby Games

Slay the Princess was one of the most highly-rated games of 2023 despite coming up against titles like Baldur’s Gate 3 and Tears of the Kingdom. Developers Abby Howard and Tony Howard-Arias will soon be saying goodbye to their award-winning game with the release of the definitive edition, cleverly titled The Pristine Cut, and moving on to other projects. We had the chance to sit down with Tony, Abby, and their cat, Spoons, to discuss what’s next for the studio.

First on the list is a return to the game they put on hiatus while creating Slay the Princess – Scarlet Hollow, which made it to episode four before taking a break. 

Read more: ‘There’s no winning’ in Slay the Princess but Black Tabby Games taught me their favorite ways to play

“We’re working on Scarlet Hollow right now,” Howard tells me. “It is so much fun to get back to it.” 

“We have three episodes left,” Howard-Arias adds. “Six and seven, the last two [episodes] are a single big release. But before episode five comes out, we're in the middle of doing a big patch that should be out this year. It revisits the earlier episodes of the game, especially episode one.”

Stella from Scarlet Hollow pointing a torch at a corrupted deer in a screenshot from the game
Scarlet Hollow / Black Tabby Games

“In its current state, it railroads the players into the path of the main story, and we are adding alternate early branching,” Howard-Arias says. “The player can more organically react to the story. It’s a path that for the longest time, we've thought [of as] an obvious branching point that we missed and we always try to [make it so] you don't feel like you're being railroaded.”

However, the pair are working on more than just finishing Scarlet Hollow and its big game-changing patch. “We do have a third game,” Howard says. “We are cooking a third game, but it's way on the back burner.” 

“It’s not even that. It's buying ingredients. It’s still in the grocery store,” Howard-Arias adds. “We're not going to really be doing any serious work on that until after Scarlet Hollow is done with a capital D.”

Slay the Princess: The Pristine Cut will launch on October 24, for Nintendo Switch, PS5, PS4, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and PC via GoG and Steam.

Published
Georgina Young
GEORGINA YOUNG

Georgina Young is a Gaming Writer for GLHF. They have been writing about video games for around 10 years and are seen as one of the leading experts on the PlayStation Vita. They are also a part of the Pokémon community, involved in speedrunning, challenge runs, and the competitive scene. Aside from English, they also speak and translate from Japanese, German and French. Their favorite games are Pokémon Heart Gold, Majora’s Mask, Shovel Knight, Virtue’s Last Reward and Streets of Rage. They often write about 2D platformers, JRPGs, visual novels, and Otome. In writing about the PlayStation Vita, they have contributed articles to books about the console including Vita Means Life, and A Handheld History. They have also written for the online publications IGN, TechRadar, Space.com, GamesRadar+, NME, Rock Paper Shotgun, GAMINGbible, Pocket Tactics, Metro, news.com.au and Gayming Magazine. They have written in print for Switch Player Magazine, and PLAY Magazine. Previously a News Writer at GamesRadar, NME and GAMINGbible, they currently write on behalf of GLHF for The Sun, USA Today FTW, and Sports Illustrated. You can find their previous work by visiting Georgina Young’s MuckRack profile. Email: georgina.young@glhf.gg

Home/News