Dear Villains and Villainesses, 

This is Tanya and Emily, your friendly developers of Save the Villainess. We hope you are having a fabulous end to your month… and we are excited to bring you a special Valentine's Day-themed update. We wanted to celebrate the season by programming one of our most gorgeous characters and talking about a plethora of romantic writing!

This month, we finished the base programming for the amazing Raymond Alpin! Raymond is the royal cousin of Crown Prince Edmund Alpin, which means that Raymond is directly in line for the throne should Edmund pass away without any children. If Raymond has his way, that possibility might not end up being so distant either…

As you can see, Raymond is a very… confident man. He’s convinced he’s the best potential ruler the kingdom of Carcosa has… as well as a good candidate for being the most arrogant man in Carcosa. 

Then again, is it arrogance if you really are that good?

So far, we have completed the base body programming on Raymond’s character model, which means we converted the Adobe Photoshop (aka PSD) file containing his art into hundreds of layers, the base of which we animated within the Ren’py engine using a combination of traditional animation, math, and coding. 

In future months, we will animate Raymond’s individual facial expressions so he can show off his joy, rage, sorrow, and even his sweetly blushing face. As we’ve mentioned previously, the complete sprite process can take upwards of one hundred hours. We look forward to showing you more of Raymond when this process finishes! 

Save the Villainess is a choice-heavy game that puts our villainess’ romantic fate in your hands. You get to determine not only which lover she chooses… but if she should be with a lover at all! Thus, the game features several romantic routes you can go down… including 5 romantic happy endings with each of the love interests and 3 different single endings, as well as several different secret endings you must unlock for yourself. 

In honor of Valentine’s Day, we wanted to further enrich the romance in the game. Therefore, we revised all of the post-demo romantic choices in our common route. Now, when you choose affection raising and lowering choices, you will get longer dialogue skits and a deeper understanding of our love interests. The game will also remember these choices and use them to shape some later conversations in the game.

If you choose the affection raising choices, you’ll generally get sweet, affectionate moments that display more of the chemistry between Jane and her love interest that would make them work as a couple. If you are brave enough to choose the affection lowering choices, you may discover secrets about the characters’ lives that you might not otherwise discover until much later in the game.

Below is an example of an affection lowering choice that allows you to learn more about Izel, Duke of the North. 

What choices will you make throughout the game? Play it for yourself and watch the mysteries unravel through your decisions…

This month, we had the great luck to be featured in two different Steam festivals that celebrate the power of storytelling and the creativity of women in gaming!

First, we were featured in the Storyteller Festival run by Two and a Half Studios, the creators of amazing games like Date with Death and the upcoming Willowmist Emporium of Antiques and Curiosities. This festival celebrates the magic of amazing storytelling in a wide variety of game genres. Check out the festival page here!

Second, we are being featured in the Women’s Day Sale, which supports women-led games in a variety of ways. During this festival, we will stream part of our demo with the amazing OtomeAddicted on our Steam page. Please see it on our Steam game page today!

We wanted to end by raving about Silent Kingdom, an amazing otome RPG!

Silent Kingdom is a dark, gorgeous, and beautiful game that has you play the role of Princess Erinys, whose kingdom has fallen under the yoke of a sorrowful curse. In order to save everything you have ever known and loved, you’ll have to stand against the entire world - and even defy the Goddess herself. 

Along the way, you will make many impactful decisions that will lead you to be loved or loathed, to slay or be slain, and to either save or damn your kingdom forever. The game also features a thrilling RPG battle system where you must work with your partners to overcome terrifying monsters. 

If you love dark fantasy, beautiful hand-drawn art, and thrilling battles, you will truly enjoy Silent Kingdom, which is available in early access on Steam and Itch.io now. 

Finally, please remember you can always catch us at the various sites below:

1. Our discord server- come chat with us and hear what other players have discovered about our game!
2. Our mailing list- we send out cute kitten pictures and free cards featuring new banter from our main characters every month. This month, Jane, Edmund, Izel, Ben, and Servant tell you about what romantic gifts they would give you!
3. Youtube, Bluesky, and Tumblr- our main social media accounts

Thank you for checking in with us in the love-filled month of February. We’ll see you next month as the flowers finally begin to bloom again! 

With Much Love,

Tanya & Emily

Best Laid Plans Productions, Inc.