🦋Save the Villainess Celebrates Women's Day & the Greatest Album Cover of 1888!

Dear Villains and Villainesses,

This is Tanya and Emily, the friendly neighborhood developers behind Save the Villainess! As the year marches forward, we wish you the loveliest spring weather possible… even if some of us are still braving blizzards! We’re here to celebrate International Women’s Day with commissioned art from Rui and showcase more updates, including new character models. In addition, our mailing list this month is offering a glimpse of what advice changed our characters’ lives.

This month, we focused on programming two different character model variations for Jane and Izel to get them ready for their future action scenes! First, we programmed Jane’s action sprite, which will allow her to do something dangerous drawn from the life of the original villainess. At long last, Jane will get to flex her abilities in this strange new world where she has been trapped. Can she discover a power strong enough to tip the odds in her favor?

Steam post image While she's at it, Jane and Izel will also create the hardest album cover of 1888.

We also completed Izel’s action sprite, which took a considerable amount of work due to his cane. During the action scene, Izel unveils a fraction of his powers… which requires dropping his cane and then picking it up once the action is over. This took some time to work out in a seamless fashion but after some experimentation, we got it resolved. We can’t wait to show off Izel’s more dangerous side when you play this scene.

Additionally, we completed programming scenes 37 and 38, which offer both a wide range of romantic choices as well as fun action sequences which challenge Jane and Izel in different ways. How do you flirt with a Duke of the North while engaging in dangerous actions? This scene will show you the way!

Finally, we continued our writing process by completing scenes 42 and 43. These scenes are interconnected pieces of a larger scene that will allow for a chance to develop or destroy a romance with Izel, learn vital new information about Jane’s past, and then get a little jolt of horror that contains a new clue.

You will also get the chance to solve a new mystery in these scenes… one that will affect how well you’ll do in an upcoming battle. Are you ready for to fight something fierce with your new abilities...?

Welcome back to Emily’s History Corner. Today, we’re going to explore the world of historical wood paneling. You heard the word “wainscoting” multiple times in the Save the Villainess demo. Now, you get to understand why it is important both historically and in the game.

For those who aren’t passionate about Victorian interior decorating, wainscoting is a form of decorative wood paneling normally used to protect the lower portion of a room’s wall. It was meant to guard against moisture seepage, furniture pressed against the wall, and scraping of objects as people moved around. Wainscot oak was the original source of wainscoting in the middle ages but as time went on, other trees were used for increasingly elaborate designs.

Steam post image A fine example of decorative wainscoting from the Victorian era.

So why is wainscoting, a common form of wall decoration, seen as so strange in Save the Villainess?

An important thing to note about Victorian wainscoting, in particular, is that it is elaborate… and often very heavy. Heavy wood paneling in separate pieces can work as lining on the lower wall but it is actively dangerous the further up it reaches… and especially if it is lurking overhead on a ceiling. While there are many types of wooden ceiling structures that work well architecturally, wainscoting is not one of them.

Yet as Jane points out in the demo, wainscoting appears in nearly every part of the House. This is not an accident and is tied to the larger lore of Carcosa and the story. Can you determine why it is there?

Steam post image If you gaze at the wainscoting in the House Jane enters long enough, the wainscoting will GAZE BACK AT YOU.

For fans of Victorian architecture, there are many oddities in Jane’s strange new home. The wainscoting is just one of the clues that things are not quite as they should be. Can you find the other hints that show the strangeness of this world and use them to… Save the Villainess?

We’re proud to announce that this month, we were part of the Women’s Day Sale on Steam that was hosted by WINGS. If you want to check out more games by female developers like us, please take a look at the event. It’s a great way to celebrate Women’s Day!

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

✦ Our discord server - come chat with us and hear what other players have discovered about our game!

✦ Our mailing list - we send out cute kitten pictures and free cards featuring new banter from our main characters every month. This month, the characters share advice that changed their lives!

✦ Youtube, Bluesky, and Tumblr - our main social media accounts.

✦ The Villainess Wants Her Prince to Live! - Our Free Prequel Novel - Available Online, as a PDF, and an Ebook file

With Tenderness and Terror Alike, Tanya & Emily