History Trivia / SlayThePrincess

* ThrowItIn: In the December 2023 developer livestream, Tony Howard-Arias revealed that his original script only had the Narrator remark [[RunningGag "If the Princess lives here, slaying her would be doing her a favor"]] when entering the basement in Chapter I and a few of the Chapter II routes, but that Jonathan Sims found the MoodWhiplash it caused so hilarious that he started saying it in every other route as well.

* CreatorsFavorite: According to comments made by Nichole Goodnight during several streams of the game, her favorite version of the Princess is the Tower.

*** The "end form" of the Shifting Mound was meant to be variable, but the developers instead chose a single true form for her. One of these many forms were a divine, winged creature with many eyes and Princesses within. They applied some of the wing design to the protagonist, and brought the disembodied eyes into the Nightmare route as a manifestation of the Voice of the Paranoid's, well, paranoia, and generally as an aspect of the Long Quiet.

*** The key visual for the game (as seen on the main page) feature ''very'' early designs for the Spectre, Nightmare, Stranger, and Beast. The Princess on the right is not given a name, implying that that version of the Princess never made it past this design phase.

*** The Princess was meant to stay human-looking for several loops before becoming more Some Princess variations were too scary visually, and the artist Abby Howard was told to tone them down to make them more romance-able.

*** There was also an idea that the "end form" of the Shifting Mound might itself have been variable, until the devs came to prefer a single true form for her. They applied some of the wing design to the protagonist, and brought the disembodied eyes into the Nightmare route as a manifestation of the Voice of the Paranoid's, well, paranoia, and generally as an aspect of the Long Quiet.

* WhatCouldHaveBeen: In a [[https://www.reddit.com/r/Games/comments/17lg0eq/were_abby_howard_and_tony_howardarias_of_black/ Reddit AMA]], Black Tabby Games talks about some scrapped ideas.
** The Stranger route originally had more of a focus on trying to communicate with a truly inhuman Princess.
--> "''She was originally going to be a [[TheWormThatWalks mass of bugs]] inhabiting a horrific, princess-like skin suit—a representation of the conflicting concepts of "she's just a princess" and "something clearly just ended the world." The bugs also had that thing where the pattern on their wings looked like the Princess' face, which was pretty neat. The main issue we kept running into though was that, while it was a neat route conceptually, we couldn't come up with much interesting content for it, outside of making the first stranger chapter as massive as the first chapter in the entire game, and then branching it off into a million different directions.''"
** The [[https://youtu.be/JaFfeitK0xk?si=6Be7mqDz114S4ZIz demo version's Stranger]] was ''not'' insects in a skin suit, but was still quite unlike the final game's {{Doppelmerger}}. Here the Player's unwillingness to go into the cabin and face her is interpreted as fear of her, and she's elongated and deformed in a way completely unlike any of her other forms. Her lines come in a weird singsong with emojis and the sight of her terrifies the Voices of the Hero and Contrarian.
--> '''The Stranger:''' Weeee're a Priiincessssss, buut we caaan also be a frieeeeend :)
** The Adversary and the Eye of the Needle have some draconic elements, but the Eye particularly could have become much more of a dragon.
--> "''I still love how she looks, and it's probably good that she's not more dragon-esque and remained pretty human, just huge. But I would have loved to keep making iterations of the Adversary until she could at least breathe fire. Wouldn't make for anything super satisfying narrative-wise, hence the fact that we didn't explore more with her, but visually she would be so cool...''"
** A post about [[https://blacktabbygames.tumblr.com/post/736542941427990528/slay-the-princess-concept-art concept art]] goes a little further into the what-could-have-beens. Some Princess variations were too scary visually, and Tony asked Abby to tone them down to make them more romance-able. Hearts started to become a motif, which they noticed and embraced. The Beast was originally planned to look like a different creature in each glimpse of her. There was also an idea that the "end form" of the Shifting Mound might itself have been variable, until the devs came to prefer a single true form for her. They applied some of the wing design to the protagonist, and brought the disembodied eyes into the Nightmare route as a manifestation of the Voice of the Paranoid's, well, paranoia, and generally as an aspect of the Long Quiet.
--> You are space and emptiness, but you’re also that which observes those things, and it’s your perceptions that give the Shifting Mound shape.

* PromotedFanboy: Nichole Goodnight streamed Black Tabby Games' previous ''VideoGame/ScarletHollow'', coming up with voices for the characters. Black Tabby Games says that Nichole's voice acting was so close to the voices they imagined that it struck them, and they reached out to her to play the part of the Princess.

* FlipFlopOfGod: In a Reddit AMA, Black Tabby Games insisted that there would be no sequel or expansion to the game. A few months later, having recovered from burnout enough to want to reconsider, they announced the Pristine Cut - a free DLC that will expand on the Damsel, the Specter, the Fury, the Den, and the Apotheosis.
* PromotedFanboy: Nichole Goodnight streamed Scarlet Hollow and read all the dialogue, coming up with voices for the characters. Black Tabby Games saw several streamers doing this but Nichole's voice acting was so close to the voices they imagined that it struck them, and they reached out to her to play the part of the Princess.

** The demo version's Stranger was ''not'' insects in a skin suit, but was still quite unlike the final game's {{Doppelmerger}}. Here the Player's unwillingness to go into the cabin and face her is interpreted as fear of her, and she's elongated and deformed in a way completely unlike any of her other forms.

--> "''I still love how she looks, and it's probably good that she's not more dragon-esque and remained pretty human, just huge. But I would have loved to keep making iterations of the Adversary until she could at least breathe fire. Wouldn't make for anything super satisfying narrative-wise, hence the fact that we didn't explore more with her, but visually she would be so cool...''"

** The demo version's Stranger was ''not'' insects in a skin suit, but was still quite unlike the final game's {{Doppelmerger}}. Here the protagonist's unwillingness to go into the cabin and face her is interpreted as fear of her, and she's elongated and deformed in a way completely unlike any of her other forms.

** The demo version's Stranger was ''not'' insects in a skin suit, but was still quite unlike the final game's {{Dopplemerger}}. Here the protagonist's unwillingness to go into the cabin and face her is interpreted as fear of her, and she's elongated and deformed in a way completely unlike any of her other forms.

-> "''She was originally going to be a [[TheWormThatWalks mass of bugs]] inhabiting a horrific, princess-like skin suit—a representation of the conflicting concepts of "she's just a princess" and "something clearly just ended the world." The bugs also had that thing where the pattern on their wings looked like the Princess' face, which was pretty neat. The main issue we kept running into though was that, while it was a neat route conceptually, we couldn't come up with much interesting content for it, outside of making the first stranger chapter as massive as the first chapter in the entire game, and then branching it off into a million different directions.''"
** The Adversary and the Eye of the Needle have some draconic elements but the Eye particularly could have become much more of a dragon.
-> "''I still love how she looks, and it's probably good that she's not more dragon-esque and remained pretty human, just huge. But I would have loved to keep making iterations of the Adversary until she could at least breathe fire. Wouldn't make for anything super satisfying narrative-wise, hence the fact that we didn't explore more with her, but visually she would be so cool...''"

* WhatCouldHaveBeen: In a [[https://www.reddit.com/r/Games/comments/17lg0eq/were_abby_howard_and_tony_howardarias_of_black/ Reddit AMA]] Black Tabby Games talks about some scrapped ideas.

--> She was originally going to be a [[TheWormThatWalks mass of bugs]] inhabiting a horrific, princess-like skin suit—a representation of the conflicting concepts of "she's just a princess" and "something clearly just ended the world." The bugs also had that thing where the pattern on their wings looked like the Princess' face, which was pretty neat. The main issue we kept running into though was that, while it was a neat route conceptually, we couldn't come up with much interesting content for it, outside of making the first stranger chapter as massive as the first chapter in the entire game, and then branching it off into a million different directions.

--> I still love how she looks, and it's probably good that she's not more dragon-esque and remained pretty human, just huge. But I would have loved to keep making iterations of the Adversary until she could at least breathe fire. Wouldn't make for anything super satisfying narrative-wise, hence the fact that we didn't explore more with her, but visually she would be so cool...

* WhatCouldHaveBeen: In a [[https://www.reddit.com/r/Games/comments/17lg0eq/comment/k7e7abi/ Reddit AMA]] Black Tabby Games talks about how different the Stranger route originally was.
--> She was originally going to be a [[TheWormThatWalks mass of bugs]] inhabiting a horrific, princess-like skin suit—a representation of the conflicting concepts of "she's just a princess" and "something clearly just ended the world." The bugs also had that thing where the pattern on their wings looked like the Princess' face, which was pretty neat. The main issue we kept running into though was that, while it was a neat route conceptually, we couldn't come up with much interesting content for it, outside of making the first stranger chapter as massive as the first chapter in the entire game, and then branching it off into a million different directions.