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Save the Villainess: An Otome Isekai Roleplaying Game News

Save the Villainess: Surprises, an Upcoming Demo, and Kickstarter News!

Dear Villainesses and Villains:



This is Tanya and Emily, the devs of Save the Villainess – and we hope you’re staying safe in the scorching summer heat! In this newsletter, we'll tell you about our soon-to-arrive demo and Kickstarter launch, introduce a fun secret, and share some progress on our novel. We have great news coming up!



We are working through the process to release Save the Villainess' public demo and Kickstarter campaign this July! Some of the timing will depend on approval processes beyond our control, but we are confident we will be able to share this with you soon.

We originally planned to release our demo and Kickstarter campaign this June… but we realized that in June, Steam hosts its annual Summer Sale and a giant NextFest for thousands of games. Instead of competing with these events, we spent June polishing up our demo and setting the stage for later parts of our game. We now have a demo that’s better than ever and hope you are excited for our projected late-July release!

Right now, we have worked through over 40 pages of notes for optimization and added bonus information. Emily has also revised and optimized all of our game’s beautiful characters, backgrounds, and cut-scenes so that the game runs as smoothly as possible while offering a fully animated and immersive world to explore. Thanks to our amazing beta testers, we now have a good idea of the minimum range of computer specs that can handle our game. We will use that information to help people determine what to use to play the demo!



Currently, the prologue has 1,500 lines of code. Meanwhile, Chapter 1 has 27,300 lines and Chapter 2 has 36,200 lines of code up to the end of the demo. We’ll be reusing some of this very important code (not including the code for things like the animated backgrounds and characters, which are in separate files) for the rest of our game, so creating stable code is really important!

We also have more secrets in our game than ever. Try out different foods at the start of the demo! See what happens if you replay tutorials… or skip them entirely! See if you can find all the new surprises we have hidden in the demo!

We will be submitting our demo build to Steam for review very soon after doing some testing. Once Steam approves our build – a process that can take a few weeks – we will be ready to showcase our final demo and Kickstarter campaign to the world. We will let you know when our demo & Kickstarter campaign release with a countdown on our mailing list and social media sites!



While you wait for our final demo and Kickstarter campaign, we wanted to introduce a fun new secret – the first of many character portraits that will show up throughout our game!



You see this lovely lady? This is Merlina and she is a portrait of someone we dearly love… one of our strongest and earliest supporters and champions. Her portrait was drawn by our amazing sprite artists at Somate Studio and comes to life within our game, complete with a few hidden secrets...

In our upcoming Kickstarter, you can secure your own animated, in-game portrait! Your portrait will be drawn by the master artists at Somate Studio and will be a major part of the plot in the final sections of the game. You too can share a stage with Jane and her suspicious love interests if you choose to support this tier of the Kickstarter!

Be sure to tune into our Kickstarter for more details on how you could purchase a portrait as well as plenty of other beautiful but limited prizes!



We recently achieved two amazing new milestones. Firstly, our youtube channel achieved over 1,000 subscribers. Be sure to join us there for over one hundred unique Save the Villainess related videos!

Secondly, our Kickstarter precampaign page achieved over 900 supporters!

Thank you for your help in reaching this amazing goal. Thanks to your generous help, we hope to reach even more supporters before we launch... After all, our project would not be possible without you and your support!



If you’re interested in delving into more villainess shenanigans, you can take a look into our developing novel, “The Villainess Wants Her Prince to Live!”



You can find the novel on Royal Roads and Archive of Our Own.

Recently, we got an amazing review from Ebert on Royal Roads:

“I’m really liking this story so far. Initially started out with a classic villainess story premise; you know, visions of the future, arranged marriage to a prince, another “villainess” condemned at a party. Except, what’s this about deadly family dynamics? Why is the main character calling herself an in-bred shit in? Why does the prince (and currently presumed male lead) frolic so much? All the classic tropes of Villainess storylines, but with the humor and clever twists to revitalize one of my favorite types of stories.”

So if you want to read a story that takes every villainess story cliche you can think of and turns it on its head, try our novel today!

(Note: You don’t need to read the novel to enjoy or understand Save the Villainess – but you will learn a lot of fun lore about the world of Save the Villainess if you read it!)



May you all have an amazing (and not too searing) journey into summer. We cannot wait to release our demo & Kickstarter campaign and share so many surprises with you later this month. We just need Steam to give us permission now!

Finally, on our mailing list, we're also offering brand new character cards giving information about the what our main cast members would want to see in a portrait. Want those cards? Sign up for our mailing list today!

🦋Kickstarter Pre-Launch Page

🦋Youtube Channel

🦋Tumblr

🦋Twitter

🦋TikTok

🦋Instagram

Free New Prequel Novel for Save the Villainess & Demo/Kickstarter Updates!

Dear Villainesses and Villains:

This is Tanya and Emily, the co-developers of Save the Villainess. We hope you’re enjoying the beautiful buds of May! We’re excited because we’re close to finishing up our final demo and have some Kickstarter secrets to share!

We also have a wonderful surprise – the first chapter of a brand new novel called “The Villainess Wants Her Prince to Live” – a prequel to Save the Villainess. It is live on Wattpad and Royal Roads now!



While you wait for our final demo and Kickstarter campaign, we wrote new romantic murder-mystery novel that is a prequel to Save the Villainess. (The novel takes place several decades before the events of the game).

Our new novel is called “The Villainess Wants Her Prince to Live!”

Summary: “Regina Sheridan can see the future. Unfortunately, the future says that she will be executed as a villainess unless she can keep her new fiancé, Prince Artem Alpin, alive. The future also tells her someone is hunting Artem… and that he has the survival instincts of a goldfish. Please universe, The Villainess Wants Her Prince to Live!”

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Tapas.io Link.


Royal Roads Link.

We appreciate any likes or comments you have for our story, since it helps us find new readers. We will also update our completely outlined story on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. Subscribe to our story on either site for more – and happy reading!

(Note: You do not need to read “The Villainess Wants Her Prince to Live” to play Save the Villainess. However, the novel does offer interesting lore on the characters’ families for readers – as well as a fun murder-mystery similar to what you will find in the actual game!)





We have been working hard on Save the Villainess’ upcoming Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign, which will allow our game to include dazzling new art and scenes. Here a few of the rewards you can get during our campaign:

  • A digital game code for Save the Villainess on Steam or Itch-dot-io for just $20 - limited time only!
  • Personalized videos from your favorite characters
  • Several digital books, including an art book and character diaries
  • A chance to name some of the animals and objects of our game (including Feet Fish!)
  • A chance to commission a plot-important portrait of yourself that appears in the game


Interested in hearing more about our Kickstarter campaign as soon as it drops?

You can sign up to our Kickstarter pre-campaign page here!





We are working hard on our final demo. Among other things, Emily has revised thousands of lines of programming code to make our detailed animations load faster. Emily also created a very cool (and long) credits scene, added in a new secret, and added some changes based on feedback of beta testers.

(Let’s just say that when you play the final demo and put in the most common favorite foods of our beta testers, you will get some interesting surprises…)

We are now waiting for some final updated art/video assets to incorporate and are implementing final changes before testing our demo. We look forward to finishing our work and sharing the polished demo with the world!



This month on our mailing list, we're also offering brand new character cards giving information about the what our main cast members think of our new novel. Want those cards? Sign up for our mailing list today!

🦋Kickstarter Pre-Launch Page

🦋Youtube Channel

🦋Tumblr

🦋Twitter

🦋TikTok

🦋Instagram

Celebrate A New Magical Collaboration with Save the Villainess!

Dear Villainesses and Villains:

This is Tanya and Emily, the co-developers of Save the Villainess. We hope you’re enjoying the weather of the spring! We’re excited to share some news about an amazing Mystery & Magic otome game bundle that we organized for the summer, update you on our Kickstarter pre-campaign, and celebrate April Fool’s Day with unique new love interests for Save the Villainess!





This month, with the support of 11 of our fellow indie game developers, we organized a bundle of Mystery & Magic-themed otome games on Steam and Itch.io!

The games in our new cross-promotion include: Alaris, Dual Chroma, Lost in Limbo, Mask - Beyond Lies, Obscura, Pearlglow Cafe, Sigh of the Abyss, Silent Kingdom, Snow White Ashes, The Good People, and Thorn for the Villain.

You can also get a glimpse of all of these fantastic games in the trailer below!

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

So if you are interested in discovering amazing and choice-drive otome games with strong romance and gorgeous fantasy worlds, please check out our partners' pages on Steam and itch.io. We hope you fall under our spell of magic and romance this summer…!





We have some amazing news to share about Save the Villainess’ upcoming Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign, which will help us expand our game to include brand new characters, costumes and backgrounds, solvable mysteries and puzzles, and flashback scenes.

You can sign up to our Kickstarter pre-campaign page here!

Thanks to your support, we had over 350 people signing up to be a part of our Kickstarter pre-campaign in just the first few days! We appreciate all the support you have shown us and hope you will stay tuned for the surprises we are about to unveil. Speaking of which…



To celebrate April Fool’s Day this year, we unveiled 4 new love interests for our villainess… with a secret 5th love interest in our beta-tester only discord.

So here are our new love interests! Which one catches your eye… and heart?









This month, we're also offering brand new character cards giving information about the best prank our characters have ever committed or experienced on our mailing list. So if you are on our mailing list, you can request special cards from each of our main characters - Jane, Edmund, Izel, Ben, and Servant!

Sign up for our mailing list today!

Thanks again for your invaluable support, dear friends. We are working hard backstage to get ourselves ready for our Kickstarter campaign and revised demo.

May you enjoy the rest of your spring – as well as the surprises we have yet to unveil! We’re still keeping plenty of tricks up our sleeve, after all…

With Greatest Affection,
Tanya & Emily
Best Laid Plans Productions Inc.



Want more on Save the Villainess? Please follow our links below!

🦋Kickstarter Pre-Launch Page

🦋Best Laid Plans' Mailing List

🦋Youtube Channel

🦋Tumblr

🦋Twitter

🦋TikTok

🦋Instagram

Join Save the Villainess' Kickstarter Pre-Launch!



Dear Villains and Villainesses:

This is Tanya and Emily, the developers of Save the Villainess. We are thrilled to share an exciting piece of news with you…

We have decided to create a Kickstarter campaign to support Save the Villainess – and you can sign up for more info on our pre-launch page!

You can see our Kickstarter pre-campaign trailer below, if you don’t mind a glimpse of something special we have been hiding so far…

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Our Kickstarter campaign will launch soon along with new goodies. Beyond a revamped demo, we’ll offer several new ways to visit and learn more about Carcosa, the country where Save the Villainess takes place.

Who knows what secrets, suspects, and even potential lovers you might meet along the way…

We thought a lot about how to create the game we want to share with you, especially after the amazing support you have given our beta demo. We decided that Kickstarter is the way to help us create the best version of Save the Villainess possible. With your support, we can pay for new characters and settings to stage even more villainess-related shenanigans. We will be sharing more details on this as we work towards our public demo and the start of our campaign.

Thank you again and please sign up for the Kickstarter pre-campaign page​. We appreciate your support!





🦋Kickstarter Pre-Launch Page

🦋Best Laid Plans' Mailing List

🦋Youtube Channel

🦋Tumblr

🦋Twitter

🦋TikTok

🦋Instagram

Save the Villainess is in Steam's Lovecraftian Days Festival!

Save the Villainess is now a part of Steam's Lovecraftian Days festival!

Lovecraftian horror is about the terror of the unknown, of what is just out of sight, just beyond reach. The enemy is often beyond human comprehension or understanding… or focused on a battle with your own mind.



The creatures that do appear are alien and terrible beyond even what they physically show… the lurking shadows of dread.

In Save the Villainess, you will be coming to a perfectly normal House inhabited by perfectly normal… people with a perfectly normal set of experiences.



You need not fear the sounds you hear around you or the shifting of the wallpaper or the way everything is technically as the world should be but maybe not quite… right.

After all, you only have to do one small thing.



To avoid what is hiding beneath the surface of this world, all you need to do is Save the Villainess.

Simple enough, right?