From there, the Hero can make several decisions, including following the instructions, attempting to save the Princess (Nichole Goodnight), or even refusing to enter the cabin altogether.

If the Hero successfully slays the Princess as directed, he leaves the basement to discover the outside world has vanished, which the Narrator claims is his reward.

Despite having no knowledge of previous loops, he is unable to repeat his actions in past iterations exactly, resulting in varied Princess forms after each reset, which he can alternatively help or harm.

The Narrator explains that he was once a death-fearing mortal who created the Hero, the Princess, and the multiverse-spanning construct they currently reside in by splitting a cosmic entity in two.

The Princess is the Shifting Mound, a cosmic entity that embodies continual change, destruction, and rebirth and is based on others' perceptions of her.

These endings include the Long Quiet accepting the end of the universe and watching the birth of a new one alongside the Shifting Mound, killing the Princess permanently to preserve the current universe, the Hero and the Princess agreeing to forget everything and reset the construct to remain in the loop indefinitely, or the two mutually rejecting godhood and leaving the cabin to face an uncertain future together.

Slay the Princess was developed by Black Tabby Games, a Canadian indie studio consisting of husband and wife Tony Howard-Arias and Abby Howard.

The pair began discussing a concept of a horror story confined to a few locations and a single character on screen at a time.

[6][8] The initial concept was of the player character being ordered to kill a seemingly innocent person who is allegedly dangerous to leave alive and changes shape to be whatever the viewer expects them to be.

[6] Howard's pencil drawing art style was initially chosen to save time over the more elaborate artwork of Scarlet Hollow, but was kept as they felt it fit the "dreamy, ever-shifting aesthetic" of the game.

The developers wanted to add voice acting to all of the dialogue in the game as the size of the script in Scarlet Hollow had been prohibitive.

[14] On September 6, Black Tabby Games participated in Feardemic's Fear Fest, debuting a new trailer announcing a release date of October 20, 2023.

It was intended to alleviate concerns from potential players about waiting for The Pristine Cut in order to see the final version of the ending.

[18] More details about The Pristine Cut were revealed in the Future of Play show as part of Summer Games Fest 2024, including the news that it would be arriving Fall 2024 and would be localized in ten other languages.

Additionally, console ports were announced for the same release window, including limited run standard and collectors physical editions for Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 5.

[34] Aaron Boehm of Bloody Disgusting wrote that, "There are times that just the change in tone of Goodnight's voice sent a chill up my spine as the mood of a scene shifted towards the macabre.

[36][37] Slay the Princess was included on lists of the best games of 2023 compiled by Kotaku, Inverse, TheGamer, GameSpot, and Destructoid.