Inside Save the Villainess – Villains, Ball Gowns, and Betrayal
What happens when you wake up as a villainess in a romance novel with no memory—and one of your potential love interests is trying to kill you? Save the Villainess, created by Tanya Yan and Emily of Best Laid Plans Productions, takes this premise and transforms it into an unforgettable mix of romance, dark comedy, murder mystery, and eldritch horror.
Listen to the full interview with the developers on YouTube.
We had the chance to chat with Tanya and Emily about their inspirations behind the characters, story, and inventive gameplay mechanics that set Save the Villainess apart. Let’s dive in!
Save the Villainess Interview
Tanya: “Hi everyone! I’m Tanya Yan, one of the developers of Save the Villainess, and I’m thrilled to be here. I’m a neurodivergent Desi-American writer, editor, and researcher who lives in the Northeastern United States. I’m a long-time fan of otome games, murder-mysteries, and villainous women that everyone wants to destroy. So after I met my amazing friend Emily, we decided to combine all these passions and create a black comedy otome isekai murder-mystery game featuring a villainous woman that everyone wants to destroy. I am excited to share more about that game – Save the Villainess – today!”
Emily: “Hello and thank you to Lover’s Lens and Sweet Pixel for having us here today! I’m Emily and I’m the co-developer of Save the Villainess. I’m a neurodivergent writer, programmer, graphic designer and general jack of all trades who has been amazed by how many of my skills and interests I have been able to share when making Save the Villainess. It had never occurred to me that I would be able to translate my skills as a competent swine judge into a video game and yet… here we are.”
“On a more serious note, one of the best experiences of my life has been getting to work with my amazing friend Tanya on a game that allows us to pursue our love of history, mystery, and trying to survive in a world that is trying to destroy you. I’m excited to get to talk more about our game and help you decide whether or not you want to Save the Villainess yourself.”
Tanya: “Save the Villainess is a story that answers one specific question. Namely: “What would you do if you lost your memory and became a villainess in a romance novel you cannot remember… where one of your love interests wants to kill you?”
“Save the Villainess is also a story that covers many other themes. It’s a story about what it takes to survive a life where anyone – even the people who seem to love you – might destroy you. It’s a story about uncovering past trauma and finding the strength to heal despite having been hurt before. Finally, it’s a story about what it takes to find love and hope in a world where you are the villainess that other people hate for reasons beyond your control.”
“It’s also a dark-comedy murder mystery that challenges you to fight foes and furniture inside of a supernatural and sentient manor that will murder you if you are not sufficiently clever. The game is a huge mix of genres and surprises that come together in a way that we hope will satisfy players looking for something out of the ordinary. If this summary intrigues you, you can check out our free 3-hour demo on both Steam and Itch.io!”
Tanya: “When creating our game, Emily and I were enormously inspired by the villainess isekai – also known as otome isekai – genre of stories that became popular over the last few years. In this genre, an ordinary person from modern day reincarnates into the villainess female character of a romance story, often an otome game. As the villainess, she is hated by the people around her – often because the romance story needs an evil female antagonist to contrast against the lovable heroine. So this new villainess must struggle to survive a narrative that seeks to destroy her.”
“When Emily and I thought of Save the Villainess, we were especially inspired by darkly funny villainess isekai series like My Next Life as a Villainess, Beware the Villainess, and Tearmoon Empire. All of these brilliant stories have hilarious, quirky, probably neurodivergent, and incredibly proactive villainesses that inspired Jane, our own quirky, neurodivergent, and proactive villainess lead.”
“Yet we wanted to go even further by making our story into an interactive game… which means that our players can actively control what the villainess does, who the villainess loves, and what fate the villainess meets. Thus, making Save the Villainess a game allows us to offer players a choice in how the villainess’ story unfolds, both in terms of her survival strategies and in terms of her love life.”
Emily: “When we were designing Save the Villainess, we wanted our gameplay to be part of the story we were telling. Specifically, we wanted to tell a story that could only be told as a game with interactive elements that shape the events that you experience. Every choice you make in Save the Villainess is part of the larger story that you are telling… and the game will remember most of those choices.”
“Also, thanks to the amazing artists we collaborated with on sprites and backgrounds, what you see visually is what is actually happening in the game. This means that in a point and click investigation, the elements that you see in the scene are what Jane is going to actually investigate. Furthermore, your choice of what matters and what doesn’t will have consequences for her… and for you.”
“Similarly, the deductions you will make are based on what visual and oral information you have gathered from playing the story. What you see and hear matters – both in terms of allowing you to survive and in terms of determining the story that you as the player will write. Even in boss battles, the game will remember what you have done… and your choices will haunt you when you least expect them to. Ultimately, everything in Save the Villainess is about creating a story through your actions and deductions… as well as carving a path to the truth.”
Tanya: “This is such a fun question – especially since we have a wide range of love interests, all of whom have wildly different personalities, different methods of achieving their goals, and different relationships with Jane, our villainess.”
“When we created Save the Villainess, we were inspired by fantastic villainess isekai stories like My Next Life as a Villainess and Beware the Villainess. These stories play with several fascinating romantic archetypes that often show up in both villainess isekai stories and in historical romance novels. Among these archetypes are: the Prince, the Duke, the Childhood Friend, the Servant, and the Female Love Interest. So when we created Save the Villainess, we wanted to represent these 5 different love interests in our game and offer a happy ending with each of them to our villainess… if you can make sure they don’t murder her first.”
“Of course, we’re not just writing “normal” versions of these archetypes either! Each of our love interests is a subversion and deconstruction of the archetypes they represent. Ultimately, we want to take everything you expect out of these types of characters and twist it. So we hope to send our players on a journey with these characters that they have never experienced before.”
Emily: “Before Tanya and I ever decided to create Save the Villainess we had written close to a million words jointly on villainess stories alone. We’re currently finishing up an original villainess-themed prequel novel to Save the Villainess on Archive of Our Own and Royal Roads that is called “The Villainess Wants Her Prince to Live!” So we love our villainess stories… and wanted to create one in the form of a game as well.”
“Still, for us, making a villainess-themed game was less about making a game and more about telling a story that could only be told as a game. We wanted to really dive into what it means to be a villainess and what our choices as otome gamers mean in a larger context. The meta aspects of the game are part of the larger plot. However, they are also a way for us to play with how we tell these kinds of stories and to examine our expectations for how otome games and otome isekai stories normally work.”
“We really want players to think about things they might take for granted in a visual novel, such as the idea that a narrator is going to tell you what to think about a character or event. Thus, in Save the Villainess, we tell our story entirely through dialogue and without a traditional narrative voice that explains characters and events. In fact, our game contains a few characters who are aware of how a narrator is supposed to work… and who will ensure that this game is not going to follow those conventions. We hope that our players enjoy this tongue-in-cheek meta-playfulness. We also hope that they think about how who tells the story shapes who we believe… and who we villainize.”
Tanya: “Edmund is my favorite love interest in this story – and my favorite character after Jane – so I am delighted to answer this question. Edmund is the Crown Prince character and every story featuring royals needs one of them in the cast! However, he’s also one of our favorite subversions of his archetype.”
“When you think about crown princes in any kind of story – be they a romantic or a more action-orientated story – they tend to come in two different flavors. One flavor is the “perfect” prince – he’s the one who is destined to be a good king, if only he can overcome his own flaws and the trials in his path. In a romance story, the “perfect” Crown Prince is also the man who is usually destined to end up with the female lead – once they overcome all the obstacles to their love of course. For instance, look at all the prince charmings that show up in fairy tales!”
“The other type of Crown Prince is the “awful” prince who doesn’t deserve to be a future king and who needs to be disposed of as soon as possible. He might be irresponsible or stupid or even downright sociopathic – think Joffrey from the Game of Thrones. In a villainess story, this imperfect prince is often the cruel, selfish fiance that the villainess has to ditch before he destroys her.”
“However, Edmund is a Crown Prince who doesn’t fit into either of these categories. He’s not perfect or awful. In fact, he’s an adorable, easily flustered dork who thinks puns are the best way to make others laugh and who blushes every time Jane teases him. Edmund is a very different way of conceiving of a prince character… and we can’t wait to surprise everyone with his growth through the story. What you see of Edmund in the demo is the barest surface of his character. We are going to steer his story to a place we have never seen a prince character go in a romance… and we cannot wait to see players react to him and his various endings. Whether or not you choose to romance him, Edmund will surprise you!”
Emily: “Duke Izel Kuzey is one of the most interesting characters in Save the Villainess with one of the more interesting relationships with poor Jane. He and Jane together are twins of chaos. They both prize their own survival… and understand one another’s subtle moods and thoughts.”
“Izel is someone who thinks very differently from other people, so Jane and he share a lot in common in terms of their right-angle understanding of the world. This is not an accident since both characters pull from very different aspects of my own neurodivergence. One of the things that has made me very humble and grateful when releasing the demo is how many other neurodivergent people have mentioned that Izel’s way of thinking resonates for them.”
“Izel’s unique mind also makes him the funniest love interest in Save the Villainess, which is a sharp contrast to the normal stoic, cold Duke of the North you see in otome isekai stories. He has an almost Terry Pratchett-esque feel when talking about the North and his experiences in life. For everyone else, it’s the black comedy of uncles being eaten by feet fish for their snazzy hats. For Izel, it’s Tuesday.”
“One little spoiler is that with Izel, what seems ridiculous actually has a much more sensible and horrifying explanation than it initially seems. Izel’s mind has allowed him to survive situations that are terrifying and tragic, as is hinted at in the demo. If you enjoy his different angle on the world and people, there is something very interesting to discover in his relationship with Jane… and the larger mystery of the North.”
Emily: “It’s no secret that Lord Ben Buren, future heir to the Buren duchy, is my personal favorite love interest. Much like the Duke of the North, the childhood friend is an archetype that has a fairly firm set of categories he occupies, particularly in historical fiction. He can support the main character or even obstruct the main character, but it is very rare for the childhood friend to become a serious romantic interest.”
“Like our other character archetypes, Ben superficially fits the visual look of a childhood friend, down to his brown hair and ability to hold an actual conversation with the main character. In fact, fans of the writer LM Montgomery might recognize a famous childhood friend’s influence on his design.”
“However, when developing Save the Villainess, we wanted to dive deeper into what these character archetypes actually mean. A childhood friend is more than just a permanent object that trails through your life. They are someone who has seen you at your weakest and most vulnerable. They know who you are in a way no one that meets you after you’ve developed your protective armor will ever quite reach.”
“In our story, we also wanted to have historical justifications for standard story and game tropes while also explaining how they could happen. That suddenly makes a male childhood friend very interesting.“
“We wanted to ask: how does a young man become the childhood playmate of a duke’s daughter, in a time when reputation for a woman was her most powerful currency?”
“What happens when you meet a man who knows all your secrets… and you remember none of his?”
“Who is Ben Buren… and will you discover that your childhood connection is a tree that will support you or a series of roots that will drag you down?”
Tanya: “I’m thrilled you and others want to know more about Servant, our non-binary love interest. Our initial idea for Servant was: “What if Jeeves the Butler was written by H. P. Lovecraft?” They are a surprise fan-favorite so people love this idea as much as we do!”
“Servant is a character who is both a parody and a deconstruction of all the fawning or malicious servants that tend to show up in historical romance novels. Servant does know how to serve… but they aren’t necessarily serving who you think they are serving.”
“As for how their role evolves… well, they’re a character who knows far more than they are sharing. In the demo, Servant hints at some of the stranger and darker mysteries of the story. What’s their connection to the narrative, to the House, even to the author of this story? You’ll find more as the game unfolds… and we can promise that Servant’s romantic ending will be unlike any other you’ve experienced in an otome game!”
Tanya: “Raymond is such an amazingly fun character for one simple reason. Every other character in this story is someone who subverts and deconstructs the expectations you may have for them based on their archetype, from Jane the Villainess to Edmund the Crown Prince to the still-hidden female love interest…”
“Yet Raymond? Flashy, gorgeous, smirky, obviously bad-news Raymond?”
“He is exactly who you think he is based on his shiny, ridiculous surface… or is he? We can already tell that he is going to be a fan favorite and that he will steal every future scene he occupies. We cannot wait to show more of him – we know people will either love or love-to-hate him!”
Emily: “Roshan is a character with a strong sense of honor, a deep sense of humor… and some of the most important secrets in the entire game. He plays a pivotal role in two of the three routes and a hilarious, if much shorter, role in the third. He is someone whose part in the story changes tone as often as the complexity of his character and we cannot wait for people to experience his story for themselves.”
“We are thrilled by how many people are already interested in seeing what Roshan has to offer and we cannot wait to show his dynamics with the other characters in the game. Can you find a way to weave Roshan into your narrative… or will he vanish as an unwritten tale?”
Emily: “When we first set out the design and storyboarding for Save the Villainess, we wanted to tell a story where the visuals were part of the story we were telling. What you see in Save the Villainess is what is actually happening. So paying attention to the animations and visuals will help you solve mysteries and learn more about the world and the characters.”
“To create the plot-relevant feel we wanted for the game, we’ve used a very specific style of animation that pulls from Victorian stage plays and silent movies. Specifically, there are aspects of “clockwork” scene movement and puppetry that help create some of the ominous animations throughout the game. We also use stageplay and silent movie tricks of lighting and old-fashioned dolly camera movement to help focus players on specific aspects of scenes and create a sense of both disorientation and immersion.”
“Without getting too much into the technical details, the Ren’py game engine that we are using is not normally used to do this kind of work. However, with the aid of a lot of math and the versatility of the Ren’py engine, we’ve created the off-kilter, ominous feel that we wanted for our world. We are also endlessly grateful to our amazing artists, such as Somate Studios and Saleha Chowdhury, who supported us in creating the visuals that help tell so much of the story.”
Tanya: “In Save the Villainess, you must save your villainess by overcoming constant murder attempts throughout the story. You can overcome these murder attempts by engaging in point-and-click investigations, by making clever deductive reasoning choices, and by battling against frightening and unexpected enemies. If you fail these challenges, your villainess will die… and the story will remember your failures as time goes by!”
“To help players overcome these challenges, we offer two difficulty modes that can be accessed at any time in the Settings menu. Players start off in story mode, which gives them in-game butterfly indicators about whether they chose correct or incorrect answers when trying to keep Jane alive. Story mode also gives in-game indicators about whether you raised or lowered affection with the love interests in the game.”
“However, if you want to challenge yourself, you can turn on Detective Mode in the Settings menu. Detective mode strips away all those in-game indicators and challenges you to survive – and get a romantic or single happy ending – on your own. Just be well aware that the game’s challenges will only get harder as the game continues. However, it is always possible to overcome these challenges if you remember the information the game has given you!”
We’re thrilled to share an exclusive glimpse behind the scenes of Save the Villainess! The talented artists at Somate Studio have provided two stunning sketches of Jane, our favorite villainess. The first sketch features Jane in her iconic outfit—a lacy white blouse, dark skirt, and delicate gold jewelry. The second sketch showcases Jane in her breathtaking red ball gown, complete with luxurious jewels fit for a “villainess” at the height of her power. These designs are just a taste of the many outfits Jane will don in the full game.
Excited to unravel Jane’s mysteries and explore the world of Save the Villainess? Be sure to follow the developers for updates and news! You can wishlist the game on Steam or check out the demo on Itch.io. For more content, including their prequel novel The Villainess Wants Her Prince to Live!, head over to their AO3 page. Don’t forget to join the conversation in their Discord or sign up for their mailing list for exclusive updates! You can also check out our article on Save the Villainess here.
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