Black Tabby moves into publishing

Black Tabby Games did not just announce another game this week. On April 9, 2026, the studio behind Slay the Princess said it is now running a separate label called Black Tabby Publishing, and it already has two signed projects. (blacktabbygames.com, theverge.com) That is a bigger move than it sounds, because Black Tabby was a two-person studio best known for making its own horror-heavy narrative games, not for financing other teams. Its founders are Abby Howard and Tony Howard-Arias, and their studio site describes Black Tabby as “narrative-first.” (blacktabbygames.com, gamespress.com) The reason they can do this is that Slay the Princess got large enough to throw off real cash. Black Tabby said on February 2, 2026 that Slay the Princess had passed 1 million sales across all platforms, while Scarlet Hollow had sold more than 100,000 copies. (gamespress.com) Black Tabby’s first announced publishing game is Prove You’re Human from sunset visitor, the team behind 1000xRESIST. Black Tabby says it is publishing and fully funding that game, not just helping with a trailer and a store page. (gamedeveloper.com, gematsu.com) That funding matters because Prove You’re Human is the kind of project that gets expensive in weird, physical ways. sunset visitor told Game Developer the game uses full-motion video, meaning filmed scenes with actors, and that missing a summer shoot window in Vancouver could push production back by 12 months. (gamedeveloper.com) Black Tabby says there is also a second signed game from SmallBu animation that has not been revealed yet. On its publishing page, the studio says it is looking for “narrative-forward” games built around comedy, horror, romance, or stories about the human condition. (blacktabbygames.com) The pitch Black Tabby is making to developers is not “we are the biggest check in the room.” It is “we know this corner of games because we live in it,” and that can matter when the game is a strange visual novel, a branching horror story, or something else that does not fit a standard action-game sales deck. (blacktabbygames.com, theverge.com) Howard-Arias told Game Developer they had already saved the projected budget for Black Tabby’s own third game before deciding to publish others. Abby Howard told the same outlet, “We’re doing well enough that we can afford to make our games, and now we want to be able to help other people.” (gamedeveloper.com) The other detail developers will notice is rights. Game Developer reported that Black Tabby wants deals with recoup costs while letting creators keep full ownership of their intellectual property, which is the part of a contract that decides who controls the game world, characters, and sequels. (gamedeveloper.com) That does not mean every deal will be soft or small. It means a studio that made its name on hand-drawn horror and branching writing is now trying to build a publisher around the same taste, with money earned from a hit that launched in 2023 and crossed 1 million sales in 2026. (store.steampowered.com, gamespress.com) If this works, Black Tabby becomes one more example of a successful indie studio turning hit-game revenue into a bridge for smaller teams that need funding, release management, and a publisher that already knows how to sell a very specific kind of weird. Right now, that experiment has two signed games, one public partner in sunset visitor, and one clear thesis: narrative games do not need to be treated like side projects to deserve serious backing. (blacktabbygames.com, theverge.com, gamedeveloper.com)