STARCULT’s Emotion Palette Could Change Visual Novels Forever
Forget picking what to say — in STARCULT: Night Twisted Age, you have to decide how to feel first. Indie studio Not a Cat Studios has released the public demo for its dark fantasy murder mystery visual novel, introducing a genre-bending “Emotion Palette” system that could redefine how choice-driven storytelling works. The demo is now live on Steam.
The game casts players as Silviya Nebula, a noblewoman whose husband is murdered on their wedding night. As she digs for answers, she’s pulled into a tangled web of conspiracy, manipulation, romance and supernatural forces hiding just beneath the surface of her world.
A New Way to Choose: Feelings First, Words Second
Most visual novels hand players a short list of preset dialogue lines and call it a day. STARCULT flips that formula on its head. Before selecting what to say, players must first choose an emotion — and that choice determines which dialogue options even become available.
Different emotional states unlock different responses, surfacing new information, shifting relationships and altering how other characters react in the moment. The system is deep enough to unlock up to 15 distinct dialogue choices within a single conversation, a dramatic leap from the two or three options typical of the genre.
Because every emotional pick nudges Silviya’s personality and reshapes her standing with those around her, the same conversation almost never plays out the same way twice, turning replayability into one of the demo’s biggest selling points.
Empathy-Driven Design Puts Players in the Driver’s Seat
The system isn’t just a gimmick; it’s built around a specific design philosophy. “While making this game, we’re trying to base it on empathy, where each character have their own motivation and goals,” said Liliia Sitailo, artist and CEO of Not a Cat Studios. “The better MC would understand them, the wider choice she would have of how to build relationships with them. I’m super excited to see players react to each dialogue choice with their natural curiosity and choose by themselves which person MC should be in their current walkthrough.”
That philosophy shows up throughout the demo’s feature set, which includes multiple story routes and endings shaped entirely by player choices, a murder mystery packed with secrets and supernatural intrigue, and a personality system that lets players sculpt exactly who Silviya becomes and how the world perceives her.
Whether or not players manage to unmask the killer, developers are quick to point out it’s only the beginning: STARCULT’s full story has much more waiting beneath the surface.
The demo is available now on Steam, with the full release planned for Q4 2026 following Steam Next Fest.
