STARCULT Interview: How Emotion Shapes Murder, Romance, and Choice

STARCULT Turns Emotion Into a Weapon, a Clue, and a Choice

NOT A CAT STUDIOS discusses the Emotion Palette, murder, romance, political inequality, and supernatural horror in STARCULT. Night: Twisted Age.

STARCULT. Night: Twisted Age begins with the murder of Silviya Nebula’s husband on their wedding night. What follows is a dark fantasy visual novel built around investigation, relationships, hidden motives, and a world shaped by political inequality and eldritch horror.

At the centre of the game is the Emotion Palette, which connects Silviya’s emotional state directly to the dialogue choices available to the player. Following our earlier STARCULT. Night: Twisted Age coverage, Fix Gaming Channel spoke with Game Designer Dmytro Ivanov and Liliia Sitailo about the system, the wedding-night murder, the game’s visual identity, player reactions, and the road to release.

STARCULT. Night: Twisted Age Demo Trailer

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STARCULT on Emotion, Mystery, and Choice

Many visual novels ask players to choose what to say. What inspired you to make players choose an emotion before selecting their response?

We took the typical visual novel expression mechanic as a base – where the player has several emotion expression choices that don’t affect the scene. We set out to make the expression meaningful, one that affects the plot. At the same time, we shifted the focus to the expression of a specific character in the story – Silviya Nebula.

by Dmytro Ivanov, Game Designer

How does the Emotion Palette determine which dialogue options become available during a conversation?

Throughout the story, Silviya receives Emotions that she places on her Palette. The Emotions she collects, together with the plot context of a specific dialogue, determine the choices in that dialogue.

by Dmytro Ivanov, Game Designer

With as many as 15 possible responses in a single conversation, how do you keep the choices meaningful rather than overwhelming the player?

This is where the Emotion Palette comes in. The player can only see up to 3 choices at a time, and each of the 4 Emotions opens up new options for each of those choices. If the player doesn’t have certain Emotion, they woudn’t see the options that Emotion opens up.

by Dmytro Ivanov, Game Designer

The Emotion Palette influences which dialogue choices are available to Silviya.

How deeply can the player shape Silviya’s personality through repeated emotional choices?

The formation of the main character’s personality does not depend only on the selection of Emotional Choices, they are only one of the means. That is, we do not create the Path of Anger, the Path of Fear, etc. Instead, Silviya’s character will be formed under the influence of impressions from the events around her, relationships with other characters, and her own reflections. Thus, Silviya’s character can be changed significantly, and this will directly affect the plot.

by Dmytro Ivanov, Game Designer

Can characters recognize patterns in Silviya’s behavior, such as whether she regularly responds with anger, fear, empathy, or suspicion?

Characters will analyze Silviya’s behavior depending on their abilities and goals. For example, Detective Matthew will definitely pay attention to the change in the main character’s behavior, because his task is to collect evidence. Or Cassiopeia, Silviya’s maiden, will be able to recognize subtle changes in her mood. While Vivienne is unlikely to be interested in Silviya’s feelings, because she has more important things to do (which players would be able to see in extended demo). So who really cares about the feelings of the young widow Nebula, and who is just pretending, players will have to investigate for themselves.

by Dmytro Ivanov, Game Designer

STARCULT combines a murder mystery, romance, political inequality, and supernatural horror. How did you balance these different elements without allowing one to overshadow the others?

Undoubtedly, this is a serious challenge for us, the developers! Nevertheless, the above-mentioned topics feed each other – if there is eldritch horror in the game world, it will definitely be reflected in everyday life, and therefore in culture and politics. Political intrigues often become the basis for crimes. It is impossible to effectively investigate a crime without understanding the motivations of its participants: who loves, hates, respects, despises whom. Therefore, we believe that everyone in our game will be able to find what they like the most, but at the same time this part will still remain an integral part of the overall story.

by Dmytro Ivanov, Game Designer

Supernatural horror is woven into STARCULT’s mystery, politics, and character relationships.

You have described empathy as an important part of the game. Can understanding another character’s motivations create opportunities that manipulation or confrontation would not?

First of all, empathy is about understanding the motivations of another person. In a sense, it is the gathering of information. How to use this information is up to the player. For example, empathy can be the basis for further manipulation. As for direct confrontation – this is too crude a method, which does not befit a Noble. Nevertheless, we will give players the opportunity to choose this path, although we will show how it is less effective than the soft power of empathy.

by Dmytro Ivanov, Game Designer

How do romantic relationships connect to the central mystery? Can trusting the wrong person significantly change the investigation?

From a practical perspective, Silviya needs to enlist the support of those around her in a crisis situation in a hostile environment. And yes, if she trusts the wrong person, she can draw the wrong conclusions and put herself and those around her in danger.

by Dmytro Ivanov, Game Designer

Does every emotional response reveal something truthful about a character, or can Silviya’s emotional state also cause her to misinterpret their intentions?

All the conclusions that Silviya draws throughout the story are her personal opinions. She is also a living being and can draw false conclusions. For the player, this is essentially another layer of detective work – analyzing Silviya’s thoughts.

by Dmytro Ivanov, Game Designer

How much can players uncover about the wedding-night murder in the current demo, and are there clues that may only become meaningful during a second playthrough?

The plot of the demo is built in such a way that the player can find out who the killer is. But knowing the murderer’s identity is only the beginning of the plot. Repeated playthroughs will definitely help with this (even the death endings are useful, because they contain some clues!)

by Dmytro Ivanov, Game Designer

What influenced the visual identity of STARCULT, particularly its combination of aristocratic dark fantasy and eldritch horror?

I combined our love for Lovecraftian vibes with a knowledge of art history. The 18-19th century era is our favorite part of history, because it’s an era of contrasts, blending the beautiful and the terrifying. It’s also an era of progress, so we wondered what would happen if, during this era, things went completely differently than in the real world (fx climate change on “steriods”)… How would people adapt to a new world, and how would that world irreversibly change them? Characters were drawn in a fashionable perspective to underline how bizzare this world is.

by Liliia Sitailo

What have you learned from players since releasing the public demo, and has any reaction to the Emotion Palette surprised the team?

Players analyze the plot very deeply. We are very happy when we heard assumptions that correlated closely with the plot and the world! Regarding the Palette: closed playtests showed that we needed a tutorial for the Palette. So, we added it for the public demo and we see a positive effect: most players easily understood how to use our unique feature!

by Dmytro Ivanov, Game Designer

The full game is currently planned for Q4 2026. What areas of development will be the team’s main focus between the demo and release?

Currently, the detailed plot(actual scenes) of the next game days is being actively written, and art is being drawn for them. The next stage will be the release of an extended demo that includes the first 2 gaming days. It will give players enough time to spend with each revealed character and get a full taste of the features(as well as to feel the first consequences of the earlier made choices).

The global plot of the game was outlined before we had the demo reveal. We hope to impress players with a few more new abilities for existing features, along with the plot progression. We are also working on localisations – in particular, work is currently underway on Ukrainian and French.

by Liliia Sitailo

Finally, what do you hope players will understand about Silviya, her world, and their own emotional choices by the end of STARCULT: Night Twisted Age?

I hope that players will understand that appearances can be deceiving (both in relation to people and the world), that understanding the feelings of others and one’s own is the key to a harmonious life (though understanding them doesn’t mean one should accept them!). That there is a place of hope in this world even if it is shaped by unspeakable horrors. I also hope that players would be able to recognise allusions to the rising inequality in our world and see what they can do when things are going to blow up. That there are no simple answers to the hard questions, as well as how justice and “what is the right thing to do” can be changed for the masses, before they will recognise that.

by Liliia Sitailo

A Mystery Shaped by Emotion

STARCULT. Night: Twisted Age asks players to investigate more than a murder. Silviya’s feelings, assumptions, relationships, and interpretation of the people around her are also part of the mystery.

The public demo is available now, while the full game is currently planned for Q4 2026.

STARCULT. Night: Twisted Age

Release: Q4 2026; public demo available now

Genre: Dark Fantasy Visual Novel, Romance, Horror, Mystery

Developer / Publisher: NOT A CAT STUDIOS

Platforms: PC via Steam

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