ASANA Visual Novel: A Cosmic Crisis, a Judgemental Cat and a Free Demo

The world is falling apart. Your ship’s AI is a judgemental cat. And somehow, you’re the captain expected to fix everything. ASANA Visual Novel is an upcoming science-fiction dark comedy from solo developer Testudo, bringing branching storytelling, character-building and English voice performances into an established webcomic universe.

Choices with consequences in a collapsing galaxy

You take the role of Captain Asana, trying to make sense of exploding planets, a heavily armed pursuer called Cat-Ptain Paradox and a past that remains suspiciously obscure. Rather than offering the same dialogue options to every player, the game lets you shape the protagonist’s abilities through Captain, Explorer, Pilot and Charm stats, along with a hidden fifth skill.

Those choices are designed to open and close narrative routes, making a replay feel meaningfully different. Testudo describes a story planned across eight chapters, with the project’s dark humour offsetting its more alarming science-fiction events. The writing and core characters originate from the creator’s ASANA webcomic world.

Meet N.E.K.O., the ship’s least supportive companion

One of the more unusual ideas is N.E.K.O., a seemingly godlike ship AI currently taking the form of a cat. In selected scenes, players can type their own replies rather than choosing solely from fixed dialogue. An optional online system uses Anthropic Claude to generate N.E.K.O.’s responses within the scene’s rules; some dialogue can also receive generated English speech using ElevenLabs.

These features are optional, and the developer says the story remains playable offline with prewritten responses. Online conversations and generated speech have request limits, so players should check Steam for the current allowances. The game also features prerecorded English voice performances.

Testudo’s Steam disclosure explains that generative AI also assisted parts of development, including some backgrounds, music, localisation and code, while the creator directs the story, characters and final decisions. That’s a meaningful distinction for readers who want to know how AI is being used in independent games.

A solo developer, a cast of voices and a surprisingly tangible world

ASANA is Testudo’s first game, developed in Ren’Py. In a direct response to Coloured Static Press, the creator highlighted the English voice cast and multilingual text, sharing the voice credits alongside photographs of plush counterparts to the characters. Those touches give this one a personality that reaches beyond its digital pages.

The Steam listing currently shows English full audio and several interface and subtitle translations. Localisation details may continue changing before the planned release, so the store listing is the best place to check the latest supported languages.

ASANA in pictures

A closer look at Testudo’s science-fiction setting, characters and visual-novel presentation. Select an image to see the original artwork.

Official screenshots: Testudo / Steam. Images shown uncropped.

A free demo is ready to explore

The game is scheduled for 9 December 2026, and a free PC demo is already available on Steam. If narrative choices, unusual companions and a science-fiction setting with a wicked sense of humour sound appealing, this is one worth a look before launch.

Editorial note: This is a First Signal discovery feature based on the developer’s public announcement and official Steam information, not a hands-on review. Game artwork is from the official Steam listing. The Steam page also contains the developer’s AI-content disclosure. Source: ASANA Visual Novel on Steam.