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Development and Release
September 12, 2026 at 11:01 PM
Initial version: studio history and size, announcement timeline, the press demo, scope decisions and release status (2026-09-12)
Ylem's Cat is being developed and self-published by Diamond Cat Studio (钻石猫, also written 钻石猫工作室), a studio in Guangzhou, China. It is the studio's first and only announced game.
Field | Detail |
|---|---|
Founded | October 2025. Work on Ylem's Cat was already in preparation before the studio was formally established. |
Location | Guangzhou, China. |
Size | Seven people, counting research and development only. The producer describes all seven as core members. |
Producer | 阿船. No romanisation or English name has been published. |
Previous work | Team members have worked at other Chinese studios, including Papergames (叠纸) and Happy Elements (乐元素). The producer has previously worked on an action and story-driven project that has not been named. |
Engine | Unreal Engine. The producer has said that adopting the engine's ecosystem, including its built-in hair system, is a cost-reduction choice for a small team. |
A figure of six people circulates in some coverage of the reveal. Two separate interviews with the producer give seven.
Most of the team comes from live-service and mobile backgrounds rather than from premium single-player development, and some members were recruited from campus and social channels rather than from established studios. The producer has framed the shift to a premium, buy-to-play game as a deliberate break from that history rather than as a continuation of it.
Date | Event |
|---|---|
2026-08-24 | The first trailer is published and the Steam store page opens for wishlisting. |
2026-08-24 to 2026-08-25 | An offline preview event in China where press play a demo of roughly one hour, followed by a group interview with the producer. This is the only attested reveal venue for the game. |
2026-08-25 | Coverage of the announcement and of the hands-on demo appears in English and Chinese. |
Claims that the game was announced at a major August 2026 showcase are incorrect. The trailer went up roughly a day before that showcase took place, and the game does not appear in its line-up.
The only playable build so far is the press demo from that event: a linear level of about an hour, taken from early in the game, in which Molly makes her way back toward her village while mechanical Sentinels pursue her. It was never released publicly, and as of 2026-09-12 there is no demo, playtest or beta on Steam. Extra hints were added to that build specifically so that testers would not stall inside a single session.
Changes the producer has committed to since the event include one rebalancing pass on the ranged and melee split, better signposting toward the in-game journal, camera protection against scenery blocking the view, and improved target locking in group fights. Details of each are on the Combat and Knowledge-Driven Exploration pages.
The main story is targeted at roughly 15 to 20 hours.
There are no plans for New Game Plus and no plans for multiple endings. The producer has said the intention is for players to follow the emotional line of the main story once, all the way down.
Ten to fifteen story characters are planned, each built to the same art standard as the protagonist and each with dedicated story content.
Combat, exploration and puzzles are intended to take up roughly equal thirds of the game.
Numeric character growth is deliberately compressed so that it does not overshadow the knowledge-lock design.
The game targets an RTX 2060 as its minimum graphics card and an RTX 3060 Ti as its recommended one, which the producer has described as an internal development constraint as well as a store listing.
The team describes the tone it is aiming for as science fiction plus healing plus emotion, and has said it wants to tell an emotional, comforting story.
The producer has named the games the design starts from, and these are stated influences only, not content in Ylem's Cat. The knowledge-lock structure starts from a first-person space exploration game the team describes itself as a devoted fan of, joined by a second exploration game known for teaching through an in-game manual. A well-known action role-playing series is cited as the model for keeping a world internally consistent, and a character-action series is cited as a counter-example, its automatic combat mode described as a pity.
The Steam listing reads Coming soon, with no date, no window and no price as of 2026-09-12. In interview the producer has said the team hopes to have the game out in 2028 if development goes smoothly, hedged in exactly those terms. Treat 2028 as an aspiration the developers have voiced, not as an announced date.
The game is planned as a premium, buy-to-play release. It will ship in English and Simplified Chinese, both with full voice acting, and is listed for Windows PC only.
As of 2026-09-12 the Steam page has published no announcement posts, in any of its store languages.
No official website or community channels have been found beyond the store page and the studio's own video uploads.
No composer, voice cast, writer, art director or any other individual credit has been published. The producer is known only by the name 阿船.
No price, no release window and no platform beyond Windows PC has been announced.
