CATAL CARTA
OLC Salon Lab
A mystery visual novel set in a fading secondhand bookshop. Five childhood friends confront small-town scandals armed only with what they've read — drawing on the themes of unrelated books to unsettle the things people won't admit. 15 cases, 5–10 minutes each.
Overview
Five childhood friends, lending a hand for the town where they grew up.

A provincial town wrapped in quiet stagnation.
In one corner stands a fading secondhand bookshop.
The five childhood friends who gather here unravel the small scandals brought to their door.
Their only weapons are the books on the shelves.
Confronted with evidence,
people will not let go of their own story.
Only when books from distant fields say the same thing does the other's claim fall apart.

During Investigation, decide where to send each of the five friends to gather information.
Where you dispatch whom changes how the case unfolds — reading each friend's chemistry
with the people involved is the key to cracking a case.

Once the clues are in hand, it's time for Confrontation.
Armed with what the books have taught you,
choose your words and break down the suspect's walls.
The goal isn't to corner them — it's to reach the real reason hidden behind their story.

Each case runs about 5–10 minutes.
Across these easygoing short stories, the five leads, the world of books,
and the lives of the townspeople quietly unfold.
Features
- 15 cases, 60 books across 14 shelves, 21 suspects — every case rewards a different combination of clues
- Three difficulty levels (Easy / Normal / Hard). Hard hides the predicted outcome, leaving you to rely on instinct and experience
- Full controller support — navigate, confirm, and even quit entirely with a gamepad
- Available in 13 languages, including English, Japanese, Simplified/Traditional Chinese, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, Ukrainian, Indonesian, and Georgian
This game was made with the help of generative AI. Character and background art were created with ChatGPT (image generation), music with SOUNDRAW (AI music generation), and translations other than Japanese are machine-generated via ChatGPT (in languages other than English and Chinese, some wording may read unnaturally). All of these were generated during development and are bundled with the game — no AI runs while you play.
The feel
Genres
Ways to play
- Single-player
- Controller
Weak PC? It still plays
Play CATAL CARTA on a weak PC
CATAL CARTA needs at least 4 GB of RAM. Cloud PC is a Windows computer with a strong GPU in the cloud. You control it from your laptop, phone or desktop.
Turn on Cloud PC
Log in to Thinkmay and start your machine. You get a Windows desktop of your own.
Install the game
Install CATAL CARTA from Steam as you would at home.
Play on any device
Play on a laptop, phone or desktop. Controllers and microphones work.
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