Nova-box and Illustrason Detail Musical Ambitions for Supernatural Ballet Journey After the Wane

For the award-winning French studio Nova-box – the creators behind acclaimed narrative titles like Seers Isle, Along the Edge, and Across the Grooves – music is never just background noise. In their latest developer update, the team goes behind the scenes of their long-standing partnership with Illustrason, the composition duo that has defined the sonic soul of the studio’s games since 2017. Together, they are crafting a narrative architecture for their upcoming project, After the Wane.

The update focuses on how every major character is receiving a unique musical identity. While the world of protagonist Lena is anchored by classical piano and expressive strings, the enigmatic Deborah is defined by modern, electronic motifs tied to the passage of time. The developers even shared a hidden secret for the community: the current PC demo features strings playing a specific motif in Morse code, which contains hidden messages for attentive players to decipher.

After the Wane, is an atmospheric interactive fiction game that blends supernatural mystery with the high-stakes world of professional ballet. The story follows Lena, a young dancer navigating the urban grind while searching for her long-lost mother. As she balances intense artistic rivalries and the complexities of young adulthood, she is haunted by a mysterious inner voice that critiques her every move.

Using rotoscoped animation to capture authentic dance performances, the game evolves the choice-driven storytelling seen in the studio’s previous hits, challenging players to shape Lena’s destiny through a series of emotionally charged decisions. While the game is currently playable as a demo, the team emphasized that the audio is still evolving. Many tracks are currently placeholders that will be re-recorded with live professional musicians to ensure the high-fidelity emotional impact Nova-box fans expect.

With a release planned for PC via Steam and Nintendo Switch later this year, it’s clear that Nova-box is treating After the Wane as a complete performance where the audio carries as much weight as the visuals.