Nivalis Nights Release Date

11 Sep 2026Developer post

Nivalis Nights – Your Tourist Map

Your arrival in the city of Nivalis is just around the corner, and we want you to feel at home as soon as you get there. Today, as a little welcome kit, we're sharing a brochure that gives you an overview of the key areas and activities waiting for you in Nivalis Nights. But ther

14 Aug 2026Developer post

What's on the menu in Nivalis Nights?

When people think about their hometown, food is often one of the first things that comes to mind. And for the residents of Nivalis, it's no different. Watching a film while crunching on crispy Cola Chicken , waiting for summer to finally enjoy a Summer Salad ( strictly banned dur

16 Jul 2026Developer post

Nivalis Nights will be featured in the Convergence Showcase

Exciting news! We’re featured in the Convergence Showcase - a broadcast highlighting some of the most exciting upcoming indie games, hosted by some VERY familiar online faces! Tune in at 7pm BST / 11am PDT. Nivalis Nights is part of the Steam event running from July 16th–23rd. We

30 May 2026Developer post

May 2026 Development Update: Optimization

Introduction to Optimization Throughout the development of our game, the world has become increasingly larger and more alive. While this has been an exciting part of the project, it also introduced new performance challenges. As we approach release, our focus has shifted toward f

Introduction to Optimization

Throughout the development of our game, the world has become increasingly larger and more alive. While this has been an exciting part of the project, it also introduced new performance challenges.

As we approach release, our focus has shifted toward final polish. Over the past few months, we have dedicated our time to fixing bugs, implementing localization, and heavily optimizing the game to ensure it runs as smoothly as possible.

Level Design & Visuals

Building a "cozy cyberpunk" world presented a unique set of challenges. We wanted the city of Nivalis to feel dense and alive, filled with people, activities, and rich visual detail.

Although the world is built entirely from voxels, it does not use a traditional voxel engine. This results in much higher polygon counts than usual, so we rely heavily on multiple levels of detail (LODs) to maintain performance without sacrificing visual quality. A huge amount of credit goes to the art team for making this possible.

Vegetation also plays a key role in creating the cozy atmosphere, which required developing plants and foliage that fit seamlessly into the environment. Combined with carefully crafted pixelated textures and extensive LOD usage, these elements bring our distinctive visual style to life.

Our focus has been on enhancing performance and immersion. We have completely overhauled and optimized light probes throughout the game which, alongside a significant round of furniture asset polishing, drastically improves memory management. If you’re wondering what light probes are - think of them as invisible, floating sensors scattered all over the city that capture how light bounces around the environment. Instead of forcing your computer to calculate complex lighting for every single frame in real-time, the game cheats a little by reading the data saved in these probes. It gives us all the atmospheric stylized lighting without melting your hardware in the process!

Plus, we’ve dialed in the weather effects, so watching the rain or seeing the snow fall against the pavement will look better than before.

Programming

Bringing the city to life, featuring thousands of NPCs continuously living their lives, was definitely one of the most difficult technical challenges we had to face. Since fully simulating that many characters simultaneously would be incredibly expensive, we created what we call the Ghost system. It essentially separates simulated characters from their visual representations. There are three distinct tiers of optimization:

Out-of-District NPCs: characters that are in different districts than the player. Things like visuals, animations, or physics are totally stripped away, we only simulate what is needed to track their daily schedules in the background.
In-District, Out-of-Sight NPCs: characters that are in the same district as the player, but not visible by the camera. Visuals are loaded but disabled and costly operations such as updating animation state are not performed every frame.
Visible NPCs: characters visible by the player. Those are fully materialized and simulated with visuals, animations, physics etc.

With this, system performance has already significantly improved. But friction persisted when transitioning between districts, or when NPCs were arriving in your immediate area. Moving an NPC from a background "ghost" to a physical entity means suddenly loading a structure made of models, animations, and scripts, causing noticeable performance hiccups.

To solve this, we implemented a classic optimization technique: Object Pooling. Instead of constantly creating and destroying NPCs, we maintain a pre-loaded "pool" of character templates waiting backstage. When we need to materialize a ghost, we grab the corresponding character from the pool, and it will be sent back to that pool once it's no longer needed. While this slightly increases the memory required by the game, the payoff in framerate stability is massive.

Besides characters, the ghost system is used for all the objects requiring world-state persistence, which represent more than 10,000 elements like tables, chairs, dishes etc. The world remembers exactly how you left it without overwhelming your hardware.

The Unity Profiler has been essential in our optimization process, as it lets us track exactly how CPU, GPU, and memory are used. With such data, we can identify the bottlenecks and what aspect of the game or what code should be optimized. This precision is critical because every fraction of a second counts. For a game to run at 60 FPS, the budget per frame is only 16.66 ms. At that scale, finding a gain of even a few tenths of a millisecond is already a significant improvement.

Beyond execution time, managing memory is also critical. When code requires some temporary space in memory to run, it creates what is technically called memory allocations. If this happens constantly, on every frame for example, even tiny allocations can accumulate over time and become problematic. At some point, a process has to step in to identify unused memory and mark it back as available. This is called garbage collection, and it is famous for causing framerate stutters in games. By reducing memory allocations throughout our code, we can make this operation faster and so reducing loading time.

User Interface

The user interface is a central component of our game, serving as the primary way players manage essential gameplay aspects. From the outset, we have designed the UI to support various screen aspect ratios, including 4:3.

The system comprises over 40 distinct windows, panels, and interface elements, all engineered to remain clear and consistent across any display configuration. Managing the game's extensive content — which includes over 240 ingredients, 190 meals, 100 quests, and 620 furniture items — presents significant demands for both performance and readability. To address this, during UI optimization our objective is to ensure the interface remains intuitive, responsive, and efficient for all players.

Story

For the story, we’ve been testing and balancing the interactions we have with the rich cast of characters you meet in the city. From fishermen who tell bad jokes to faulty robots who offer free therapy, there’s a huge number of interesting people to befriend in the city and getting the flow and pacing of quests and stories just right is a delicate balancing act. As we fine-tuned the major story beats and how they link up with the gameplay systems and offer rewards to the player, we needed to adjust the game economy and the difficulty of the quests so they are satisfying and challenging without being frustrating. We feel the plotlines, gameplay and economy now all click into place, and the choices you make will feel meaningful and resonant.

Fishing

We wanted to share some details on the fishing gameplay. Fishing is not based on random chance. Instead, every fish has a physical representation, with hundreds appearing simultaneously. Each fish is individually simulated to follow others or your bait, forming colorful shoals that move in mesmerizing patterns. This means the specific salmon you catch is the same one you saw in the water just moments before.

To ensure we can simulate over 1,000 fish while sparing CPU cycles for other background elements — like your staff serving Nigiri to customers across the city — we have implemented significant optimizations.

Additionally, every fish emits a warm glow. While officials claim they are perfectly safe to consume and dismiss reports of food poisoning as rumors, this glow presented a rendering challenge. To maintain performance, each fish's light is rendered to a separate screen texture at one-fourth the resolution. This reduces the pixels rendered and stored in VRAM, which helps optimize performance for modern GPUs.

You can see this system in action in the editor below

Our QA Process

We would like to provide an overview of our current QA structure and processes. We are currently utilizing three teams: our internal team at ION LANDS, the primary QA team at 505 Games, and an external team at Quantic Lab.

Our internal team focuses on testing new features and bugfixes within the editor environment and on Steam builds. Once we push a new build to our Steam testing branches, the teams at 505 Games and Quantic Lab take over. Their testing covers several critical areas:

General stability and blocker identification
Save and load functionality
Quests and story progression
Environments, movement, and interactions
Character simulation
User interface
Memory consumption and performance

Additionally, a dedicated team handles localization testing for our 11 supported languages (English, German, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Korean, Japanese, and Turkish). This includes verifying voiceover synchronization and UI text accuracy. For Chinese, Korean, and Japanese, we must "bake" two optimized fonts for each language prior to translation updates to ensure all required characters are included.

Finally, Quantic Lab is assisting with compatibility testing. Using Steam hardware survey data, we are testing various configurations to ensure broad compatibility and to finalize the minimum and recommended specifications for our Steam store page.

Conclusion

We hope you enjoyed this development blog, which has been a bit more technical than usual. For us, all of this behind-the-scenes effort comes down to one simple goal: ensuring that players across a wide range of hardware and languages get the smoothest, most immersive experience possible at launch.

Once we are ready to share a release date, you won't miss it.

Your ION LANDS Team

PS: This update was written by multiple members of our development team: Piotr, Roman, Lukasz, Mislav, Aman, Thomas, Nicolas and Marko.

Original post

27 Nov 2025Developer post

NOVEMBER 2025 COMMUNITY BLOG

With all the non-stop work, story finalization, voice recording, and the countless behind-the-scenes details that demand our attention, the very concept of time keeps becoming more abstract: it’s hard to believe two months have already passed since the last devlog! Last month, we

With all the non-stop work, story finalization, voice recording, and the countless behind-the-scenes details that demand our attention, the very concept of time keeps becoming more abstract: it’s hard to believe two months have already passed since the last devlog!

Last month, we took some time to reflect and share the current state of development with you, and we can’t thank you enough for the support and understanding that followed. It means a lot to know that so many of you understood our reasons and share our decision to release the way we envisioned it. We’re aware that this brings its own dose of frustration - we feel it too - but we’re convinced it’s simply the right thing to do.

With that said, while we look forward to showing you the game at its very best in the new year, today we’re introducing another of its vibrant locations: ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Seaside Boardwalk.

FROM THE WAVES TO THE STARS

With its ocean breeze, crowded streets, towering skyscrapers, and hidden alleys, Seaside Boardwalk is a place that gathers many different stories and - above all - wallets of all shapes and sizes.
A fast train connects the industrial district to its distinctive, peaceful pier, from where you can enjoy the ocean view, head out to sea, or leave it behind as you climb its weathered stairs into the heart of the neighborhood.

Here, the calm and relaxing sound of the waves gives way to chatter and the clinking cutlery of the restaurants along the large terrace. The main streets of Seaside Boardwalk are lined with all kinds of businesses, where many have turned an idea into someone else’s need - and a way to profit from it. Whether the boxes and packaging scattered around the streets are the fruits of capitalism or the last belongings of someone just fired from one of those businesses… does it really matter?

Many have come to this seaside district for all sorts of reasons: some just wanted a fresh start and a change of pace, some found work in one of the major corporations based here, and others became trapped by a rhythm they simply couldn’t keep up with. The alleys of Seaside Boardwalk tell many stories - some of which are better left hidden in the shadows of the buildings around them.

Who knows - maybe here you’ll find the right opportunity to grow your business, meet new partners, or learn from those with more experience. Just remember one thing: you can’t call the police here.

Original post

01 Oct 2025Developer post

SEPTEMBER 2025 COMMUNITY BLOG

With a bit of delay, we’re ready to say goodbye to September, which has been an incredibly busy month. Among its highlights - beyond development, of course - was the voice casting . We’ve been listening to thousands of auditions, with over 6,000 entries currently under careful re

With a bit of delay, we’re ready to say goodbye to September, which has been an incredibly busy month. Among its highlights - beyond development, of course - was the voice casting. We’ve been listening to thousands of auditions, with over 6,000 entries currently under careful review, gradually discovering outstanding talents who are bringing to life the characters that will populate the streets and stories of the city. With that, we want to take this opportunity to thank all the actors who submitted their applications!

In this month’s devlog, we’ll introduce you to a district of the city that’s particularly close... to the sky. After exploring the warm Calypso Island and getting to know the dynamics of the port with Salt Pete, it’s time to take in the breathtaking views of Skyhigh Gardens.

GARDENS IN THE SKY

“Gardens in the sky. I’ve never seen them. I really wish I could be you right now.”

As you become more familiar - and, as a result, start making a name for yourself in its streets - you’ll feel the need to explore its more exclusive areas and expand your business as high as possible. Among these, the district of Skyhigh Gardens is certainly one of the most distinctive, with its well-tended hanging gardens and its picturesque atmosphere.

With tall buildings towering above Nivalis, and a network of structures and bridges connecting its various areas, the views here are truly breathtaking for its residents. It’s a unique atmosphere, also thanks to its own contrasts: lush, tranquil gardens on one side, neon signs and bustling businesses on the other. A place that can satisfy even the most demanding tourists - and therefore one you’ll definitely want to keep an eye on.

The Eastern-inspired design of Skyhigh Gardens can be felt at every step, and enjoying some fresh sushi or a steaming bowl of noodles at its Japanese restaurant with a view of the clouds is certainly a one-of-a-kind experience... even if just to scope out your competitors. Alternatively, a walk across its signature wooden bridges, under the traditional torii gates above your head, could prove particularly enlightening.

To reach these gardens in the sky, you’ll need to make use of the flying taxi service provided to Nivalis citizens. For most of your travels, though, the city’s intricate subway system - centered around The Metro Hub - will be more than enough. But we’ll talk about that another time!

Original post

28 Aug 2025Developer post

AUGUST 2025 COMMUNITY BLOG

Another month of hard work has flown by, and we’re ready to embrace the new season just around the corner with excitement. Challenges are part of the daily routine, but Nivalis has grown livelier day after day, and soon exploring it, breathing in its atmosphere, and immersing you

Another month of hard work has flown by, and we’re ready to embrace the new season just around the corner with excitement. Challenges are part of the daily routine, but Nivalis has grown livelier day after day, and soon exploring it, breathing in its atmosphere, and immersing yourself in the stories of its inhabitants will become a tangible reality.

Nivalis is a complex city - we’ve never stopped telling you that - and as you get to know the lives of those who dwell in it, their habits, their secrets, and yes, even their quirks and contradictions, it will be up to you to decide what to do with that knowledge. Everyone here keeps carrying on with their hectic lives, even as word begins to spread about a ruthless serial killer roaming the city. But hey, that’s the police’s concern, not yours, right? As long as you follow the rules, respect the curfew, and stay within your home at night, you’ll be safe. And speaking of homes, today we’ll talk about the apartments.

YOUR NEW HOME

Beyond the venues you’ll be able to use for your business activities, the city is filled with a wide variety of apartments you can rent across different areas of the city. You’ll be able to rent as many as your wallet allows, and of course, having one in a strategic location can make your movements around the city much more convenient.

Apartments come in different sizes, just like in any respectable housing market - you can go from a minimal studio apartment to a cozy loft, or even a beautiful standalone house on Calypso Island. While some may come with basic furnishing, we all know a place only truly becomes home once you can customize it and add your personal touch.

And in that regard, your aesthetic sense will have no limits: in apartments - just like in venues - you’ll have the chance to place a wide variety of furniture and decorations, finding the style that best fits you. All around the city you’ll come across different vendors, each offering a unique assortment of furniture and accessories to decorate the various areas of your home, each set distinguished by different materials that give your apartment a unique atmosphere.

Once you feel satisfied with your own homes, you’ll even be able to put your interior design skills to the test for potential clients, adding a pinch of challenge to your decorating. In the streets, you may encounter people willing to pay a good sum of money to someone with a keen eye for aesthetics who can take their home to the next level. Of course, in this case, you’ll be asked to follow their instructions, furnishing according to their taste and meeting specific requirements to leave your client satisfied. There are plenty of apartments waiting for you in the bustling streets of the city!

That’s it for today’s community blog! As always, we can’t wait to read your feedback and questions in the comments. Your support and enthusiasm are helping us so much through these challenging months of polishing and fine-tuning, and as always, we thank you deeply. See you soon!

Original post

30 May 2025Developer post

MAY 2025 COMMUNITY BLOG

May has, as always, been a month full of work, where we focused on improving the game and implementing major adjustments and refinements. We also had the chance to spend time together as a team, which is always a valuable opportunity to share ideas and continue on our path to rea

May has, as always, been a month full of work, where we focused on improving the game and implementing major adjustments and refinements. We also had the chance to spend time together as a team, which is always a valuable opportunity to share ideas and continue on our path to reach our goal: to let you explore soon, and in the best form possible.

In the meantime, we’re also gathering your most frequently asked questions and working on updating the FAQ section on the forum, so we can provide you with an up-to-date version as soon as possible. For this devlog, however, we’d like to dust off the Character Spotlight, to reintroduce you to some of the many faces you’ll encounter on your journey through the lively city we’re building.

CHARACTER SPOTLIGHT - SALT PETE

If you happen to find yourself strolling near the docks, it won’t be hard to spot a tall, blocky robot with a straw hat and two large glass eyes ready to give you a careful once-over. That’s Salt Pete, who runs a makeshift ferry - little more than some riveted sheet metal - which he claims is the safest, cheapest way to cross the bay. Will you trust this big hunk of metal?

“I make this crossing safely 95% of the time, all of the time!”

Pete certainly has a cheerful attitude, but he also has a mean streak that he doesn’t bother to hide. He’s often seen bickering with the other robots at the harbor - whom he doesn’t seem to like very much - and he won’t hesitate to drag you into the drama. He loves listening to the stories of his passengers, but you’ll rarely hear him talk about his own past in his wheezy, robotic voice. According to him, there are plenty of others around who can “fill your ears with tall stories”.

“So anyway, that old dustbin Caleb called me a bad sailor. Me! He wouldn’t know a sailboat if he woke up and was suddenly a sailboat.”

As always, we thank you for your support and patience. The months ahead are the most challenging yet, and our focus right now is entirely on polishing and fine-tuning, without pause. Your affection doesn’t go unnoticed - it’s instrumental for the whole team.

Original post

28 Apr 2025Developer post

APRIL COMMUNITY DEVLOG

Before diving into the latest updates in this devlog, we want to take a moment to thank you all for the support you’ve shown our team following last week’s delay announcement. Knowing that you’re growing attached to the project we’re working so hard on - and that you understand h

Before diving into the latest updates in this devlog, we want to take a moment to thank you all for the support you’ve shown our team following last week’s delay announcement.
Knowing that you’re growing attached to the project we’re working so hard on - and that you understand how much we care about shaping it in the way we believe is best - truly gives us a boost as we push through this final stretch.

We’ve also read and taken note of your concerns, and we’d like to dedicate part of this post to addressing a few of the questions you’ve raised in the comments. First, we noticed some confusion regarding the game’s release: it will launch as a full release - there will be no Early Access period. That’s precisely why we’re taking a bit more time to refine the experience!

We also want to reassure you that the original vision for the game hasn’t changed. Some elements have simply evolved, and we’ve taken the time to polish them properly: the game features several systems that are deeply interconnected, and making sure they work together as intended requires a fair amount of testing.

With that said, let’s dive back into the many things you’ll be able to do in this city that never sleeps.

I WANT TO SPEAK TO THE MANAGER 💅🏻

In past devlogs, we’ve introduced some of the tasks you’ll need to take on to keep your businesses running smoothly. But as time passes - and your finances grow - managing multiple restaurants might become a bit too much to handle alone. That’s when you might feel the need to… delegate.

It’s time to introduce the Manager role. You’ll be able to hire managers when your venue reaches level 3, and they can take care of a range of duties to make your life easier: from restocking ingredients across your locations, to boosting overall staff efficiency and morale, or even collect and making use of goods from your greenhouse.

By assigning them these responsibilities – if you can afford their salaries, of course - you’ll free up more and more time to explore the city, meet new people, follow their stories, and dive deeper into the rich narrative that pulses through the streets. After all, every good boss has to learn to delegate eventually.

A GREEN PARADISE 🏝️

Despite Nivalis being a city of neon lights, towering buildings, and bustling alleys, you’ll still find hidden oases to discover - surrounded by lush greenery, perfect for a moment of peace and a breath of fresh air. We've recently worked on enhancing the look and feel of plants and trees in-game, to make sure the atmosphere feels just right.

As we sign off until the next devlog, we invite you - as always - to share your questions with us. They might just inspire the focus of our next post!

Original post

07 Mar 2025Developer post

MARCH 2025 COMMUNITY BLOG

Another intense month of work has passed, and the game continues to take shape under our hands, growing alongside us as a team. Among the many daily challenges it presents, we've recently been focusing on implementing and optimizing certain features, improving the save system, an

Another intense month of work has passed, and the game continues to take shape under our hands, growing alongside us as a team. Among the many daily challenges it presents, we've recently been focusing on implementing and optimizing certain features, improving the save system, and welcoming and guiding new members into our team. We enjoyed reading your comments under our previous blog post, and your creativity has certainly been an inspiration! Of course, we can’t promise that all of your ideas will make it into the game, but for some of them, you’ll definitely see our personal touch woven into the experience. This month, we want to shine a spotlight on one of the features you’ve mentioned – farming - which will be present in the game in a particular form.

WELCOME TO THE GREENHOUSES 🌾

In a city like Nivalis, space for urban greenery is limited. While many citizens love to decorate their personal spaces with some plants, farming requires something more advanced.

For this reason, scattered across various areas of the map, you’ll find multiple greenhouses. These high-tech structures will allow you to grow crops even in an industrial environment and will be highly customizable to suit your needs… and farming skills.

Inside the greenhouses, you’ll be free to use the available space as you see fit, decorating and equipping it with specialized machinery purchased from different vendors around the city, each catering to a specific purpose. You’ll be able to grow mushrooms, grains, vegetables - if you acquire the necessary seeds - and even print meat and automate certain processes, such as irrigation.

Through a farming console, you’ll be able to configure the conditions of your personal farm for optimal cultivation and the best possible yield. These control consoles will allow you to adjust various parameters such as temperature, humidity, and light - factors that directly influence the growth speed of your crops.

Every citizen - with enough money - can rent and manage more than one greenhouse. Over time, with the right skills, you’ll be able to acquire more seeds and unlock advanced modules to expand your farming empire!

What you do with your harvest is entirely up to you: you can sell it for profit or use it to supply ingredients for your restaurants. Given that running a restaurant will become quite the challenge at a certain point, using your crops this way might not be a bad idea - it could definitively help you optimize your profits.

There’s more waiting for you in the streets of Nivalis, and we know you can’t wait to dive into the secrets of this city, but we ask for just a little more patience. This is a slow cook, but we hope you’ll enjoy the journey.

Original post

30 Jan 2025Developer post

JANUARY 2025 COMMUNITY BLOG

2025, as you know, is a big year, and it has kicked off with plenty of excitement and challenges to tackle. We’ve taken the opportunity to come together as a team to analyze and discuss some of the features awaiting you in the game, refining the details and considering the improv

2025, as you know, is a big year, and it has kicked off with plenty of excitement and challenges to tackle. We’ve taken the opportunity to come together as a team to analyze and discuss some of the features awaiting you in the game, refining the details and considering the improvements needed to achieve our goal: immersing you in a city that feels alive, whether it’s day or night. In this community blog, we’ll be talking about some of the features we’ve been working on this month, giving you a glimpse into the activities you’ll experience.

FISHING AT NIGHT 🍣

Gathering ingredients for your business’s kitchen will mainly be your responsibility. A well-stocked pantry is essential to satisfy the orders of hungry customers, and running out of ingredients can be costly for your wallet. You’ll have access to a variety of merchants with whom you can trade and build business relationships, but sometimes it might be more practical to take matters into your own hands and... go fishing.

At the docks, you’ll be able to set sail on your boat to search for the perfect catch for your sushi dishes, whether during the day or at night. This month, we’ve worked to ensure you can not only enjoy fishing during daylight hours but also experience the gentle rocking of the sea at sunset and take advantage of nighttime fishing opportunities. When exhaustion sets in, your boat will serve as a cozy refuge where you can rest and spend the night.

KEEP AN EYE ON THE NEWSPAPER 📰

Staying up to date is essential in a bustling city like Nivalis, where there’s never a dull moment. That’s why every morning, you’ll have the chance to read the local newspaper to catch up on the latest news and, occasionally, find information that - if you’re clever enough to take advantage of - could give your business a significant edge.

For instance, the start of the fishing season or a sudden drought could influence the availability (and therefore the price) of various goods on the market. Stay sharp, plan your daily purchases wisely, and don’t let these changes catch you off guard.

Now it’s your turn: what activities would you like to experience? Let us know, and maybe we can explore them further in the next community blog!

See you soon 🍜

Original post

27 Dec 2024Developer post

DECEMBER 2024 COMMUNITY BLOG

DECEMBER 2024 COMMUNITY BLOG Time really flies, and we've reached the last community blog of 2024. It’s been a year full of hard work, challenges, and tough decisions, but thanks to your incredible support, we’re ready to dive into 2025 with enthusiasm and open the doors to the c

DECEMBER 2024 COMMUNITY BLOG

Time really flies, and we've reached the last community blog of 2024. It’s been a year full of hard work, challenges, and tough decisions, but thanks to your incredible support, we’re ready to dive into 2025 with enthusiasm and open the doors to the city of Nivalis, a place we’ve come to think of as our home. So, let’s take this opportunity to do a quick recap of what we’ve shared with you over the past year!

2024

We kicked off the year by showcasing a glimpse of the game during the Taipei Game Show, an incredibly valuable experience that gave us plenty to think about and helped us set several new goals.

Throughout 2024, as a fully remote studio, we organized several meetings that we like to call workshops, where we explored numerous ideas, left behind previous concepts, and worked on new ones. The game is a complex mix of features that is hard to tame, but we're getting there!

For all the virtual photographers out there, we also gave you a glimpse of the photo mode. Designed to give you the feel of using a realistic camera, we introduced you to some of its features: the ability to change focus distance, aperture, focal length, field of view, and the chance to experiment with a wide range of creative filters and image modification settings. We’re confident you’ll have a lot of fun capturing some of the city’s atmospheric views scattered here and there.

We answered many of your questions, showcased some of the local dishes you’ll be able to serve at your tables, and once again put the spotlight on our composer Harry Critchley, who last year shared a detailed look at his work with you. The soundtrack is a core part of the game, one of the pillars of the immersive experience we aim to deliver.

We’ve begun introducing you to some of the protagonists of the many stories that it will bring to life. We introduced Thaddeus Carmunis, a 92-year-old business owner on the brink of retirement, who has some valuable advice to share, and Banor, a man with an unusual sense of humor who might just turn out to be a key ally in the chaotic work life.

A MESSAGE FROM US

As you can probably imagine by now, it’s been a truly intense year, with so much happening behind the scenes. We’ve experimented with many ideas, and we continue to do so to breathe more life into the game. As the city grows and evolves, so do we as a team, facing life’s normal challenges, watching families expand, and sharing in your incredible enthusiasm, the fuel that drives our work.

We can’t wait to see you wandering the streets and alleys we’re meticulously crafting, voxel by voxel.

Original post

29 Nov 2024Developer post

NOVEMBER 2024 COMMUNITY BLOG

NOVEMBER 2024 COMMUNITY BLOG The end of the year is almost upon us! For every month that passes, we’re a month closer to launch. 2025 really is just around the corner and we’re incredibly excited with what’s to come. As we look back on 2024, we’re so thankful for all the support

NOVEMBER 2024 COMMUNITY BLOG

The end of the year is almost upon us! For every month that passes, we’re a month closer to launch. 2025 really is just around the corner and we’re incredibly excited with what’s to come.

As we look back on 2024, we’re so thankful for all the support you’ve shown us. Every message of encouragement and excitement fuels us to keep pushing and deliver a game that we’re all proud of.

Back to this month’s blog, we’re going to address some of the FAQs we’ve seen and treat you all to some new screenshots from in-game. Enjoy!

COMMUNITY QUESTIONS

Is there any sort of procedural generation in the game? If so, what will it be? Characters? Apartments? Something else? Each level has been carefully crafted by our team of developers at ION LANDS. As a result, the game does not require any procedurally generated assets. We can’t wait for you to explore our world.

A lot of love has gone into it! Internally, we have designed some level design tools with procedural generation in mind, for example tools that help coming up with building variations or world decoration. They basically help with a lot of repetitive tasks, but are never just going into the game without a designer’s decision.

Will it be playable in both 1st and 3rd person?

The game exclusively features an immersive first-person gameplay, letting players fully explore its vibrant cyberpunk world and interact with its environment for an engaging experience. It’s an atmospheric experience just the same as a game.

Will it be compatible on Steam Deck? Our priority is delivering an enjoyable and stable experience on PC. If we ever consider Steam Deck verification, we’ll communicate this across our official channels.

Will it ever launch on Mac?

Right now, we’re working towards launching on PC (Steam and Epic Games). If we consider any additional platforms in the future, we will let you know.

Will there be weather effects? Yes! You can expect a wide range of weather in the world, including snow, rain, fog, thunderstorms and sunshine!

GOT A QUESTION? LET US KNOW!

Remember that as part of these monthly blogs, we want to address any community questions you might have. Is there anything you want to ask the team? Throw us your questions here on Steam.

ALL-NEW SCREENSHOTS

Today we’re treating you to a selection of all-new screenshots. The city of Nivalis is varied and inviting and we can’t wait for you to explore it.

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Original post

Updates & announcements

WISHLIST NOW!

Q&A Video Recap

WISHLIST NOW!

HOW DO YOU TRAVEL AROUND NIVALIS NIGHTS?

WISHLIST NOW!

WHAT CAN YOU DO IN NIVALIS NIGHTS?

WISHLIST NOW!

WHAT IS NIVALIS NIGHTS?

WISHLIST NOW!

Introduction to Optimization

Level Design & Visuals

Programming

User Interface

Story

Fishing

Our QA Process

Conclusion

Gameplay

World & Exploration

Characters & Relationships

Systems & Immersion

Development & Release

GARDENS IN THE SKY

WELCOME TO THE CITY

CHARACTER SPOTLIGHT - SALT PETE

WELCOME TO THE GREENHOUSES 🌾

DECEMBER 2024 COMMUNITY BLOG

2024

A MESSAGE FROM US

NOVEMBER 2024 COMMUNITY BLOG

COMMUNITY QUESTIONS

GOT A QUESTION? LET US KNOW!

ALL-NEW SCREENSHOTS