Hi everyone! Welcome to our April community blog. Today’s article is going to be relatively short and sweet, but we’re going to go through a number of community questions asked since our last article and showcase some new screenshots from Nivalis. Behind the scenes, development is ongoing and as soon as we have more news to share, we’ll let you know! Let’s get started.


Got any questions for the team? Leave them here in the comments or message us across any of our social channels and we’ll do our best to cover as many as we can in our next blog. For now though, let’s go through some of the questions we received last month.

Will the game be open world?
Nivalis will provide you with lots of freedom and you can explore the city on your own as you like. Enjoy the skyline of Nivalis from our beautiful Skyhigh Gardens to the Metro Hub or Central Canyon. But every sky has its limit and the same applies to Nivalis.

The world of Nivalis consists of 19 areas that can be explored freely. These areas are connected via different means of travel, such as train rides, taxi rides or via the boat. Train and taxi rides are essentially cutscenes which play when you unlock/find a new area. Later on you are able to quick-travel to the new area via the map.

All water levels will be explorable with your boat and the boat will stay docked where you left it last.

What can we expect in terms of graphics options?
It is too early to talk about this, but we will reveal more closer to launch.

Will there be pets that we can keep and take care of?
This is an interesting idea, and we will discuss it with the team.

Will the game have its own original soundtrack, or will it carry over the same soundtrack as we've had in Cloudpunk?
Yes, Nivalis will have a very long soundtrack produced exclusively for the game by our in-house composer Harry Critchley. You can take a deep dive behind the scenes into the audio design with Harry here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9PKnNoXY2W8&t=2s

Is any kind of combat planned for this game?
No. Nivalis is a slice of life simulation and the focus will be on exploring the city at your own pace, but also to manage your own restaurants. There will be certain dangers and challenges in the game, but you will not overcome them with combat.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1488490/Nivalis/

Welcome to our first community blog of 2024 and if you’re new around here, welcome to the wonderful world of Nivalis! It’s great to have you here as part of this incredible community. We have such an exciting journey ahead of us and we’re grateful you’re on board!

Moving forward, once a month, we’re going to take a moment to stop and give you a sneaky peek into what you can expect from our cyberpunk city, as well as addressing some of your burning questions. We have so much to show and tell over the coming months and we can’t wait to share more info with you all.

Let’s get started with our first community update of the year.


For all the virtual photographers out there, we’re thrilled to give you a glimpse into photo mode for Nivalis. Virtual photography has boomed in popularity over the last few years and in a world like Nivalis, we just had to include it! But what can you expect?

Virtual photographers will get to enjoy a huge variety of options in Nivalis, typical of those features you’d expect when using a real life camera. Options will include the ability to change focus distance, aperture, focal length, field of view and so much more! In addition, you’ll also get to experiment with a wide range of creative filters and image modification settings. With so many tools at your disposal, you’re going to have a great time capturing the futuristic and vibrant world of Nivalis through your virtual viewfinder. We can’t wait to see your captures!

Take a look at some WIP screens from in-game below.


As part of our monthly blogs, we want to take some time to answer some community FAQs.

Got any questions for the team? Leave them here in the comments or message us across any of our social channels and we’ll do our best to cover as many as we can in our next blog.

What engine does Nivalis use?
Nivalis uses Unity which was also used for Cloudpunk. However, we’ve made various improvements during the development, so you’ll get to enjoy Nivalis at a much higher level of detail!

Can I own more than one apartment in Nivalis and if so, can they be customized?
Yes, you can own multiple apartments in different areas of the city and customize them as you like. Some of them will also have an amazing view over the Nivalis skyline!

Will there be Mac OS support?
Unfortunately Mac isn’t in our current plans. Our focus is on delivering a strong experience for PC players on Steam.

Will there be voice acting? Or is it a text game where you need to read?
Yes, we will have over 100 interactable characters in Nivalis including voice over. Thanks to the voice actors and the mocap session we did last year, Nivalis' residents will feel very realistic. More on this in the near future!

Will there be a demo for Nivalis before release?
We have not made a final decision on a demo yet.

Will there be mod support?
Right now, there are no plans to bring mod support to Nivalis.

Can I wishlist Nivalis?
Yes you can! More info can be found here:
Steam: https://505.games/NivalisSteam


Let’s wrap up today’s community blog by saying a huge thank you to everyone that has supported Nivalis so far. The teams at ION LANDS and 505 Games are continuing to work incredibly hard behind the scenes and we can’t wait to share more info with you, when the time is right.