Apr 29, 2020
More fixes and improvements
Cloudpunk - Ion
Thank you very much for your continued feedback! We've been working tirelessly on some more issues you reported and managed to fix a bunch more in this update.

What has changed:
  • Tweaked visibility (culling) of all lifts in the game.
  • Tweaked the navpoint colors for higher contrast when multiple of them are active at the same time.
  • Fixed wet footstep sounds while in apartment.
  • Added an input control to disable the HUD (default: F3/DPad-Down).
  • Added an option to invert X-Axis for the unlocked camera.
  • Edited the Ventz level and lighting hoping to fix a crash with AMD-GPU's.
  • Improved the dialog flow by adding a Dialog Delay option. Before, we had a bit of delay after each line. Let me elaborate on that to explain our reasoning. If you're not fluent with the English voice lines and have to read the translations, a delay is required to have a chance to grasp everything. Now you can decide in the options if you want that delay or not. By default it is off for English and on for all other languages. There is also a third value allowing you to make the delay longer if you desire.
  • Fixed the dialog skipping for lines where one voice sample contains multiple text lines.
  • Fixed a rare critical situation with moving platforms causing player errors after using them.
  • Fixed holes in the CORA level.
  • Added options to tweak the values of the GPU based culling solution we're using. One lets you change the culling accuracy (10-90%, the higher the value, the more objects are not rendered), the other is culling prediction (0-50%, culling prediction tries to predict what the camera is about to "see" next). If you are experiencing stutters, you can try to increase the prediction and see if it helps. Besides that we will look into further updates of the culling algorithm in the future to improve your experience.
  • Fixed missing characters in Chinese, Korean and Japanese UI texts.
  • Fixed a situation in which all available slots of a parking lot are used by NPC cars.
  • Incoming calls will now wait before leaving the overmap if you have that open.

We will continue looking into other reported issues and suggested improvements. Feel free to join our Discord Server for a direct chat with us and other Nivali. They are lovely people, CorpSec will make sure of that. ːRaccoonː

Control out.
Apr 27, 2020
Fixes and Improvements
Cloudpunk - Ion
Thank you very much for your continued feedback! We've been working tirelessly on some more issues you reported and managed to fix a bunch more in this update.

What has changed:
  • Added quality levels to the option menu:
    1. Simple: No dynamic shadows, low resolution textures, uses lowest detail of available objects only, no soft particles, no realtime reflection probes
    2. Medium: Low resolution dynamic shadows, low shadow shadow distance, realtime reflection probes
    3. High (default): High resolution dynamic shadows, standard shadow distance, uses standard LOD bias, soft particles
    4. Maximum: Higher shadow distance, renders high detail object variants much further away
  • Added an option "Run In Background" which allows to enable whether the game should keep running when out of focus (default: on)
  • Added a "Sell" button to the dialog window when trade offers are displayed. This indicates that you can sell items to this merchant. It opens the inventory where you can choose which items to sell and their prices in the details. If you haven't found out yet, merchants buy and sell items at different prices depending on where they are located. Find the ones who sell low and those who buy high to make a couple extra Lims.
  • Fixed the achievements "Above the Clouds" and "Almost like Home".
  • Fixed many spots where the player could potentially get stuck or the camera could clip into buildings.
  • Also added a safety net feature. In the rare case you would fall through the floor, you will be teleported back to the last saved spot.
  • Fixed a timing issue with the Huxley office mission.
  • Fixed and improved the timing of the Baz mission. My ears are hurting now.
  • Fixed a bug preventing area transitioning when opening the map or menu when entering vehicle ascenders.
  • Added a missing voiceover sample for Camus.

We will continue looking into other reported issues and suggested improvements. Feel free to join our Discord Server for a direct chat with us and other Nivali. They are lovely people, we promise. ːRaccoonː

We are very happy that you like our game and that you would love more content. So do we.
Cloudpunk is only the beginning for us exploring the city of Nivalis. Once we ironed out the systems, we will begin to think about what's next. New deliveries, new characters, new stories, more of the city, more mechanics, the options are endless. First and foremost our main priority is making your time in Nivalis an experience, something you can't really describe, but that you can feel. <3

Control out.
Apr 27, 2020
Wot I Think: Cloudpunk
Cloudpunk - contact@rockpapershotgun.com (Sin Vega)

Cloudpunk could have been a lot of things, many of them disappointing. It could have taken itself far too seriously. It could have been far too lightweight or by-the-numbers. It could have been a miserably realistic sisyphean chore. If I wanted to be cruel, I’d say it could have been a lot more than it is, too. But that’s not because I think it’s not good enough. It’s because Cloudpunk is such an enjoyable place to visit that the idea of more of it is very tempting.

The city is the star. Again, that’s not to criticise the characters or story. You play as Rania, a young woman who’s just arrived in Nivalis, the one megacity in a far, far future, to work as a delivery driver for an illicit organisation called Cloudpunk. You’ll drive your flying car around the city, taking orders remotely from a man referred to as Control. It’s really as simple as driving from A to B for the most part. You’ll park your cab and head off on foot to collect each package, then head back, and fly off to your destination. (more…)

Apr 25, 2020
Fixes and Improvements
Cloudpunk - Ion
Thank you very much for your continued feedback! We've been working on some more issues you reported and managed to fix a bunch in this update.

What has changed:

  • Fixed the Metropol Building achievement. If you find it again, the achievement will be triggered.
  • Fixed the Perfect Run achievements. If you already completed the game, these can unfortunately only trigger on your next playthrough.
  • Fixed a quest display bug involving Huxley's Holocash account.
  • Fixed player character getting locked after dropping off Baz under certain timing conditions.
  • Added several minor language fixes.
  • Revised the dialog line skipping. The first skip will reveal the full line, the second skip stops the voiceover and goes to the next line.
  • Characters, vehicles and moving objects are now paused while the full map is open or while being in the menu.
  • Improved player physics to reduce stuck situations. We will inspect this closer in the coming days.
  • Map icons of characters are only displayed if interacting with them is possible.

We're still looking into other reported issues and suggested improvements. Feel free to join our Discord Server for a direct chat with us and other Nivali.

Please keep on reporting any issues you have with the game, it's highly appreciated and we're doing our best to fix what we can as soon as possible!

Your ION LANDers!
Apr 24, 2020
A couple of fixes
Cloudpunk - Ion
Thank you very much for your feedback so far! We've been looking into all the issues you reported and managed to fix a bunch of it since launch yesterday.

What changed so far:
  • UI alignment for UW monitors has been fixed.
  • This includes the full map feature, which now also has a zoom and pan feature. We have more improvements planned for it, but they will require a bit more time.
  • VSynch is now enabled by default.
  • Added an option to leave it up to you whether the mouse should be confined to the game window or not. (default = off)
  • Fixed the Invert-Y Axis option affecting ascending/descending on keyboard.
  • Fixed getting stuck on the table in the apartment. What were you planning on doing up there?
  • Fixed getting stuck in the vehicle stands in Grimm's HOVA Mall.
  • Fixed a camera clipping in Mercantile District.
  • Fixed getting stuck at the CorpSec checkpoint near Lifecorp HQ.
  • Improved the player spawn points on repair stations.


Someone is in trouble. Was she listening to Jazz?


We're still looking into other issues we saw. If you have trouble with your GPU getting too hot, we would advise you to try tweaking your graphics card cooling settings and you can also try to enable VSynch in the game. Feel free to join our Discord Server for a direct chat with us and other Nivali.

Please keep on reporting any issues you have with the game, it's highly appreciated and we're doing our best to fix what we can! ːcozybethesdaː

Your ION LANDers!
Apr 23, 2020
Cloudpunk's stratospheric deliveries and noir conspiracies are out today
Cloudpunk - contact@rockpapershotgun.com (Natalie Clayton)

Bad hours, shady bosses. The gig economy’s tough enough as-is, without the risk of dropping a package off the side of a ten-mile-high balcony. Released today, Cloudpunk lets you traipse around a stunning voxel cityscape, making deliveries and solving mysteries like some sorta flying Deliveroo driver-turned-detective. Let’s just hope you’re getting a bonus for all this sleuthing.

(more…)

Apr 23, 2020
Cloudpunk is out now!
Cloudpunk - Ion
On behalf of the whole Cloudpunk team, we just wanted to take a moment to send a special thank you to our supporters on Steam. The enthusiasm for the game from the fans has driven us to work hard on making the world of Nivalis as beautiful, wondrous and weird as our imaginations would allow.



Nivalis is brought to life by its colourful characters and the stories they tell, but also by an evocative soundtrack, and a cast of talented voice actors. The beautiful city is the result of hard work by the programming team and the level designers, who have created a multi-levelled, realistic, living and breathing city that also serves as the cyberpunk playground for our story to play out.

It’s been a privilege to be part of this team, and we are all proud of the final game we have made. Every step of the way, we had cyberpunk fans cheering us on, and for that we want to say a big thank you.

We can’t wait to hear what you think of Rania’s story during her first night working in Nivalis. Cloudpunk is filled with intrigue, humour, darkness and hope, and we hope you love playing it as much as we loved making it.

Welcome to Cloudpunk!

If you need help
We have done a lot of testing on different hardware, but with thousands more players, some will likely run into technical issues. The game is very demanding.
If you experience any technical issues, please send us a message to support@ionlands.com and we will try to help you as fast as we can. Here's what you can do before:

  1. Check the minimum requirements on Steam
  2. Keep your graphics driver updated to the latest stable version
  3. Try disabling anti-virus software or add Cloudpunk to its whitelist

If you contact us, please include your system specs and a log file called output_log.txt, that you can find here:
C:/Users/YourUsername/AppData/LocalLow/Ion Lands/Cloudpunk
Mar 6, 2020
Cloudpunk will deliver packages and a story next month
Cloudpunk - contact@rockpapershotgun.com (Lauren Morton)

We’re less one neon-splashed tech dystopia this April but it looks like another is pulling in to fill its space. Cyberpunk 2077‘s original April date got pushed back but Cloudpunk will be raising the cyberpunk flag this spring instead. This story-led adventure puts you behind the wheel as new delivery driver Rania learning the ropes in the giant, vertical city of Nivalis. As a driver for the “semi-legal” delivery company Cloudpunk, Rania will meet all sorts of local future people. Ion Lands have released a new trailer today with a launch date side dish.

(more…)

Mar 5, 2020
WE HAVE A LAUNCH DATE!
Cloudpunk - Ion
Finally!



It's been nearly 3 years since I started working on the first prototypes with tiny little blocks called voxels. To be honest, it was a long and stressful journey. For us indie teams there are so many challenges besides just making the game. But we can finally reveal that Cloudpunk will hit Steam on

April 23rd, 2020



There is not much else to say other than that we're really happy to soon let you guys experience the game yourself. We're using the remaining weeks for QA, localization and adding last bits of polish.

Let us know what you think in the comments below.

-Marko
Feb 13, 2020
Development Update
Cloudpunk - Ion
We have reached early 2020 and we wanted to let you know that we can reveal the launch date very soon. There are so many things to consider when selecting a launch date.
We are incredibly happy about the game's reception here on Steam so far. Since we brought the page online, Cloudpunk has collected more than 85,000 wishlists, which is incredible.



In December we started our voiceover casting calls, listened to hundreds of voice actors and thousands of samples to find the right ones. And we're happy to say that we did. There are over 95 characters in the game and nearly all of them have unique voices. We can't wait to let you hear them.



We also can't wait to let you experience the game. As you know we are going for a very atmospheric, narrative driven game. It's all about the experience of being in this cyberpunk world, learning about the city and its inhabitants and enjoying the music.



Right now we're adding the last bits and pieces and optimize performance. Voxel art is difficult to automatically LOD, so we had to create all the LODs manually, a time consuming process.
QA starts next week and localization work is already underway.

With the help of our newly announced partners for console (Merge Games) we are able to present the game at both PAX East (Feb 27 to Mar 1) and GDC (March 16-20). We hope to make the reveal of the PC launch date inbetween these two events.


As always, let us know your thoughts and questions in the comments below.

Marko
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