Nivalis Guide#

Nivalis is a cyberpunk city life simulation game developed by ION LANDS and published by 505 Games, sharing the same city setting as Cloudpunk. The game launched on Steam on September 29, 2026 (Steam App ID 1488490), with the Epic version to follow later per official statements; it is priced at CN¥98 on the Steam China store, roughly CN¥88.2 with the 10% launch discount. The player has exactly one business goal: starting from an unremarkable roadside noodle stand, grow the operation into top-tier restaurants and luxury nightclubs in this city that stretches from the ocean all the way up to the clouds.

Unlike the usual “reskinned business game,” the systems here interlock tightly: ingredients are supplied through three channels at once — market purchases, home growing, and boat fishing; once a shop hires staff and a manager, it can run on its own, freeing you to open the next location; and after the 2 a.m. curfew, you can slip past the security systems to sabotage rivals’ businesses — though the official materials explicitly warn there will be “payback.” This grand loop of running a business, living a life, and taking risks in parallel is exactly what the 22 specialty guides in this section take apart one by one.

Game Information at a Glance#

What Kind of City This Is#

The game is set in Nivalis, a cyberpunk metropolis stretching from the ocean to the clouds — and the city’s foundations are collapsing into the sea. Players start from the humblest of noodle stands, with mega-corporations and neon skylines overhead, HOVA cabs ferrying passengers to and from the clouds, and private boats you can pilot yourself moored in the waterways. The city is far from safe: the security contractor CorpSec (given a localized name on the Steam Traditional Chinese page) is cracking down across the city, a mysterious serial killer casts a shadow over the streets, and rumors of gangs harvesting organs circulate everywhere. In other words, the city’s danger lies not in monsters and firefights, but in the everyday cracks of restocking, making friends, and expanding your business.

Core Gameplay Pillars#

• Plan each day your own way: there is no forced schedule — how a day unfolds is entirely up to you. Opening shop, restocking, fishing, decorating, and socializing are all legitimate options.
• A ladder of business types: starting from a noodle stand, you work your way up through bars and restaurants to a luxury nightclub; venue progression is the growth line that runs through the whole game.
• Three ingredient channels: market purchases, growing your own, and boat fishing complement one another, sustaining a supply system of more than 240 ingredients.
• Staff and manager automation: once hired, employees and managers keep the shop running, letting you step away and expand into more businesses.
• Apartment and decorating: over 620 furniture pieces can be placed freely; the apartment is both a home base and the main stage for photo mode.
• Citizen relationship web: 130+ residents each with their own backgrounds; dialogue and quest choices push relationships toward friends, rivals, work contacts, or romance.
• Mini-games and the board game tournament: you can challenge NPCs to mini-games, or enter the city’s strategy board game tournament.
• Curfew and sabotage: a curfew kicks in at 2 a.m. every night; evading the security systems to sabotage rivals’ businesses brings profits — and payback.

Section Guide#

Getting Started and Preparation#

• Game Overview and Worldbuilding — city background, development timeline, naming and localization history, and genre positioning.
• Buying Guide and Edition Info — pricing and platform status, a Steam feature checklist, and a pre-purchase self-check list.
• System Requirements and Performance — what the 16GB RAM and 6GB VRAM thresholds mean, launch performance, and Steam Deck support.
• Beginner’s Guide and First Week — what to do in your first week at the noodle stand, building an initial supply chain, and common opening mistakes.
• Known Issues and Reception — the first-week review trend, performance shortcomings, and the player-reported issue list with mitigations.

Business and Production#

• Shop Management Overview — operating loops and upgrade paths across the four venue types: noodle stand, bar, restaurant, and nightclub.
• Employees and Managers — the returns, risks, and inspection rhythm of automated operation.
• Ingredients and Supply Chain — a comparison of the three sources (market, farming, fishing) and purchasing rhythm.
• Cooking and Dishes — recipes, ingredients, and cooking equipment, plus where 190+ dishes fit into the business.
• Economy and Making Money — cash-flow management, a spending framework, and the asset curve from noodle stand to nightclub.

City and Life#

• City Exploration and Transportation — walking, rail, HOVA cabs, and boating compared across four ways of getting around.
• Fishing and the Waterways — how your private boat and canal fishing mesh with the business loop.
• Apartment Purchase and Decorating — ideas for freely placing 620 furniture pieces and the photo mode.
• Weather and Day-Night Cycle — how the realistic weather system and the daily rhythm relate to the curfew timeline.
• Curfew and Sabotage — the other gameplay layer after 2 a.m., weighing profit against payback.

Story and World#

• Main Story Overview — the growth arc from noodle stand to nightclub against a citywide crisis (no spoiler details).
• Citizen Relationships and Social Play — 130+ residents, four relationship paths, and mini-game challenges.
• The Cloudpunk Connection — returning characters from the same city and the entry barrier for new players.

Reference and Tools#

• Voxel Art and Photography — the visual highlights behind the game’s reception and the community’s photo craze.
• FAQ — platforms, naming, expectation management, onboarding difficulty, and other high-frequency questions.
• Glossary — a quick reference for CorpSec, HOVA, curfew, and every other proper noun.
• Advanced Tips and Long-Term Planning — automation layouts, multi-shop synergy, and patch awareness.

Who This Game Is For: Pre-Purchase Expectation Management#

In the first week after launch, one kind of feedback kept recurring: some players came in expecting The Sims- or Animal Crossing-style free-form life simulation, only to find the game’s real weight is the business loop of supply chains, bills, and shop upgrades — a jarring gap. Conversely, if what you love is an interlocking loop of stock, craft, sell, and expand, wrapped in a rain-slicked neon cyberpunk skin, the fit is excellent. If you are unsure, read the pre-purchase self-check list in the Buying Guide and Edition Info page before deciding whether to buy.

Reception and Patch Warning#

The game entered the Steam top ten best-sellers on launch day, peaking at roughly 7,000 concurrent players on day one (per media tallies). As for positive reviews, the ratio stood between 71% and 73% on September 30 (about 906 to 1,000 reviews, on the edge of “Mixed”), and by October 2 the English-language region had recovered to 77% (1,503 reviews, “Mostly Positive”). Third-party aggregation puts the score at 77, with the “graphics” dimension as high as 88 while “performance” sits at just 39 — frame-rate issues are the biggest shortcoming right now, and the developers have said improvements will continue. During this patch-heavy period, any numbers and experience details described here may change with updates; defer to how the game actually plays.

Version Timeline#

Three Reading Routes#

Players at different stages get the most out of this section in different orders:

• Pre-purchase route: Game Overview and Worldbuilding → Buying Guide and Edition Info → Known Issues and Reception; read all three pages before deciding.
• New-player route: Beginner’s Guide and First Week → Ingredients and Supply Chain → Shop Management Overview; get through the first week before talking about expansion.
• System lookup route: if the business side has you stuck, read the four guides in the business group; if you are lost in the city, read the five guides in the city group; for mechanical questions, go straight to the FAQ and the Glossary.

Updates and Sourcing Statement#

This section is built on the official store page information and public coverage from launch week; numbers and mechanics the developer has not published are always marked “subject to in-game reality” and never guessed at. The game is in its patch-intensive early days, and this section will keep revising its specialty pages as versions roll out — if a description does not match the current build, trust the in-game state and official announcements.

Related Games#

• Cyberpunk 2077 — an open-world action RPG set in a neon-drenched cyberpunk metropolis
• Stardew Valley — a farming and community life sim with a similar plan-your-own-day rhythm
• Satisfactory — a factory-building game built on production chains and automation
• Planet Zoo 2 — a deep management sim about running a living operation
• Cloudpunk — ION LANDS’ delivery adventure set in the same vertical cyberpunk city

Related Rankings#

Best Indie Games of 2026 · Best Open World Games · Most Anticipated Games of 2026

Full Guides#

In-depth sub-guides — game overview and worldbuilding, buying guide, system requirements, beginner’s first week, shop management, ingredients and supply chains, apartment decorating, curfew and sabotage — are available in Chinese on NTGame’s Nivalis section.