Nivalis Nights: Cozy Cyberpunk Life Sim, September 29, 2026

A month from now, on September 29, 2026, a noodle stand opens in the rain somewhere in the lower levels of a neon city. That stand is where Nivalis Nights begins — a cozy cyberpunk life sim from ION LANDS, the studio behind Cloudpunk, published by 505 Games.

It is an unusual pitch. Cyberpunk cities are usually places you fight through. This one is a place you live in: you cook, you fish, you buy furniture you like, and you learn which regulars come in at which hour.

Nivalis Nights arrives on Steam on September 29, 2026, from the studio that made Cloudpunk.

What Is Nivalis Nights?

Nivalis Nights is a slice-of-life simulation set in Nivalis, the vertical city that climbs from the ocean to the clouds. You arrive with almost nothing — 1,000 credits and a noodle bar introduction — and the district opens up around you.

The official description frames it as ambition in a squeezed neighbourhood: CorpSec crackdowns have the district on edge, a serial killer is loose, and your way up is a business. Start humble with a noodle stand, then climb toward the city's top restaurants and premier nightclubs.

What makes it a life sim rather than a management game is the clock. Every day is a choice between growing the business and spending the hours on the people and places around you. There is no failure state waiting for the player who chooses the second one.

Nivalis Nights Release Date and Platforms

The release date was confirmed on June 30, 2026, in the same Steam announcement that renamed the project from Nivalis to Nivalis Nights. If you wishlisted it under the old name, it is the same game and the same store page — app 1488490.

• Steam: September 29, 2026 — store page
• Epic Games Store: planned to follow after launch — product page
• Consoles: not announced
• Steam Deck: compatibility not yet verified

Steam lists Steam Achievements, Steam Cloud, Family Sharing and full controller support, plus seven accessibility features including save anytime, camera comfort options and playable-at-your-own-pace input.

What You Actually Do in Nivalis Nights

The feature list from the official store page is unusually concrete for a pre-release game:

• Run businesses — a noodle stand first, then ramen bars, restaurants and night clubs.
• Source your ingredients — grow your own produce or buy from the market.
• Take a boat out — explore the city by water and go fishing for tonight's special.
• Decorate homes — buy apartments across the city, furnish them room by room, and customise places for friends.
• Build relationships — the city's residents have their own stories; friendships, rivalries and romance are all on the table.
• Play mini-games — including a full cyberpunk chess tournament.
• Break the rules — dodge security systems during curfew and sabotage your competitors. The catch is symmetrical: what you do to rivals, rivals can do to you.

That last point is the one that keeps "cozy" from meaning "weightless". Nivalis Nights has a night shift with real teeth.

Everything in Nivalis Nights starts at a counter like this one.

One Day in Nivalis

The day-night cycle is the spine of the game. A representative day, as shown in the release date trailer:

A realistic weather system sits on top of that cycle. Rain empties a street; neon fills it back up. It changes who is out, which changes who walks into your bar.

The City and Its Districts

Nivalis opens up on a pixel-art map of the whole skyline, with each district tracking its own storefronts, quests and secrets. Four appear in the release date trailer:

• Meridian Market — where every run begins, half a dozen storefronts within shouting distance of your first noodle bar.
• Central Canyon — a deep cut through the middle of the skyline, shops stacked up both walls.
• Metro Hub — rail lines cross the whole map here, and the foot traffic is what restaurant owners dream about.
• Hive Mall — a dense block of shops packed into one building, with more quest lines than any other district shown so far.

District maps as shown in the official release date trailer. Details may change before launch.

From Cloudpunk to Nivalis Nights

Cloudpunk (2020) put you in a delivery HOVA on one long rainy night in Nivalis. It sold the city as something glimpsed from a windscreen — voices on the radio, signs sliding past, a job to finish before dawn.

Nivalis Nights rebuilds the same city for a life lived at street level. You are not passing through this time; you are the person behind the counter that a Cloudpunk driver would have delivered to.

You do not need to have played Cloudpunk. The game is designed to stand alone, and nothing in the premise assumes prior knowledge. If you have played it, the reward is recognition — corners, silhouettes and connections you already know.

The rest of ION LANDS' catalogue is worth a look while you wait: Cloudpunk, its City of Ghosts story campaign, and the studio's first game, Phoning Home.

Nivalis Nights System Requirements

As listed on the Steam store page. Windows 64-bit only at launch:

A broadband connection is listed for both tiers. The 16 GB memory floor is the line most likely to catch older machines — that is a requirement, not a recommendation.

Official Nivalis Nights Links

Everything below is an official channel or the community hub attached to one. Wishlisting on Steam is still the single most useful thing you can do before launch: it drives visibility for the game and gets you notified the moment it unlocks.

Stores

• Nivalis Nights on Steam — wishlist here
• Nivalis Nights on the Epic Games Store

News and community

• Steam Community Hub and discussions
• Steam news hub — development updates land here first
• ION LANDS Discord
• r/Cloudpunk on Reddit — the established community for the studio's games

Social

• X / Twitter — @NivalisNights
• Instagram — @nivalisnights
• Facebook — Nivalis Nights
• TikTok — @official_505games
• YouTube — ION LANDS
• YouTube — 505 Games

Studio and publisher

• ION LANDS on Steam
• 505 Games on Steam

Fan resources

• nivalisnights.org — trailers, screenshots, district breakdowns, FAQ and release info in one place, updated as new footage appears.

Is Nivalis Nights Worth Wishlisting?

If you liked Cloudpunk for its city rather than its driving, this is the game that gives you the city. If you have run through Stardew Valley or Dave the Diver and want the same rhythm somewhere that rains neon instead of growing pumpkins, the loop should feel immediately familiar — grow a business by day, tend to people by night, and decide every morning which of the two matters more.

The parts worth watching before you commit: no console version is announced, Steam Deck is unverified, and a game this systems-heavy at launch will be judged on how well its economy and relationship systems hold up over a long save. There are no user reviews yet, because it is not out.

Until then, wishlist it on Steam, follow @NivalisNights for footage, and keep an eye on nivalisnights.org as September 29 gets closer.