There are two sides to every game delay coin. On the one hand, it’s a shame when you’re waiting for something and then have to wait even longer. On the other hand, there are too many damn video games these days, and oh gods, don't we all have a simple list of things to do right now? So make of it what you will. snowballscyberpunk restaurant Sim the action takes place in the world Cloudpunkdelayed.
A word about the specified delay (this is the second one) comes in the form of a recent Steam News Postwho took the time to highlight just how big this technically small indie game really is: “We're deeply focused on voice acting right now: we've just completed the casting process for over 100 new voice roles after our first casting of 32 roles for our demo 2 years ago,” the post explains. “Nivalis will feature approximately 135 major and minor fully voiced characters, totaling approximately 200,000 words.”
It's honestly really, really impressive. We all know how even the biggest RPGs reuse voice actors for multiple characters and NPCs. However, the report notes that amid all this voice acting, “releasing the game in 2025 could jeopardize its quality.” Thus, the game will be released in 2026, although the exact day or even month of release has not yet been announced (obviously, the developers are working on this with their publisher, and we hope that confirmation of the release date will be received before the end of the year).
Nivalis, for those who haven't heard of it, seems conceptually like a completely open game. You can manage a restaurant or nightclub, buy or grow your own ingredients for your establishment, fish, buy a house and, most importantly, meet people. Meeting people seems to be the key here and that's what interests me the most.
The game's Steam page notes that Nivalis is a difficult city to live in: gangs hope to harvest your organs, the Corps fines you for just breathing, and “all the while the ground crumbles beneath your feet.” So what are people like in such a world? With as many voices as the developers claim are in the game, I hope these people are diverse and well-defined, but I also want them to be people with believable problems, wants, and needs.
Like many of us in this world, I worked in the hospitality industry for many years and met all kinds of people, which was sometimes quite enjoyable. It also often wasn't very enjoyable, and I hope that dichotomy is presented in Nivalis whenever it comes out next year. You can wishlist it on Steam. Here.
