Is Nivalis Nights Connected to Cloudpunk?

The short answer

Same developer, same city, different game. ION LANDS made Cloudpunk in 2020 and its City of Ghosts expansion in 2021; Nivalis Nights is their 2026 follow-up, published by 505 Games. Both games take place in Nivalis — the neon-lit vertical city built above the ocean after the ice caps melted — but they tell completely different stories in it.

What carried over from Cloudpunk

If you played Cloudpunk, you already know the setting better than most:

• The city itself — the same ocean-to-clouds sprawl of stacked districts, now rendered with years of additional engine work. The city guide covers its layout and travel systems.
• The tone — melancholy, humane, more interested in small lives than grand conspiracies. Official materials promise “a vibrant cast of characters,” which is very much a Cloudpunk inheritance.
• The voxel-neon look — instantly recognizable as the same studio’s art direction.

What is completely new

Where Cloudpunk was a narrative delivery-driver adventure — one night, one story, driving from job to job — Nivalis Nights is a life sim: open-ended days, a business to grow, an apartment to decorate, relationships to build. The systems are the substance now. The feature overview lists all of them.

Do you need to play Cloudpunk first?

No. Nothing in the official materials assumes prior knowledge — the premise (your noodle stand, CorpSec pressure, the serial killer case) stands entirely on its own. That said, Cloudpunk is cheap, frequently discounted, and still the fastest way to fall in love with the city. Our development timeline explains how the studio went from one game to the other across five years.

One fan theory, clearly labeled

Community threads regularly wish for Rania and Camus — Cloudpunk’s courier and her dog — to appear as cameos. No official source has confirmed any crossover character. Now that the game is out, the characters guide is where any verified cameo will be documented, with dates.