Hi, everyone! It’s been a while! We’ve been in active development on quite a few new things for CHKN and it’s finally time to start getting player feedback! Please help us out by playing our work-in-progress build that’s now up on the Pre-Release branch. (GET INSTRUCTIONS HERE!) Thank you!! There’s some info below on what’s new in this update and we’ll also be doing a livestream Friday, May 18 @ 3:30pm EST to show everything off! Come hang out with us!

New on Pre-Release

• Arena Update & Bug Fixes: New abilities for you to try out in battle. Use the new arena glossary to see which Life Blocks you need to use in your creature to unlock each ability. Here are a few examples. Discover the rest by playing the Pre-Release!
  • Sample “ability” combos:
    • Crab legs + Crab shell blocks = Hunker Down (armored force field)
    • 2 Mech Dino eyes = Laser Eye
    • Chicken comb = Squawk Stun
    • Cat legs + Cat tail = Teleport Vanish
    • 50% Cat blocks = Nine Lives (automatic revive)

Armored Force Field and Laser Beam in action! Try different abilities out against each other. (You can also see the revamped Crab and Mech Dino in this shot!) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uRHJXjivQq8 Check out streamer BrettUltimus battling some Pokemon replica creatures in the Arena.
Use Wing Gust to blow your enemies away… if you can hit them.

• All New Adventure Mode (In Progress)
  • A new map, new quest system, and new progression! Inspect wild creatures and collect their abilities to help you and your creatures survive.
  • This is early in-progress work so there’s missing art, incomplete UI, temporary copy, and other unfinished things, but we’d love to hear what you think so far.

Use your new binoculars to inspect wild creatures from afar. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBme42G9b_A See some of the abilities in action and how to discover them in Adventure Mode.

• Creature Builder Overhaul
  • New Life Block panel and filters, updated UI, some new stats added, plus a new Move Tool that lets you move whole chains of blocks around on your creature. (No more deleting a bunch of work and starting over.) Try it out and let us know what you think!

New Creature Builder! (UI in progress.)

• Creature Collections
  • Browse the new creature collection to see all types of creatures found in CHKN.
    • My Creations: Creatures you’ve built
    • Discovered/Bestiary: Creatures you’ve observed/discovered in Adventure Mode
    • Workshop: Creatures you’ve subscribed to in Steam Workshop, plus browse all creatures in Steam Workshop to see what’s new and subscribe to more
    • Favorites: Your favorite creatures from any of the previous lists

Things to note about this build:

• This version is Windows only for now. We’re working on getting the other platforms soon.
• Multiplayer isn’t available on Pre-Release at the moment because of the new Adventure Mode. It’ll be back in a future update.

We Need Your Feedback

TELL US YOUR FEEDBACK HERE! Our goal is to get these new & updated features out to everyone on the main live branch. We’ll be updating our progress on Pre-Release every couple weeks until it’s ready, so we need all your testing and feedback to help us get there! Please tell us things like:

• How’s the new Creature Builder?
  • Is it easier to build what you want?
  • How about moving around parts of your creatures?
  • Is there anything you’d change to make building better?

• Do you like the new creature abilities?
  • What new abilities were your favorite in the Arena?
  • Were there any you didn’t like and why?
  • Did you have fun experimenting?

• Do you like the new Adventure Mode we have in progress?
  • Are the new quests clear? Even though it’s in progress, did you understand what you were supposed to do?
  • Did you get through all the quests or did you get stuck anywhere?
  • Is there anything you’d add or change about it?

• Do you put pineapple on pizza or is that an abomination?
  • Okay this one isn’t really on topic but we’re curious anyway.

You can answer any of the questions above or leave any other feedback you have for us on the Pre-Release forums. Thank you!

Patch Notes [v0.6.1]

For those of you curious about everything that’s been updated in this build, here are the full patch notes. Creatures

• Creature Ability System overhauled
  • Now supports granting abilities based off of Life Block makeup and construction of your creature (type of blocks used, how many, where they’re placed on a creature, etc.)
  • Browse abilities in the new Abilities Glossary
  • Assign abilities to a creature’s Ability Bar. The creature AI will use those abilities, or use them yourself by taking direct control of the creature.
  • Added new abilities to the system! Discover them in Adventure Mode or test them on new creatures in the Arena.
    • Egg Missile
    • Teleport Vanish
    • Hunker Down
    • Laser Eye
    • Squawk Stun
    • Tail Strike
    • Feather Storm
    • Nine Lives
• Animal art updates! 5 animal types have been completely revamped with new art and blocks.
  • Chicken
  • Cat
  • Crab
  • Mech Dino
  • Dog
  • More coming in the next update! (Snake, Pig, Cow, and more)
• Creature Builder overhauled
  • New Move Tool added. Move whole sections of your creature or remove them completely.
  • New Life Block browser for faster, easier selection; plus filter by animal type
  • Updated stats section with some new stats added
  • Updated hotkeys for quick tool swapping (add, move, camera focus, and grid toggle)
  • Updated highlighting to more easily tell where blocks can be placed, which ones you’re selecting to move/delete, etc.
• New Creature Stat system implemented: new stats added, more stats made visible to players, and all stats tuned for consistency
• Creature XP system added so creatures can progress through Adventure Mode
• Creature Stress system added
  • New stat bar added to Bonded creatures representing Stress
  • Stress increases during combat or work
  • If it reaches 100%, the creature will become Stressed and other stats are penalized
  • Playing with creatures reduces their Stress so take good care of them!
• Animation System Improvements
  • Support for front and back legs
  • Support for arms
  • Improved performance
  • Better quality tracking
  • Improved consistency for striking
  • Basic creature swimming added

Features

• Adventure Mode is back!
  • Try out an early version of the new Adventure Mode in progress!
  • All new on-boarding to teach the ins and outs of CHKN.
  • New storyline: After being shipwrecked, you’ll need to craft items and build creatures to help you survive, then explore the island to discover wild creatures and learn their abilities for your own creatures, all while trying to save the world. No biggie.
  • New progression and balancing: new wild creatures, tweaks to stats and combat, crafting recipes changed, new XP and Lifeshaper upgrade system in progress, etc.
  • Note: Copy and quest steps aren’t final and much of the art is “greybox”
• Binoculars & Bestiary Added
  • Use the binoculars to observe wild creatures from afar to learn their stats, info, and abilities and log them in your Bestiary.
  • Once observed, those creature’s abilities are then unlocked for use in your own creatures.
• New Notification System added
  • Get notifications and some quick info about new items you pick up or things you discover in the world.
  • Get updates about completed or new objectives
• New Quest System Added
  • Track your objectives in Adventure Mode. On-boarding quests give way to story quests as you progress through the Adventure.
• New Journal added
  • Inventory menu expanded to a full Journal, with multiple tabs for new and existing functionality. Find everything you need in CHKN in this Journal.
  • Current status of each tab:
    • Character: Shows your armor, stats, and inventory (Currently using the old system while we finish this tab)
    • Crafting: Will house the new crafting menu. (Currently blank while we complete this system. Go to Character to craft for now!)
    • Bonded Creatures: Overhauled to provide more information about your bonded creatures.
    • Objectives: Keep track of things to do in the world. Only available in Adventure Mode. (a.k.a. quests!)
    • Bestiary/Creature Collection: Shows only your Bestiary in Adventure Mode. Otherwise, see the full Creature Collection including all creatures you’ve created, your favorites, your Workshop subscriptions, and browse the full Workshop.
    • Map: Find important things in the world. (Currently not finished. Use the binoculars (E) to set waypoints.)
    • Help: A list of topics if you need help while playing CHKN.
• Dialogue System added: The game can display messages to you as part of the story.

Items & Crafting

• Cooking Cleaver Added
  • Striking life blocks generates raw meat
  • Striking fruit generates seeds
• Crafting recipes changed for new Adventure Mode progression (new crafting menu and workbenches coming soon)

Fancy Art

• New environment art! New trees, updated bushes with new fruits, better grass, more foliage added to environments, etc.
• VFX added for new abilities
• Trail effects added on existing strike abilities
• Fur Shaders added to dog and cat
• Post Processing adjusted to be visually pleasing

Bugs & Optimization

• Added Texture Streaming for improved memory performance and improved visuals
• Added auto quality detection to optimize the settings based off of PC specs
• Various changes throughout the UI
• Foliage rendering system changed to remove floating bugs and improved visuals
• Rough support for Map added

Creature Contest Coming Soon

We’d love to see what you guys can do with the revamped creature Life Blocks so we’ll be holding another Creature Creation Contest in the Workshop! Keep a look out for an announcement with the build rules and theme early next week.

Livestream Today!

We’ll be back on Twitch and YouTube this afternoon—Friday, May 18 @ 3:30pm EST—to show you all this new stuff in progress and answer any questions. Come hang out with us! If you can’t make the stream, don’t forget you can also sign up for our Newsletter to keep up on the latest CHKN news. We hope you like the new build! We’ve got more to do so it’s back to work for us. See you on the stream! - Team CHKN http://store.steampowered.com/app/420930/CHKN/