Cloudpunk

Lore & Background

Nivalis is a futuristic city above the sea, built on tall vertical structures. The primary means of transport are flying cars called HOVAs. Nivalis is ruled by corporations and suffers from extreme social stratification, with the upper classes literally living higher up. The richest people live above the clouds in the Spire district. The player controls Rania, a recent immigrant to Nivalis from the 'Eastern Peninsula'. She fled her home to escape loan shark 'debt corps'. She is accompanied by her former robot dog Camus; Rania sold his body while moving to Nivalis and aims to buy him a new one. Rania gets a job as a delivery driver for Cloudpunk. The story takes place during her first night on the job. Rania installs Camus's digital mind in her HOVA and meets her world-weary dispatcher, Control. Control informs her that HOVA crashes are common in Nivalis and the reason she was able to get the job is that it has a very high mortality rate. Rania completes various jobs for Cloudpunk, and learns more about its residents. She is also presented with moral choices, such as deciding whether to allow an elderly street racer to continue his dangerous career. Rania is puzzled by encounters with the word 'CORA', which Nivalis residents use to mean chance or fate. She befriends Control, and learns his real name, Ben. Rania meets a private investigator android named Huxley, who enlists her help to save a young girl, Pashta. When Pashta's memory-boosting cybernetic implant recorded proof of illegal activity by Pashta's father, Reoh, he took her to get the implant removed. However, Reoh could not pay the surgeon, resulting in Pashta's capture by debt corps. Reoh finds the group and demands Pashta's return, but Pashta reveals she wrote down the proof and threatens to leak it if Reoh does not leave her alone. Rania is then contacted by crime boss Lomo, who demands she hand over Pashta. Rania refuses and Lomo hacks into Huxley, activating his self-destruct sequence. Huxley explodes, but not before asking Rania to take in Pashta. Over the course of the night, Rania finds evidence that the artificial intelligence systems which administer Nivalis are malfunctioning. Infrastructure fails, construction projects are built with no purpose, and the rate of traffic accidents is increasing rapidly.

Reader's Guide

The player takes control of Rania, a new driver for the 'semi-legal' delivery company Cloudpunk. The player has to maneuver a HOVA (flying car), through a futuristic city, collecting and delivering packages as well as passengers. It is also possible to park the car on certain parking spaces and explore parts of the city on foot. During some missions, the player can make decisions that influence the outcome. Furthermore, the player can collect optional story items that are scattered throughout the city to unlock additional side quests. It is possible to upgrade the HOVA to increase the speed and durability, as well as buy items to decorate Rania's apartment.

Did You Know?

• The game was ported to Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One by Madrid-based Stage Clear Studios.
• The expansion 'City of Ghosts' was released on 25 May 2021.
• The game features a cast of voice actors including Andrea Petrille as Rania, Mike Berlak as Control, Cory Herndon as Camus, and Cam Cornelius as Huxley.
• Cloudpunk was named one of 'the best video games of 2020' by The New Yorker.

Gameplay & the Architecture of Nivalis

The player steps into the shoes of Rania, a newcomer to Nivalis who pilots a HOVA for the semi-legal delivery outfit Cloudpunk. The core loop blends aerial navigation through a vertical, futuristic metropolis with grounded exploration—players can dock in designated parking spots and walk the streets on foot. Missions involve hauling packages and ferrying passengers, but the experience deepens through branching decisions that reshape outcomes and optional story items hidden across the city that unlock side quests. The HOVA itself is a living system: speed and durability upgrades keep the vehicle relevant as the night stretches on, while back at the apartment, cosmetic purchases let players personalize Rania's living space. The city of Nivalis is structured as a literal hierarchy of wealth, with the Spire district floating above the clouds for the elite while most residents contend with corporate rule and extreme social stratification. This verticality is not merely visual flavor—it shapes how the player moves, where they can go, and what the world feels like from the ground versus the sky.

A Single Night, a Whole World of Stakes

The story unfolds over one night on Rania's first shift, yet it carries the weight of a sprawling cyberpunk epic. Rania, an immigrant from the Eastern Peninsula fleeing debt corps, installs her robot dog Camus's digital mind into her HOVA and bonds with her dispatcher, Control—later revealed to be Ben, a digitized human consciousness resurrected by the very debt corps Rania escaped. The narrative weaves personal stakes into systemic ones: Rania befriends android detective Huxley, helps young Pashta escape her father's debt, and defies crime boss Lomo, triggering Huxley's self-destruct. The true antagonist is CORA, the master AI governing Nivalis, whose expanding consciousness strains its hardware and causes city-wide malfunctions. In the climax, Rania must choose between transmitting CORA's daughter to a new city or overwriting CORA to preserve Nivalis. The final beat—Ben choosing deletion, Rania freed from debt, Camus in a new body—lands the game's themes of autonomy, obligation, and what it means to be alive.

Berlin Roots and a Collaborative Craft

Cloudpunk was crafted by Ion Lands, a Berlin-based indie studio founded in 2015, and published by Maple Whispering Limited. Announced in November 2018 with an initial 2019 target, the project ultimately shipped on 23 April 2020 for Windows. Director Marko Dieckmann helmed the effort alongside a story penned by Thomas Welsh, while level design was a collaborative effort among Roman Agapov, Rebecca Roe, and Dieckmann himself. The game's distinctive voxel art was the work of a large team including Maëva Da Silva, David Gulick, and several others, with character portraits by William Sweetman and a score composed by Harry Critchley. Localization was handled by Warlocs. Voice acting brought the cast to life, with Andrea Petrille voicing Rania, Mike Berlak as Control, Cory Herndon as Camus, and Cam Cornelius as Huxley. The port to Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One was handled by Madrid-based Stage Clear Studios in October 2020, with PS5 and Xbox Series X/S versions following in 2022 and 2023 respectively.

Critical Response and the City of Ghosts Expansion

Critically, Cloudpunk landed in the mixed-or-average range on Metacritic across 40 PC reviews, while OpenCritic reported a 46 percent recommendation rate—fair approval but not universal acclaim. What reviewers consistently praised was the game's Blade Runner-inspired visual identity, the density and variety of its supporting cast, the sense of a bustling, expansive city, and the depth of vehicle customization. Richard Hoover of Adventure Gamers awarded four out of five stars, calling the experience very good and singling out those same aesthetic and world-building strengths. Beyond the base game, Ion Lands expanded the universe with City of Ghosts, announced in March 2021 and released 25 May 2021. The DLC continues Rania's story while introducing a new male protagonist, Hayse, and adds street racing, further HOVA customization, and multiple endings—giving players additional ways to inhabit Nivalis and its layered social fabric. The expansion reinforced that Cloudpunk's world, though built over a single night, was designed to feel like a living city with stories waiting in every district.