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It would be cool if there were different types of manes. Think of a nicheling with the mane of a lion! Here are my ideas: Small mane: Just few tufts of hair on the head +1 attractiveness Medium mane: The current mane +1 cold resistance Big mane: The mane of a lion +2 cold resistance -1 heat resistance +2 attractiveness Tuft mane: Like medium mane exept this comes with ear tufts and if you have medium tail, it gets a tail-tip-tuft and double effect. Females display eartufts (and tail tip) they also get effects. +1 hearing Double effect for medium tail + attractiveness Dominance order: Medium mane > Small mane > Big mane > Tuft mane Edit: 23rd of February 2020 Updated artwork! For comparison, no mane (so basically females with any mane type other than tuft-) Small/short mane: Medium mane: Big/lion mane: Tuft mane: (male:) (female:)

Alright, so I've seen some suggests asking for some type of creature creator/demo mode or whatever. I have been working on this for a while and I thought I'd make a new post since there's a lot more than just "A demo mode". This is gonna be mostly made up of pictures from what I call "Tutorial Mode" and I'll leave a link to a page with pictures without the text from tutorial mode. So first you can access this mode from the home screen like so: And then you would start at the creature creator (and to turn on tutorial mode you do this first (tutorial mode can be either be functional just with the yellow text or an example that goes away after you click)): Which can take you to either the creature list or the select mate screens which look like (also note that the scroll on the right on all screens is not accurate, and is just there to display its existence): (Where you can import creatures from save files like this: ) And confirming a breed brings you to the offspring list which is: Where there are trait statistics and custom filters (list of traits made by @Aysling here: https://strayfawnstudio.com/community/index.php?/topic/626-nicheling-sort-filter-and-select/&page=0#comment-2030) : Or you can go to the punnett square: And from anything outside of the creature lists, you can go to the gem colors (which you can find individually here: https://strayfawnstudio.com/community/index.php?/topic/646-customizable-and-programmable-gem-colors/) And the color cycle looks like this: And after all of that, you could use the creatures you used to start in sandbox mode like this: (Picture in production) So yea, that's all of it. Please let me know of any mistakes I might have made since this was a lot or of any logical inconsistencies. If you want to see the pictures without the text from tutorial mode, you can go to this link: https://docs.google.com/document/d/16dVKParfTHqHpSsuPD_UA_6cozEJ94_4Wtxpff6lIsE/edit?usp=sharing

Dear pack As you know the Sandbox Settings Update has recently been released on the main branch, yay Now you may be wondering what comes next for Niche, so we wanted to give you a little update! There won't be any big new updates for the PC game in the coming months. However we have 2 cool things to share with you ^^ 1) We are currently working on a prototype to bring a brand new game set in the Niche universe to mobile! These are very early mockup screenshots. The game focuses less on survival and more on breeding. Please note however that we will only finish and release this game if we think we can make something very cool out of it and its still too early to tell. Larissa is the game designer and artist for the Niche mobile game. Here you see her (left) playing the paperprototype with me 2) We're currently trying to port the game to Switch! For that we need a frozen version, which means we can't really update the game for now (except for bug fixes). Please note that here again nothing is 100% sure yet! It might be a bit early to share all this with you, since the outcome of both projects is still uncertain. However we wanted to tell you what we're currently working on

Hi folks! Quite a lot of people asked if it is possible to get a key for the Closed Alpha, so we decided to run a give away Leave a comment here for a chance to win a Steam key for the Nimbatus Closed Alpha. This give away will be open for a while. We will draw a new winner every week (The winners of the first 3 keys have been announced)

I think it would be great to have more settings for the sandbox mode. For example toggle buttons for all predator types (want to remove rogue males? Just switch them off). Maybe we could also define stuff like "Maximal tribe size" to add some extra challenge or "Maxium age of animals" so our critters can live longer. Or maybe even some special rules like "Only one male allowed in the pack" or "Tribe can only eat meat".

I drew a mockup of a pattern I think would look nice. I based it off of fish, which is why the glowing color is blue. Nice idea btw!

THE GIVE AWAY IS NOW CLOSED! Hey space travellers We're running a give away to celebrate the launch For every 25 comments in here, we'll draw a random winner! Leave a comment to enter the raffle. Winners from page 1 - 16 have been announced here. Winners from page 17 - 20 have been announced here.

I think that like cats and dogs in real life, Nichelings should be able to hold their kits in their mouths. The baby could be carried as soon as it is born, and can be carried up until two gems. Maybe also big bodied or large bodied creatures could carry lean bodied creatures like how in the wild sometimes animals will carry the weaker members of their packs or family. It would really help out when you have this one baby that runs out of energy before making it to the port, and you can just pick them up and leave the island. It would also make it easier so that the blue birds couldn't reach the baby. - Niches can only carry their babies till 2 gems! - Babies that are carried up until two gems will not grow, and the child may take slight damage due to not being able to grow. They will be dropped onto available tiles next to the mother, if none than baby will stop growing until put down. - You CANNOT do anything besides walking when holding a kit in its mouth. - Rare chance that a bluebird may still attack a scruff carried nicheling, however parent can fight back.

It always looks so strange when the babies come out with the horns, so I thought it would be idea if the horns would grow as they age. Newborns would have no horns, babies with 1 gem would have little stubs. Ones with 2 gems would just have a smaller version of the horns than the adults? Once they become adults their horns would be fully grown.

Hello Everybody 🙂 We've just introduced a new group "newbie" for new users. This group has fewer permissions but newbies will automatically get promoted to "member" after they post some content. We hope that this stops spammers from making new accounts to send spam via the Private Messaging system. Should you still receive spam please report this to us.

Hey folks As it often is the case when I have a longer vacation, I started prototyping a small Niche-related game ^^ So far, all you can do selecting your little 'Nichelings' and tell them were to go. If you place them next to bushes, they automatically start collecting and continue to do when you leave them there (automating tasks is one the points I want to try out with this prototype). You can also approach an animal of the opposite sex and mate with it. And after setting the pregnant female in the nest and waiting for a but, a baby is born. No genetics yet 😮 I'll be tinkering some more with this and let you know

I'd like it if we could generate an island, and then add stuff ourselves. Like, generate a peaceful meadow and then be able to choose what kind of grasses are there, and be able to place and remove stuff like bunny burrows, berry bushes, tree stumps, etc. That'd give us so much more control! And what if we could save these islands so they can be in our game normally, like we make it once, save it, and then boom implement it into files or smth and it's another island?? -cough cough- plus I can't get enough tree stumps for a Lek Mating Challenge and I seriously need this option Edit: So @PopsicleNinja had a good idea. This could become its own seperate update. So I suggest this: If this is the 1st rated thing or in the top 3, could the admins, mods, and all of them ppl consider that as an option? Because I do realize this is a very big, but would be a loved request.

Happy b-day Niche You are now 3 years old. They grow up so quickly *proud mom sniffle* I drew this picture to a) celebrate the birthday b) officially announcing the Switch port and new mobile game

This would be huge. It sounds so deadly. But so fun. But what happens if preds wander everywhere? Rere: Oh hey Kuro remember that balance bear we saw when we were kids? Kuro: Yeah but we moved from the mountains to the savannah. Rere: I guess it followed us. Kuro: Crap.

Dear pack We have exciting news today ^^ Many teachers reached out to us about buying an educational licence for Niche. In order to say thank you for all the support we received along the way, we decided to give them the game for free instead Niche is now available for schools and teachers free of any charge! Please help us to spread the work by sharing these posts: On Facebook On Twitter On Imgur Do you know any teachers? They can get in touch with us through this link https://niche-game.com/for-schools/ Also, say hi to Cala our mascot for the educational version

I know that there are other suggestions for family tree improvements, and here are links to all of them: https://strayfawnstudio.com/community/index.php?/topic/594-family-tree/ https://strayfawnstudio.com/community/index.php?/topic/2466-show-lifespan-in-family-tree-view/ https://strayfawnstudio.com/community/index.php?/topic/2486-show-islands-in-family-tree/ https://strayfawnstudio.com/community/index.php?/topic/2512-static-family-tree/ https://strayfawnstudio.com/community/index.php?/topic/2537-highlight-compatible-immunity-in-family-tree/ This idea contains all of them and more here in this picture (no I did not make it compatible with my creature creator on purpose *cough cough*): So starting at the top, we have the static button. For more information, you can view to original link, but the reset button is my idea. When creatures are erased from the family tree, the family tree leaves their space open and with the static feature, this can get annoying for some. The reset button allows for your family tree to reset as if you exited the game and came back so everything is in an orderly fashion. Next, there are the "P" and "G" buttons. The buttons stand for phenotype and genotype which lets you toggle what you can see. In this picture, the genotype button is deactivated which means you can no longer see the genotype both in and out of the family tree. Below that, there's a lifespan bar. The lifespan bar tells you exactly what you think it tells you. You can hover over it for the same information you would get from hovering over it outside of the family tree. If the creature is dead like the one above, you will still be able to see their lifespan bar along with any damage they had when they died. You will also either be able to see how many days they have left or their cause of death depending on if they are still alive or not. The numbers on the left side of the screen are blocks for both the endless family tree idea and the island family tree idea. The blocks can either be automatic and save all creatures for a set number of generations (which can be by island if you choose to do so) or be set up for you to save your current family tree at any time. In the case of the automatic saves, a notification will let you know when you have filled all of your slots and ask you if you want to overwrite your top block for the next slot. At the bottom of the screen, you will notice two gene filters. The top filter will filter in blue whilst the bottom filter will filter in yellow. You may notice that there are no creatures that are yellow, but there are instead green creatures. This is because the two filters will work together meaning that if a creature has both traits, then the creature will appear green rather than yellow or blue. You may also notice that some creatures are a lighter shade of blue than normal and that the bottom green is also different than the rest. This is because the lighter shade of blue represents creatures who are homozygous for the trait in order to distinguish between heterozygous creatures. The different green reflects this as that is the only creature that is homozygous in both traits. A more subtle difference is that on the family tree itself is that creatures are outlined in different colors. There are five different colors: black, white, green, yellow, and red. Black represents that the creature is dead. White represents that the creature is alive. Green represents that the creature is compatible based on immunity and is toggleable via the button in the bottom right-hand corner of the tree (when clicked on again, it will turn gray and will not show any green, yellow, or red outlines) (after-thought, maybe clicking on the button again will show yellow and red outlines for one compatible gene and no compatible genes. Let me know if you think this should be all in one or if they should be separated out). Note that the black and white outlines are only present when the gene filter is being used due to there being no way of telling who is alive or dead when it is currently being used. Also note that only creatures of the opposite sex to the selected creature will have green, yellow, and red outlines. You will also notice a small lifespan bar above each creature as well as three dots to represent gems. The small lifespan bar will appear exactly how it appears in-game currently. The gem dots will change colors according to what they are set to as well. Finally, I propose some new filters: There are now three new icons: a creature, a clock, and a DNA icon. The creature will show the ages of creatures. The clock will show how much time a creature has left. (Sorry for the creature and clock icons, I didn't have any ideas for what they should be.) Below I will explain the DNA icon in more detail: As you can see, it is found under the attributes filter with a different color. The different coloration indicates that it does not show numbers but rather letters. You will see two O's for this creature representing offspring and a "P" for partner. Other letter codes include "F" for father, "M" for mother, "A" for aunt, "U" for uncle, "S" for sibling, "H" for half-sibling, "C" for 1st cousin, and "N" for niece or nephew. Everyone who is not related in these ways will not have a letter and will remain a face. This creature was a wanderer, so she does not have much.

Okay, I know what you're thinking, but I have a very good reason for not putting on a head, tail, or coloring the legs: I wanted the full focus to be on the body! XD You will most definitely still have a tail and head and colored limbs, I just wanted to focus on the body. Speaking of the body, though, let me first focus on the actual main body then I'll get to the wings: The body is broken up into three sections. The top section of the body is very fluffy and puffy, similar to that of the Big Body, and takes on the dominant fur color. The middle section is smooth and takes on the recessive fur color. The bottom section is also smooth but matches the top section in taking on the dominant fur color. The middle and bottom sections are supposed to be round/cylindrical like a butterfly's body; I did my best to get that kind of impression. The middle section is where the top wings connect, and the bottom section is where the bottom wings connect, though since they're butterfly wings they look like it's all one big wing, so I guess it doesn't really matter when it comes to actually making the models for the game. XD Now for the wings attached to the body: Butterfly wings can vary from bottom [facing toward you] to top [when you view them from the back], so as a result I decided to draw three different types of butterfly wing. All of them offer +4 flying and you can fly with this body, but no swooping. Having two bird wings instead would get you a lot farther a lot faster, of course, but flying for this body is more or less a background ability; it's what you'll see below that's the real stars of the show. Type 1 [at the top with the gradient]: +1 attractiveness, +1 distasteful appearance, +1 poisonous [when being attacked] Type 2 [bottom left green one]: +2 camouflage +1 attractiveness Type 3 [bottom right yellow one]: +2 intimidate +1 distasteful appearance .::EDIT::. I figured it would be best to show a full body complete nicheling with this body as an example, so below I will do just that! Type 1: Type 2: Type 3: .::EDIT2::. I had the idea to draw out variations of the wings, so here we go! I included as many fur colors, horn colors, and eye colors as I could to make these Type 1 Variations! But first, a little info: The body's midsection is the recessive fur color, and the top and bottom are the dominant fur color. The wing's outline is the same as the horn color. The wing's semi-transparent gradient goes like this: The color closest to the body is the recessive eye color and the color closest to the tip of the wing is the dominant eye color. I replaced Violet with Pink because I like it better that way. Besides, pink stands out more. The wing's spots go like this: The big spots are the complimentary color to the dominant eye color [example: Blue-Orange, pink-yellow], and the little spots are the complimentary color to the recessive eye color. Now on to the wings!! Just the wings by themselves: The wings with the body outlines: [because I've been told these are easier to see] The full examples of wing variants with colored bodies: And for flavor, here we have an example of an Albino and a Melanistic nicheling:

Hey folks We just uploaded a first version of the new "Sandbox settings" update on the tester branch! What has changed in this new version? New features: New ability, Insect collecting Insect in the swamp can now be collected and swooped if the Nicheling has the Insect Collecting ability New animal type “Defender Bear” New animal type “Peaceful Bear” New gene Bat Head New gene Savanna Horns New gene Bat Wings Nicheling names can now be customized via a file Gem colors can now be customized via a file Added new sandbox settings: Age and pregnancy duration settings Start animal amount and gene settings Damage and healing multiplier settings Food and nesting material start amount settings Blind gene mode setting All genes unlocked setting Tribe size limit setting (Achievements are disabled if you play with custom sandbox settings) Improvements: Added exhibiton mode Unlocked genes are now highlighted in the mutation list Added gene name to gene unlocked message Reduced amount of Balance Bears that can spawn Fixes: Apes can no longer move through jungle rivers Wild Nichelings drown themselves less often Moved tailfin body part a bit to avoid collision with water body SetGene and SwitchGender console command should no longer break the game or cause bugs Some things are still missing, we're working on them: New gene Sticky Tongue Termit hills in Savanna (Maybe) Basic options to deactivate field occupants (aka switch off the rogue males) (Maybe) Very basic options to create challenges How you can customize the animal name setting: Open the file: C:\Users\username\AppData\LocalLow\Team Niche\Niche - a genetics survival game\AnimalNames.ini Add new syllables and names, don't forget to save. How you can customize the gem colors: Open the file: C:\Users\username\AppData\LocalLow\Team Niche\Niche - a genetics survival game\ActionPointColors.ini Add new colors, don't forget to save ^^ Please help us to test if all the new things are working! To do so, you can head over to Steam. Right click on Niche in your game library, select properties, open the Betas tab, enter the password. The password is: NicheTesterBranch Select tester_branch from the drop down. The game should now be updating. If now, restart Steam. Happy testing and please report all bugs here. Thank you ❤️

Hey folks! This week we submitted our applications for a gouvernement art grant to hopefully get a bit of financial support from them for our new games. (That's also the reason why you will hear us greeting a jury in the beginning of these videos xD) We thought you guys might be curious to see what we've been working on (besides making Nimbatus updates and working on the Niche console port) too! So here is a quick glance at the two prototypes we're currently working on! Disclaimer as usual: Both projects are still too early to say for sure wether or not they will be released.

So I recently started playing this game when it went on sale and fell in love with it. I haven't gotten super far yet though so my nichelings don't look super fancy, but I do like the looks that these two have. The one on the right is the mother, Mereis and her daughter on the left is Iska. Iska's kind of proving a young prodigy, as she's the statistically strongest one in the tribe. For the drawing I imagine her showing huge potential for survival, but also learning that some things take time to master. Hope you enjoy! (Not taking requests)

Fanart time!

We are currently evaluating the possibility to produce Niche plushies. Not sure at all that it will be possible yet though! Still evaluating. But if it WOULD be possible. What design would you like to see as a Niche plushie? Here is my design for a baby Adam plushie ^^

So, I just randomly had an idea for a new gene. It would maybe look kind of like a snake head, with frills on the sides. If a creature comes within a certain range (maybe three or four spaces?) the nicheling with the gene has an option to spit at it. The creature would be poisoned, and wouldn't take damage right away. Perhaps you could make puddles on certain spots, and creatures who step in them (including nichelings) would be poisoned. Edit: Based on people's suggestions, I think that I should change it to instead paralyze the target for a day or two, although only a few turns for larger creatures. However, there is also a very small chance to poison the target. Edit 2: Should probably add some possible unlock conditions. I think that it would be unlocked after eating a certain number of toxic berries and licking a certain number of times. Another option could involve picking from the carnivorous plant.

This one is kinda old. I drew it last autumn and it's still one of my personal favourites

Did anybody say new bears ?

This is a challenge all about social structure. In this challenge, there are two social layers. You should use a very large island to allow this challenge to really take form: On the top are nobles. Nobles are the stronger, higher ranking faction. They are generally very beautiful (to you, at least), and will not bother with things like collecting grass. Nobles, however, do love a good hunt and chasing down rogues. They mostly live off the work from the villagers. They should each have their own space on a seperate part of the island than the villagers. They have the alpha rank. Their gems should be colored a noble gold. At the bottom are villagers. Villagers are normal, everyday nichelings with a whatever appearance. They may hunt, collect grass, pick berries, and all other nicheling related things. Each nicheling family has to have two parents and no more than 4 children. A couple cannot have more children until one of them dies or is married off. Each family should have their own small ‘house’ in the island at with at least one line of darkness between then and any neighboring family. They have the beta rank. Their gems can be colored between families so you can tell who comes from where. Generally, a house consists of some kind of food source (berry bush, river, tree) and a nest or at least enough space to make one. Marriage Daughters are very prized, especially a particularly pretty or talented daughter (Defined as having 3+ in any single skill, or a special skill such as weather prediction, this is up to you). When a daughter is born, all genetically compatible males will fight for the right to the daughter. If you have a lot of genetically compatible males, you can choose to limit the amount or only give each male 1 number so the numbers don’t get unmanageable. Use a die or a random number generator and give two numbers to each male, for example. Male 1 gets 2 and 6 Male 2 gets 1 and 3 Male 3 gets 4 and 5. The male whose number gets called wins the daughter, this is absolute, even if you didn’t want that female and that male to mate. HOWEVER, if the daughter is particularly desirable (in your eyes or by raw stats, whichever you prefer) and a noble family has a genetically compatible son, you must flip a coin to decide if the nobles take the daughter instead, regardless of whether you wanted her to mate with the nobles or not. Of course, this can always result in a lot of forbidden romances, subterfuge, sabotage, and family rivalries. This challenge is great fun if you’re into roleplay. Once a daughter reaches adulthood, she should get her own space with her husband and start having children as soon as possible. Their gems should gain a unique color, which all their children will inherit. Orphans and the matron: Orphans are the children of mothers and rogues, children a family has over their 4 child limit, or children whose parents have died. Somewhere on your island, there should be an orphan matron. Orphan matrons are usually older nichelings, sickly or crippled nichelings, or infertile nichelings. The orphanage should be separate from the normal area where your nichelings live, though not too far. Orphans have the omega rank. Orphan daughters can be married off when they reach adulthood. Usually only families that cannot seem to win a challenge will accept an orphan daughter as a wife. Nobles will never take an orphan wife. If there is no family who wants the orphan wife, she can either become a matron or a slave. Orphan sons may be married off if there are no other genetically compatible males for a given female. Otherwise, they begin work as matrons or become slaves for the nobles. This part of the challenge is mostly optional, but it does become useful if the orphan children have immunities that have become rare in the common population. Matron and orphan gems are orange unless they marry, after which they take their mate’s gem color. Matrons cannot marry or have mates. There can only be 3 matrons at a time! There are a few absolute rules in the clan: Villager females, especially married females, who mate with rogue males become ostracized. They can either be banished or given the omega rank and forced to do slave work like clear grass for the nobles, harvest stinky fruit, or become babysitters or orphan matrons. Their illegitimate children become orphans or can be banished and immediately killed if you choose not to do the orphanage. Villager families cannot become noble, though a family who produces desirable, healthy children is usually considered more highly among the clan members. Noble females who bring shame to the family name (for example, breeding with a rogue or a slave) are demoted to a villager. She cannot return to the noble rank ever again, and any children born from a demoted noble female cannot marry into noble families. If a male cannot produce children after 5 failed mating attempts (6 attempts in total), the daughter can choose return to their birth family and be married off to another male nicheling. A female can choose to give a male more chances, but generally will give up after ten tries or so. That male cannot compete for that daughter in her next challenge. An infertile daughter or son is usually banished, demoted to a slave, or made into an orphan matron as they are considered burdens on their family. Wanderers are always a villager, and cannot marry into noble families. However, their children can given they are talented and/or desirable enough. Nobles decide things like moving islands and serve as arbitrators in disputes. How to start: My settings are: Baby = 2 days Child = 5 days Teen = 12 days Adult = 61 days Pregnancy duration = 3 days Enemy damage = 10 Environment damage = 5 Hunger damage = 5 Healing = 5 Start with nine nichelings. Two noble families, and two villager families, and one orphan matron. Make sure to have their gems colored. You can design them or have the game generate them. You should use a large island. Grass Mingle, Grass adventure, Archipelago, and Peaceful Meadow are all good starting points. If you like a little variety, you can turn off some predators and go to some crazy islands like the deep jungle or home island. Do what makes you happy :3 Good luck!

I know this isn't really a suggestion, but I think this is the best place to put this. This is basically the ultimate sandbox mode where it has suggestions that I took from others, suggestions I made myself, and suggestions that I thought of first but then someone posted about it. I do not think that all of this will be implemented; I just thought it would be best to just create the ultimate ideal instead of something with less. Also because of where I got the suggestions, anyone is free to separate any of my suggestions into their own post because I don't remember/know which ones are which anymore. For upvoting and comments, I'm thinking if you just like the format or not rather than everything. I also wanted to mention that I have not finished all of the concept art I wanted to make, but I felt bad about teasing this for a really long time and not posting it because I got really busy and haven't had time to work on it, so I will most definitely update this later (how much later, I don't know). Without further ado, here it is: This is the new page that will appear when Sandbox mode is clicked (the buttons on this page are subject to change due to some pages not being fully thought out yet) (also I know that it says arcade mode and that's because I thought that have "challenges" would be arcade mode exclusive, but there is now a suggestion for that so I'll fix that later): I think that these categories are best to fit all of the suggestions I've seen and will go more in-depth with each one when I get to them. You'll notice a difficulty meter in the upper right-hand corner which will shift depending on your options or due to combinations of your options. Also in the bottom right-hand corner, there is a "Save Challenge" button which is meant to give you a code to send to other players. Now I will start with "Starting Island" and go down from there: This is just a standard selection and is pretty self-explanatory. However, you will notice there are two other buttons not usually found on this screen: "Custom Islands" and "Randomize". For the "Custom Islands" button, you will be able to create your own islands, play on previously made islands, or import islands. Selecting a previously made/imported island will look like this: Creating islands can be very versatile. You can make a specific island with specific placements for objects like trees and rocks, or you can make it more general like having three burrows spawn somewhere on the island. I believe the rest is self-explanatory. Next is the "Randomize" button: I think that this one is pretty self-explanatory as well. The next category is the "Mutation Menu" button: Here is a menu of all the genes in the game, not just the ones in the mutation menu. This allows one to add more genes to the mutation menu if they so desire. The green buttons seem pretty self-explanatory besides the "Custom" button. The "Custom" button allows you to edit the unlockablility of the genes meaning if you wanted to change the unlockability requirement for round ears to "discover all islands", you could. The color code may seem complicated, but you only need to focus on the top row. Clicking on any of the colors at the bottom themselves will allow you to either select or deselect all of the genes in that category. Double-clicking the colors on the top row in edit mode will allow you to change the status of those genes. The next category is "Starting Creatures": Here you can select the amount and specific creatures you want for your save file. In the future, I will add a random amount button to the "# of Creatures" button. For the "Specific Creatures" button, you can, well, pick specific creatures. You can create the creatures through a simplified version of my creature creator that only involves the ability to make one-off creatures. It currently isn't there, but in the future I will add a "Random" gene that allows you to have random aspects of your starting creatures. Next is the "Entity Factors" button: Here you can customize your wildlife. Spawn rate involves another screen that has a master spawn rate along with custom spawn rates for specific islands and island levels. Stats involve what you can typically see on entities such as strength, speed, collecting, etc. Extra involves anything from diet to fear to movement type. At the bottom of this page, there would also be a custom button. In the custom button, you can use one of the pre-existing entities as a base for a new creature that could involve simple color palette differences, size differences, and part editing. An example of part editing would be like making a balance bear have slightly longer and larger claws. Unfortunately, this is the last picture I have, but I will continue to explain the rest of the buttons. The next category is "Environmental Factors". This section includes weather, plant life, starting food, and starting nesting material. The weather section would include a button for where, how often it would occur, and effects. The plant life section would include where, how often it would occur, effects, food provided, and respawn rate. The final factor category is "Nicheling Factors". This section is about your creatures themselves and includes everything from lifespan (overall length and life stage length), food expendability, amount of energy, energy regained, dietary restrictions, sickness, population size (which could include island proportionality), and genes (which includes amount of mutations, hiding certain genes, gene dominance, and immunity genes (amount and importance). Next is "In-game Toggles". This section is the most arbitrary as it acts as either an easy way out of mistakes made whilst in this menu or to sustain evidence of completion. What I mean by that is that this section either says you are allowed to change such qualities after the save file is made or not. Subjects that you are able to allow to change include being able to show genotype, gene unlockability, conditions, mutations, sickness, notifications, population size, and gene existence and rarity. The final section is "Challenges". Here you can create custom conditions that can be more harshly reinforced in-game. So the game would give you tasks to complete with genes which could be either continuous or one-offs. ex: have only yellow eyes in your pack You would also have the ability to customize what types of challenges, time limits, predators, disease, pack size, etc. The types of challenges you could have could be “Create a Creature” where you make a specific creature (which could vary in how specific), “Dominant Trait” where you make one or more traits be prevalent in all of your creatures (which could extend into phenotype or genotype), “Natural Selection” where you try to eliminate one or more traits from your pack (which could be paired up with other challenges and be ongoing meaning you can never have that trait in your pack), etc. There would also be an option for lives as in how many times you can fail objectives. You would also have a code to send challenges to send to other Niche players. The code could be set up as just a long number sequence where each number represents a stat. In the code, you might even be able to get really specific like the exact challenges you get. ex. 050003 (followed by more 0s) would represent 5 challenged by the first two digits, an infinite time limit represented by the third and fourth digits, the starting island would be the grass adventure island represented by the last two digits, etc. (If there’s a better and shorter way to do this, then I’m game as well) The game mode will end once all objectives are met, are failed to be met, all creatures are dead, or all lives are lost. If you have lost, there’s also the option to view the island. All creatures would have no energy and you couldn’t pass the day. It’s purely there for you to view your failed tribe and send it to others if you’d like. So, that's that I guess. Please feel free to comment below if anything else needs to be clarified or whatever else. I most likely have an explanation, I just forgot to include it. I'd be happy to explain whatever!

Pygmy nichelings are like wandering nichelings with mostly black fur and cat eyes, but their main difference is that adults are the size of a big bodied teenage nicheling. They behave like wanderers, but their speed is increased by 2 points and their strength is decreased by 1. They have a chance of spawning in port tiles as a family on any island but they can be toggled on and off, and they will breed with each other and are capable of building nests to have their babies, but you can steal those nests if you want. They compete with you for food and are behave a lot like adam's family on home island, but a bit more fierce, as they will try to attack your babies even if you have not attacked them. Their default appearance is black, with pygmy body which looks like normal body but small, antlers and sometimes no horns, long snout, normal hind legs, medium or swimming tail and double runner legs or double velvet paws, but they can have any paw except wings, bearyena paw, or mammoth foot. Their appearance can vary a bit depending on the island, but they always have cat eyes. There are benefits to them, for example, you can make them extinct on an island if you kill the entire population, also, predators treat them like normal nichelings, so they can be a great distraction. Also, because they are a subspecies, you can breed with them. they are really attached to their family, so to get one in your pack you can only invite a baby in the nest, the baby will join your pack and you could control it, by breeding with it, you could get these Exclusive genes: Cat eyes: + 3 eyesight Pygmy body: All the benefits of normal body but with 2 speed and 0 strength black fur P immunity: An exclusive immunity( maybe lets you invite adult pygmys into the pack but likely not) Finally, there could possibly be a rare variation of these that acts like a rogue female, it breeds with your males and the baby joins their pack, this not only means that you could have a hybrid between the two subspecies against you, but it could also create some awesome stories of forbidden love and also traitors (one step closer to warrior cats)

Hey folks We just released the Nimbatus campaign update on the main branch To celebrate the occasion, we're giving away 3 Nimbatus Steam keys! Leave a comment here in order to join the raffle. Deadline to join is August 19th. Winners will be announced on that day too We're also running a raffle on Twitter. Best of luck!

Game launch next week! Spent the whole day recording a gameplay video Panic! Excitement!

Hi there, wanted to share some characters of mine I've drawn: Anameis: Laana, a seer of the sea descended from Seri's Doeli: Kois: and Yuki, a fan-incarnation of Seri's snow god: Hope you like. They are all digital over scanned pencil. Oh and they're all from a story (is fic allowed?) but when the sandbox update comes out I'll probably make in-game replicas for fun.

I couldn’t include RandomWanderer’s because I didn’t know what one to do 😔 BUT IT’S FINALLY DOOOONEEEEEEEEEEEE

I think it would be cool to add a new game mode that makes things a bit more challenging. In this game mode the game starts with a tribe of animals (maybe around 5 or so). Things are peaceful for a short time and then the earth starts shaking. The island you are living on is slowly falling apart. Your tribe needs to reach the next island exit as fast as possible! And this is how it keeps being from now on. Every island you enter will fall apart after some time, so run for your lives! You only have a short amout of time to gather up resources before heading to a harder island. This adds an interesting time restriction to the game which makes every single decision more important. Maybe this could even be a story thing, like Adam's story. With a small intro and an end goal: Reach Paradise Island. An island full of food and where earth quakes can't reach you.

Hi folks! I just set live our coming soon page on Kickstarter If you are planning to get an Adam plushie (it will cost between $35 - $45), please click the "Notify me on launch" button here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/strayfawnstudio/adam-plushies Also, 3 more sticker sheets are in the works ❤️ Very excited for the campaign to start soon!

Thought I'd post this here too

Hey folks! The Niche Mobile Team has been relatively quiet the last few months, but we are back with an update for you! We're working on realising many of the community's feature requests and feedbacks and are currently making patterns for our mobile Nichelings: NicheMobile_PatternTest.mp4 This pattern shader @Markus made gives us many possibilites to have more and also different patterns than in Niche PC. We're also planning to drop a big update for all the @NicheMobileTester s, so stay tuned!

Hey folks We just uploaded a new version (1.1.6) of the "Sandbox settings" update on the tester branch! Please don't forget that this is a tester branch. Things are buggy here. If you want to play with precious save files from earlier versions, it's adviced to make a back up first. What has changed in this new version?  New features: New gene Sticky Tongue New food source Termite Hills Added new sandbox settings: World Settings (allows you to toggle the spawn of objects on/off) Improvements: Better balancing for Defender Bears Fixes: Fixed Short Snout isn't in the customization option Fixed gene unlock message Fixed blood clotting in animal customization options Fixed exhibitor mode bug (random restarts) Fixed family tree age display bug Fixed forbidden genes bug Fixed some of the animal ageing bugs (but some might still be around, please report!) Fixed Savanna Horns domiance bug Fixed save issues with sandbox settings Some things are still missing: (Maybe) Very basic options to create challenges Also check out the patch notes of version 1.1.5 here How you can customize the animal name setting: Open the file: C:\Users\username\AppData\LocalLow\Team Niche\Niche - a genetics survival game\AnimalNames.ini Add new syllables and names, don't forget to save. How you can customize the gem colors: Open the file: C:\Users\username\AppData\LocalLow\Team Niche\Niche - a genetics survival game\ActionPointColors.ini Add new colors, don't forget to save ^^ Please help us to test if all the new things are working! To do so, you can head over to Steam. Right click on Niche in your game library, select properties, open the Betas tab, enter the password. The password is: NicheTesterBranch Select tester_branch from the drop down. The game should now be updating. If now, restart Steam. Happy testing and please report all bugs here. Thank you ❤️

This is my boy, Steve. He's dead now (RIP), but he's my favourite nicheling that I've gotten so far~ (Also, hello I'm new and still trying to figure out how to use forums [I've never used one before]. So if I'm doing this wrong or something, that's why :/)

Hi, I what to make a suggestion, Lately I've been playing and one of the problems sometime I have is the "Unlock gene notification", is hard to track which gene you unlock in the menu, so maybe add like a glow feature of something in the gene menu that can show you which gene you unlock. I add an example n,n/ Thanks!

Insectivorous Nicheling is serious.

I draw too, rarely, but sometimes ^^ So I will be sharing stuff here when I do! I'm a huge fan of Renamon and yesterday I doodled this alternative version of her. Any name suggestions ^^?

Hey folks ^^ I'm currently in Croatia at a game conference. I will write a longer blog post once I'm back home next week! Spoiler alert: Nimbatus won the "Outstanding Gameplay" Award

Hey folks ^^ I currently have 2 weeks vacation and thought hey, why not try and write something for a change? And while I'm witting, why not make it a Niche story? So I decided to think about a potential main character for the story and settled on Adam's sister. Which I named Nara. She must have felt aweful when her brother was taken by the blue bird so I wanted to explore her story a bit. No idea if I will have time to continue writing, but I thought I'd share the first page with you Disclaimer, English is not my mothertongue and my grammer isn't the best. Feel free to point me to typos and let me know your opinion, thanks ❤️ Here we go: Chapter 1 - The Red Leaf Tribe Nara let out a startled squeak as Adam poked his head out of a nearby bush. “You are such a scaredy cat sis!”, he laughed, then stepped out and shook the leaves off his pelt. Nara let out a sigh. “Why do you always have to do this?”, she asked, fixating him with her purple eyes. “Stealth training of course”, he replied. “You should start to practice more as well! Skill evaluations are only a few dawns away”. He gave her face a quick lick and jumped back into the thicket, stalking off. Nara sighed again and flopped down onto her belly, then rolled over to her back and looked up at the sky. Red leaves rustled in the trees above. Nara smiled. She loved these trees. They grew nowhere else but on this island. Long ago her ancestors had decided to name their group after these very leaves, forming the “Red Leaf” tribe long, long before she was born. Nara stretched her legs towards the sky and yawned. The sun reflected off her short, orange-red fur, making it shine bright while her stripes remained a dark brown. Nara often heard her tribe mates talk about how beautiful she was, the spitting image of their ancestors. Nara didn’t really understand why that was so important, but at least it gave the others something to like about her. And so, she dozed off in the warm afternoon sunlight, dreaming off butterflies. It was almost sundown when Nara finally hurried into the clearing. She had overslept… again! All other young Nichelings of the tribe where already gathered there, showing of small pieces of prey they caught or demonstrating their newly learned battle moves to each other. Nara’s mother lay near the edge of the clearing, looking at her with a raised brow and a playful grin. “Were you chasing butterflies in your dreams again?”, she whispered as Nara approached. Nara rubbed her head against her mother’s. “I caught one and it gave me wings! Beautiful, colorful ones. I could fly and see the whole island from above”. Both smiled at each other. “Pathetic!”, came the exclamation from a female sitting nearby. Nara flinched, but quickly came to understand that the female wasn’t talking to her. “You little piece of dung, is this all you have brought for your siblings?”, the female continued. In front of her sat a young male. He was a few moons older than Nara, with red-brown fur and only a single stripe that bent over his nose. “I’m sorry mother, I will try harder tomorrow”, he whispered, met her gaze for a second, then dropped his head again. Between the female’s forelegs, three baby Nichelings were squirming. “I’ll eat your share too”, she exclaimed. Or I won’t have enough milk for them. Now get out of my sight”. The young male nodded and trotted away. He lay down on a dry patch of earth and curled up. Both Nara and her mother had observed the scene. And while it was true that young Nichelings his age were supposed to find their own food, they usually didn’t have to provide for a whole family. Nara looked up at her mother, who shook her head. “I’m sorry my dear, but as you know it is tradition that each family must provide for themselves. Otherwise we might allow weak blood to spread in the tribe which would harm all of us in the long run.” Nara nodded, curled up at het mother’s side and closed her eyes, pretending to fall asleep. She didn’t like these stupid rules. Shortly after, Nara’s brother Adam came trotting over from his playfight with a slightly older female. His fur looked a lot like Nara’s, but it was covered in little scars and freshly torn scratches. “Oh my boy”, his mother commented, and began to lick his wounds clean. Nara observed them through half closed eyes and sulked. A cool wind ruffled Nara’s fur and she shivered. As she opened her eyes, she noticed that she must have rolled away from her mother side while sleeping. She couldn’t remember dreaming though. The moon was high up in the sky. She stood up and looked around. Everybody seemed soundly asleep, except for the guards positioned at each boarder of the clearing. “Seems like I’m doing some stealth training after all, Adam would be proud of me”, she thought, amused. In the same moment her brother uttered a loud snore and slowly pushed his hind-legs into their mother’s snout, exposing her pink gum. She didn’t seem to mind at all, continuing to breath heavily. Nara moved as quietly as she could and made her way over to the curled up, isolated, red-brown heap of fur. The young male was shivering in his sleep, his face full of strain. Nara settled down beside him, brushing her fur against his and took off with her butterfly wings once more. ----* Zekir was the first to wake up this morning. He was expecting his muscles to be stiff from the cold night, but they felt smooth as he stoop up slowly. Looking down he found out why. A young, female Nicheling lay curled up beside him. She was beautiful, perfect in every way he wasn’t. His mother would be so proud to call her daughter. He shook his head to banish the dark thoughts. He had seen her before, sunbathing and dozing, eating and laughing, living an easy life. He had to hold back an angry snort. But what on earth was she doing here now? He never asked for her help or her kindness and still she made her way over to him in times of need. Maybe this was what happened if mothers’ didn’t teach their offspring the rough realities of survival? Whatever might be the reason, Zekir didn’t want anything to do with it. He quietly stalked towards the edge of the clearing, shot one final glance back at the still sleeping Nara, and was gone. Nara, as it had almost become tradition by now, woke up last. Only the elder Nichelings and fresh mothers remained in the clearing. Everybody had headed out, going about their daily business, everyone except for Nara. Her belly rumbled with hunger. “I really have to start getting up a bit earlier, but sleeping is just so much fun”, she thought, stood up and shook herself. It seemed that her mother shared her opinion, since she hadn’t left any breakfast for her as she usually did. Or maybe she was angry because Nara snuck off last night? Either way, the problem could surely be fixed by gifting her mom some pretty flowers later. The elders sitting nearby greeted her friendly and some even bowed their heads a little. “Have a happy day dear elders!”, Nara called cheerfully. She smiled and trotted out of the clearing, remembering their stories: Red Leaf island had always been a paradise for the Nichelings that lived there. Everybody wanted in and enjoy the island’s plentiful resources. When their ancestors came to power, they placed guards at all the island entrances and fended off everybody that wanted in. Recently there hadn’t been any invasion attempts. Maybe word had gotten out that the island’s resources were exhausted? Their tribe had grown a lot since the time of the elders’ stories, which was great, but also meant there were more mouths to feed. Nara had never really thought about it before, but the scene between Zekir and his mother had made it clear to her, there wasn’t enough for everyone anymore. Or maybe Zekir was just a bad hunter? The thoughts swirled around in Nara’s head, distracting her from the job at paw: Breakfast! Her belly kept rumbling too, startling the Rabbil she was stalking. The little, white creature squeaked and disappeared into a nearby burrow. “I’d probably be the first one to starve! Seriously belly, if you want to eat, can’t you just shut up?”, Nara teased herself and began to laugh loudly. Suddenly, Adam jumped out of a nearby bush and landed right on top of her, which made her laugh even harder. “Silly sister”, Adam teased. “The whole forest can hear you, you know? You’re lucky I’m no predator!”, he joked and bit her ear playfully. “Oww!”, Nara burst out and tried to throw him off. But he kept her pinned down, clearly stronger than her. “Damn you Adam”, she wined and he let her go. He turned his back on her, looking over his shoulder, flicking his long tail dismissively, just about to announce his own superiority. But before he could say one word, Nara jumped on him. They rolled over into the bushes. Suddenly the ground beneath them started to give way. They were rolling down a hill, screaming and holding on to each other tightly. After a while, their pace started to slow, as the floor became more even again. Both had kept their eyes tightly shut. Adam carefully opened them. A group of juvenile Nichelings starred down at them, amongst them the slightly older female Adam play-fought the day before. “Err, hi Kari”, Adam stammered. Nara slowly opened one eye. “What a nice surprise!”, Kari exclaimed. “We were just talking about you two.” Adam and Nara shakily came to their paws and sat down, still dizzy from the fall. Kari continued: “So I guess Nara and Zekir are a thing now huh? We all saw her sleeping next to him. Probably won’t be long before they become mates! Though it might still take you a few moon to become a real female, huh Nara?”, Kari chuckled. Nara starred at her with wide-open eyes. “I… I was just…”, she stammered. The group started to laugh. “Well Nara you have to be careful what signals you give to a male”, Kari interrupted her. “Especially to desperate ones such as Zekir. It’s not like he has a lot of options regarding females, so what you did was practically a mating invitation.” Nara blushed and starred at Kari in surprise. Kari went on: “Better focus on yourself and your family for now. I bet you can’t even use your poison ability yet.” Adam unconsciously touched his short, curved fangs. Many member of their tribe were able to produce a snake-like poison. It could be used to poison enemies and paralyse prey. Just like Nara, he wasn’t yet able to use it. Kari took a deep breath: “So don’t do stuff like that again! It would be a waste of your genes if you ended up having Zekir’s cubs. Our ancestors would turn in their grave!” The Nichelings sitting around them nodded in approval.

This suggestion is pretty cut and dry and like a year old, but oh well Like Rogue Males, there could be Lonely Ladies who carry similar genes as Rogue Males, mate with your male nichelings, and steal nests like dodomingos in order to have those babies, which will then either become Lonely Ladies or Rogue Males depending on their gender, though they will follow her around in the tile behind her like a bearyena and her cub until they're old enough to wander away. Rogue Males and Lonely Ladies won't mate with each other, though; just your nichelings. Also if you leave a baby unattended, the Lonely Ladies will take them away, and the baby will follow her around like her own Rogue/Lonely baby, but instead of going Rogue/Lonely once they're adults, they'll turn into Wanderers that you can invite into your tribe. If you want to take your baby back before then, like immediately after she steals it away, then you'll have to kill her.

Hi pack! We discussed with the whole team and these are the results of the second community voting The following features will be implemented in the next update! More customization options for sandbox mode Unlock gene menu notifications Insectivorous nichelings New gene: Bat Head New gene: Savanna Horns Customizable and Programmable Gem Colors * Please note that this feature will be added in a way simpler way than suggested. Players will have the option to write down color codes in a special file in their game's folder. Additionally the new update will feature: New gene: Bat Wings (We already prepared these for the flight update) 2 new bears (These are Kickstarter rewards) Customizable animal names (Since we have customizable gem colors, this is a very low effort task. Players will have the option to write down names in a special file in their game's folder.) How where these features chosen? We evaluated the 20 highest rated features based on their effort in the sectors programming / art / game design. Higher voted features are priorised. The highest rated suggestion "More customization options for sandbox mode" is a big feature with a very high programming effort. So all other features chosen were required to have very low programming effort. We hope to release the next update in Q1 2019. Now, let's discuss what kind of stuff we want to be able to customize in the sand box mode Head over here to post your suggestions: https://strayfawnstudio.com/community/index.php?/forum/70-customization-options-for-sandbox-mode/ Cheers, Your Stray Fawn Team