Hi, friends. We have a sort-of-update for you, which has definitely been a long time coming. We're incredibly sorry (and embarrassed, frankly) that it's taken this long but we'll get to that.

If you read our last update, you know we ran into some big hurdles and were working on solutions. Today's update is that, while we've ruled out a lot of options (which is good), we haven't been able to find that elusive answer on how best to move forward.

We're still absolutely in love with CHKN and this idea of bringing life to the creative building genre, so we're not giving up. We've made mistakes and learned a lot, and we're still hoping to overcome the hurdles but the truth is that we don't know whether we'll be able to fulfill our original 1.0 goal or if we'll need to pivot our approach entirely.

We kept hoping a solution would be right around the corner so we could update you sooner. We can't apologize enough for leaving you in limbo.

So what happens now?

Well, we're going to continue looking into a plan for the future. In the meantime, we hope anyone that wants to can find joy in what we've built so far, warts and all. And we've come to a point where folks continuing to support us monetarily isn't going to help find answers any faster. So, CHKN will be going free by the end of next week (around the 17th or so).

And for those of you who have supported us through thick and thin, we have a small token of our appreciation. After the switch, anyone who purchased the game in Early Access will find a free digital art book available in their Steam library. We hope you enjoy a look at concepts, illustrations, and unreleased work telling the story of the life of CHKN.

We're not sure when we'll have new news but we'll continue our quest and you'll be the first to know.
Thank you so much for your support.

- Team CHKN

Since it's officially SPOOKY SEASON, we wanted to share some special community creations to help celebrate. (It's really just an excuse to look at more of your creatures because we love seeing what you guys make but shhh.)

Real quick though: thank you for your kind words and understanding on our last post. You guys are amazing and we truly appreciate all the support. Thanks for sticking with us. Hope you're all staying safe!

Okay, TIME FOR SPOOKY!!!!!


Flownid by Cohollow
"Some believe that a Flownid swarm is one of the signs of the apocalypse." Yup, sounds legit.

Giant Cartoon Cat by hunterkillerofficial
It's okay. It's just a cat…. right?!

Farm Totem by plantguy760
Put a bunch of these outside your house to scare away those pesky trick-or-treaters.

Primus All Terrain Creature by $teamygreenfart
NOPE.JPG

Creeper by are-bugg
If your friend ventures out at night and doesn't come back, this is probably why.

Chicken Omega Prime by UltraDLee
Winner of "best armor costume" 17 Halloweens in a row.

Flower Flower Dancer by A duck in a tree
VERY good at stealing souls. And hula.

Elder Dog by Paradox
Said to bring bad luck to those who would step on its lawn.

Dog House by Cleistopsis
Okay, it's technically not very scary but had to share it for the pun alone. chef's kiss


Also, if you're not checking out the creatures being shared by the CHKNeers over on Discord[www.discord.gg], you're missing out.

Sentrey By Markeddeer93. That's a LOT of lasers.

Chair by mana. Yup. It's a chair.

Cockadoodledoombringer by ThatGameGuy103. Perfect name A+ would flee from again.

Gramera by miiko. An absolute unit.

Happy Halloween!

- Team CHKN

“What is happening with progress on the game?” There are some fair questions over on the Discord. We firstly want to say that we love you guys and CHKN! And we're still committed to the game. We're a very small team and we've run into some pretty big issues with some really tough decisions to make. And then 2020 happened, so we've also been a bit distracted by real life to be honest. (We hope you're all doing well!)

Here's where we stand:

We're adjusting our roadmap for a version 1.0 release: adding some key features; more content and creatures; balancing for continual progression; making the abilities system more understandable; among other things.

But, performance and data reliability (solo and multiplayer) are critical for 1.0 release and we’ve run into a big challenge in how to best tackle them. We've been researching engine and system update options and have not yet made a decision. These would be very big, very complex tasks and we currently are not completely sure that they'd fix these issues. As a small team, we can't afford to implement changes with this level of complexity unless we can be sure they'll work for our players. So we've slowed down on other updates to focus on this big research project and determine the best course of action. In the meantime, we've also needed to take on some other non-CHKN work to keep the lights on.

So, please forgive us. We're a bit tortured by this decision of how to best move forward with these options and most of all, we need to make sure we do the right thing for the game (and you guys). As soon as we have news, you'll be the first to know!

Stay safe, friends.

- Team CHKN

(New) CHKN Logo by Tycothepug

We've partnered with Genvid to supercharge the Arena mode for streamers and their audiences. Combined with the Arena mode, the Genvid technology will let you watch your favorite streamer and send item boosts and cheers live on stream as they battle their creatures against epic bosses. (We've been part of the test streams and it's super fun.)

You can join our friends at Genvid and Playcrafting for this year's PlayNYC event! It's a week long from 8/10-8/16.

PlayNYC is 100% online this year and free to attend all week long. There'll be a demo of the interactive Arena so you can see it in action and Genvid has a panel discussion on the future of interactive livestreams. There'll be over 70 games represented from NY & beyond!

Head to https://www.play-nyc.com/ to check out the schedule[www.play-nyc.com], see the games and available demos, and reserve your free ticket[www.play-nyc.com] to join in the festivities!

And please keep sending us feedback on the Arena as we plan for the future! (Our Discord[discord.gg] is always open.)

- Team CHKN

You guys! DanTDM will be featured playing CHKN on a brand new episode of Player Select on Disney XD! We're pretty dang excited.

Join Dan and his ever-faithful, tiny chicken, Felipe, for all the adventure and Egg Toss you can handle.

This episode also includes Jacksepticeye playing Animal Super Squad (made by fellow chicken enthusiasts!), Markiplier working virtually in Job Simulator, CrankGamePlays staying out of Hot Lava, and Laurenzside taking on a super fun death course in Guts And Glory.

The brand new episode of Player Select premieres on Disney XD Monday, May 11th at 8pm (in your local US time zone). Be sure to check it out!

- Team CHKN



[discord.gg]

April 1st is CHKN's birthday! Seriously, it's not an April Fool's gag. Though it's kind of a fitting birthday, don't you think?

To celebrate, we just want to say THANK YOU to all of our CHKNeers: players, testers, designers, artists, video creators, bug reporters, Workshop-ers, explorers, multiplayers, streamers, sharers, and YOU. We love hearing about your adventures and checking out all the awesome things you create. You’re all amazing. Thanks for helping us make this game and we’re very grateful for your support!

Don't forget that, for one day only during our birthday, sparkly loot bags will become sparkly birthday presents! Meet up with your friends in game to celebrate and whenever you see a loot bag drop, we hope it’s a fun reminder of how far CHKN has come with all your help. Thanks for an amazing year!

- Team CHKN

P.S. For those of you who have been checking up on us during this time (THANK YOU!), we're all doing well, staying in our respective homes and washing our hands on the regular. We hope you all are, too. Please stay safe everyone! <3

https://gtm.you1.cn/storesteam/app/420930/CHKN/

It's time for more of our recent Workshop favorites, created by the CHKN community!

You can subscribe to any of these in the Workshop to bring them into your own games. (Click on the links and hit the "Subscribe" button, or search for them in-game.) Modify them, befriend them, or fight them to the death. It's up to you!


Don't let the name or the beady eyes or the many, many horns fool you. This guy isn't so scary once you get to know him! We're sure you'll love him.

Wait, no. Our mistake. It's very scary. Very, very scary. You might want to run now.


Maciek is back again this round with a long-legged creature of another kind: a tallboi of the sea. This creative jellyfish actually moves pretty dang quick for a creature with no land legs. Just make sure to bring it back to the water from time to time.


Bulborb is back with an entry into the ever-popular "creatures riding other creatures" genre. (We need to find a better name for that genre.) This time, a well-armed chicken rides a crab into battle. Quite a combo with some good abilities to boot. Try it out!


"GGGAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" That's it. That's the caption.


We're not sure why this is called "11". Was it the eleventh creature fighterx001 made? Was it trained in a lab in Hawkins, Indiana? NO ONE KNOWS! All we know is that we'd rather it was friend than foe. Also, triple spider mouths are actually adorable. Well done.

Got a creature to share? Link them in the comments or over on Discord in the #creatures[discord.gg] channel. We love seeing all your creations so please keep sharing them with us! They may end up in a future spotlight.

- Team CHKN


[www.discord.gg]https://gtm.you1.cn/storesteam/app/420930/CHKN/

Whether you've already celebrated the new year or will be celebrating the upcoming Chinese and Lunar New Years (or all of the above!), we wish you a very happy 2020 from Team CHKN!

We're celebrating by downloading more amazing player-created creatures. Here are a few of our recent favorites.


That's a LOT of feathers. But don't be fooled! It's just a clever way to distract you from deadly laser eyes. Tricksy dino. It also somehow looks quite fashionable, don't you think?


Marionic is back with this longboi, aptly named Cattlesnake. From the description: "While this creature may seem like an easy target, it has a pretty solid defense and a mean charge to boot." We can also confirm it makes a great mount creature!


We thought this was creepy until we actually downloaded it. Then it was terrifying. And awesome. We're not sure how it fares in combat but we're going to try… as soon as we work up the courage.


Maciek is also kindly contributing to our nightmares with this tallboi based on the Striders from Half-Life 2. If you've played that game, you're probably having flashbacks right now. It's okay; this one is much cuter.


More pigmen! To round out this list and add to our ever-growing collection of pink humanoids, we give you this pickaxe warrior. Keep this guy on your side. You don't want to see him angry. (Also, hilarious bonus: the pickaxe flops around and it's great.)

You can subscribe to any of these in the Workshop to bring them into your own games. (Click on the links and hit the "Subscribe" button, or search for them in-game.) Modify them, befriend them, or fight them to the death. It's up to you!

If you'd like to see your own creations shared in the future, be sure to link them over on Discord in the #creatures[discord.gg] channel. Please keep sharing them with us! We love seeing all your creations.

Also, just a quick reminder that we're still working on those system upgrades. (As mentioned previously, we're currently focused on fixing lost data/multiplayer issues and improving performance, both of which are big things that require more time to address.) As soon as we have something new for you guys to test, we'll let you know. Thanks for your patience!

Happy new year and we wish you great happiness and prosperity in 2020!

- Team CHKN

https://gtm.you1.cn/storesteam/app/420930/CHKN/

First off, happy Thanksgiving if you're celebrating next week! Otherwise, happy friday. :)

Welcome another round of player-created creature spotlights! These are all fun, interesting, scary, or sometimes all three.

Don't forget you can subscribe to any of these in the Workshop to bring them into your own games! (Click on the links and hit the "Subscribe" button, or search for them in-game.) If you'd like to see your own creations in a future spotlight, be sure to share them over on Discord in the #creatures[discord.gg] channel. There currently appears to be a TANK CREATURES trend happening and we'd love to see yours.

With Charge, Hiss Stun, Fire Breath, and Paralysis Poison, you want this one on your side. Just remember that sometimes not every head will agree on which emotion it is currently feeling.

Once was a chicken! Now, a machine!!! We love everything about this mechanical chicken, including that it has an awesome helmet.

We're not even entirely sure what this little guy actually is, but we are sure that it's somehow very cute. Does it have any eyes? Can it see? You won't know until you download it and SEE for yourself. (Nailed it.)

Another entry into the ever-popular "pigs as humanoids" category, this zombie has definitely been collecting parts for itself. Please, no one give it any more parts!

Okay, this isn't a creature, but カルナラ shared this homestead in the #buildings Discord and we had to spotlight it. Who wouldn't want to live in an amazing cliffside mansion that can be seen from anywhere?! Even space… probably!

This place would fit a LOT of zombie pigmen.

We're still hard at work on the upgrades! As previously mentioned, our current priorities are fixing lost data/multiplayer issues and improving performance. These are both larger issues that require upgrades to systems so are taking some time to address.

A bit more detail, if you're into that sort of thing: The data/multiplayer issues are primarily caused by issues with the current networking system in the game, so we're working on replacing that system with one that we have total access and control over. This will also let us ensure that any errors are reported to us by the system (and we can fix them). At the same time, we've also been looking at newer rendering tech that has better performance across the board and upgrading that as well.

Your bug reports from Pre-Release are still very helpful so please continue to report them over on the CHKN Discord! And don't forget to also submit a bug using the in-game reporting feature so we have your game data for reference. Thanks for your help!

Hit ESC in game and choose Send Feedback/Report Bug to view this form. If we need to contact you about your report, you'll see our replies here as well.

Thanks again for helping us test our fixes in progress. And keep sharing all your beautiful/horrifying creations with us! There's nothing like seeing a terrifying cyber chicken to brighten our days.

- Team CHKN


[www.discord.gg]https://gtm.you1.cn/storesteam/app/420930/CHKN/