CHKN News

The Dragon makes its triumphant return thanks to all the CHKNeers that voted over on our Discord! Plus, by popular request, leg blocks can now be arms depending on where they’re placed. There is also a new heart resource for building creatures, tamed creatures have been improved, and more. Check out the patch notes below and download the update to try the new features and improvements for yourself! And be sure to join us Tuesday (6/11) for next dev stream! More info below.



Majestic.

• Wing, leg, eye, mouth, tail, horn, spike, and body blocks (from S - XXL and half sizes) are all added to the game. Show us what you build!
  
• New Dragon-based wild creatures have been added to the world. Find them in Adventure mode to nab their blocks or discover their new abilities. Speaking of which...
  
• You can’t have a Dragon without FIRE. The Fire Breath ability has been added.

Just… be careful where you point that dragon mouth.

• Add a Dragon Tail for the other new ability: Tail Slash.

Swoooosh!

• By popular request, legs can now be arms!
  
• Depending on where you place it, a “limb” block will act as an arm or leg. If it touches the ground, leg! If not, it’s treated as an arm and animates/acts accordingly.
  
• That means it’s now much easier to tell when a leg will touch the ground or act as an arm when you add it to a creature while building.
  
• Arm abilities coming soon (like Cat Scratch)!

Same pig limb block acting as a leg (touching the ground) and an arm on the same creature. The pig becomes man!

• Building new creatures now requires a Build Heart resource.
  
• Build Hearts are obtained by defeating a temple and getting the Lifeshaper upgrade.
  
• Hearts can also be gained by dissembling tamed creatures.
  
• You can see the total number of Build Hearts you have on the player stats screen.

• Once a creature is tamed, you now own it and it can be swapped in and out of your party at any time.
  
• Tamed creatures will no longer experience perma-death. They can be revived by sacrificing Life Blocks just like other owned creatures.
  
• Removing a tamed creature converts it back into Life Blocks.
  
• Keep track of all your tamed creatures by clicking the Tamed Creatures button on the Party screen.

My army grows….

• Reduced the number of abilities a creature can have to 6 (from 8) to encourage building multiple creatures.
  
• Creatures will no longer help destroy structures. Sometimes you gotta do the dirty work yourself.
  
• Increased Cat, Dog, and Spider leg movement speed slightly.
  
• Creature bite strikes now have variable timings based off the length of the neck to make them feel snappy.
  
• Creatures now spawn at different levels that will affect overall CP.
  
• Creature revive in Creative mode is now free.
  
• Choose to spawn wild or tamed when spawning a creature in Creative mode.

• NOTE: Due to a save system upgrade, all defeated bosses and their protected Lifeshapers will have returned to temples in your existing saved games. This means you can get additional Lifeshaper levels in those games! Enjoy.
  
• Party creature UI now always displays on the HUD to show which creatures are assigned, active, or incapacitated.
  
• Removed the radial menu from creatures. Instead, interact by using the party screen and the Lifeshaper.
  
• With the radial menu gone, Ride now gets a dedicated button! By default, press [R] while facing a creature to mount it. [R] again while riding to dismount. (You can change all bindings in the Options menu.)
  
• Removed automatic riding from the riding blanket. Only the saddle will grant this.
  
• Vials in creative mode are now thrown on mouse click.
  
• Added a Co-op mode toggle to the Host Game menu.
  
• Brick and ingot recipes tweaked.
  
• Handy tips added to loading screens.
  
• Improved creature mill assignment screen to assign on click.
  
• Added ability to release creature from mills with world interaction key.
  
• Tool and outfit stations now require the structure station to be built.
  
• Changed hatchery to use assign creature menu.
  
• Stat scaling added to venom and fire damage.
  
• Sleeping parents no longer wake up when hitting their eggs.

• Fixed teleporting to random location when mounting a creature in a networked game.
  
• Fixed bugs with per frame damage that would grant too many items when destroying bushes, trees, etc.
  
• Fixed treadmills appearing from a previous save or networked game.
  
• Fixed creature yell ability animations.
  
• Fixed bad data entering creature sensing system that caused many issues.
  
• Fixed bad look angles.
  
• Fixed creature building cursor errors when switching menus.
  
• Fixed priority of which mouth is in control of a neck.
  
• Fixed issues with multiple heads.
  
• Fixed creatures not loading correctly when moving out of LOD range and returning to previous position.
  
• Fixed crafting structures not returning unused materials when being destroyed.
  
• Fixed a bug with save updating that broke party creature spawning.
  
• Fixed bug with creature wandering that caused them to stay still.
  
• Fixed a bug in follow distance calculation that caused creature to back up more than it should.
  
• Tamed creatures will no longer sleep when being saddled.
  
• Fixed bug with hatchery hatch time. Hatched creatures now start at level 1.
  
• Item name overlay background now sizes correctly to fit the text.
  
• Fixed a bug with switching states on players and creatures that would cause the wrong logic to run.
  
• Fixed hatchery egg position.
  
• Fixed possible bad states for creatures when using treadmills.
  
• Fixed to creatures picking up food instead of eating it.
  
• Fixed main menu news GIF decoder.
  
• Infinite fire bugs have been fixed.
  
• Old map waypoints are now properly removed when ending a game.
  
• Fixed Arena Intro UI alignment when in 16+:9 aspect ratios.

Greg and John will be experimenting in Creative Mode with different scenarios and building dragons during our next developer livestream on Tuesday, June 11th at 3:30 PM EST. Come check out all the new features! Bring your creature ideas and your CHKN questions, or just drop by and say hello. See you there!

Watch on: ❤️ YouTube | 💜 Twitch | 💙 Steam



- Team CHKN






https://store.steampowered.com/app/420930/CHKN/

Outta the way! Chest-hauling snakephant coming through!

Our lovely CHKNeers have been asking for creatures to carry chests and it’s a great idea we couldn’t refuse. Now you’re no longer restricted by your own inventory slots… as long as you have creatures with ample storage tagging along, that is.

This update also has new wild creature nests to find while exploring, main menu and UI improvements, and more. Check out the notes below, play the new updates, and let us know what you’d like to see next by posting over in our Discord.

And join us on Monday @ 3:30 PM EST for our next dev stream! More details below.

• Lighten your load, collect more resources while exploring, or carry enough food for all your friends.
  
  • First, craft a chest mount and add it to your creature.
    
  • Then place a chest in the mount or tell your creature to pick up a chest using the chest UI or commanding with a whistle.
• Multiple chests can be mounted on a single creature but be warned! The creature’s leg strength determines how quickly it moves under the added weight.

• Eggs you encounter in the wild will now be found sitting in nests, making them easier to spot while exploring.
  
• Nests have a chance to spawn multiple eggs, meaning more chances to find the Life Blocks you’re hunting for.
  
• The number of nests that spawn throughout the world has also been increased.

Just remember: where there are nests, there are probably very protective parents.

• Added “Create a Creature” to the main menu for quicker access when you’re feeling inspired
  
• Added announcements so the latest news is available in-game

• Polished and streamlined profile creation so it’s easier to manage your profiles
  
• Removed stress bars from the UI
  
• Streamlined in-game Party screen for easier creature management
  
  • You can now have 6 creatures in your party (up from 4)
    
  • Creature level is now revealed in the UI
    
  • Added the ability to SHIFT-CLICK on the revive screen to spend an entire item stack

See important creature info easily at a glance or use the menu to do more.

• Disabled time-based creature spawning near player built structures.
  
• Changed starvation to no longer cause death. Instead will bring health down to 1 hp.
  
• Tamed amount no longer decays over time.
  
• Adjusted Glass Pane, Alchemy Table, and Vial crafting recipes.
  
• Taming a creature now resets its level to 1.
  
• Added ability to increase creature level by sacrificing Life Blocks.

Select “Level Up” from the menu and click the Life Blocks you want to sacrifice to level up your creature.

• Polished block-by-block assembly animation when spawning a creature.
  
• Editing creature modes now default with creature interaction items equipped.
  
• Changed save updater to only run before a save is loaded (this prevents long loading times if you have a lot of saved games)
  
• Save updater no longer blocks UI from refreshing.

• Fixed egg hatching spawn time that was preventing eggs from spawning in some situations. Eggs should spawn faster now.
  
• Fixed infinite loading when continuing from a save.
  
• Fixed a bug causing discovered creatures to be rediscovered.
  
• Will no longer grant taming achievement for untamed creatures.
  
• Fixed save backups from not being created.
  
• Creature collection now displays the correct amount of cards based off of screen aspect ratio.
  
• Fixed certain textures not using texture steaming.
  
• Corrected missing normal and metallic textures on treadmills and workstations.
  
• Fixed a bug with saddles and undo/redo that could break gamestate.
  
• Fixed stuck status effects (stuck electricity)
  
• Creature Animation/Builder fixes
  
  • Dynamic bone safety added
    
  • Cursor releases to edit orb when new window opened
    
  • Fix to end link ordering
    
  • Set end link priority when it has the same control block to block facing forward
    
  • Fixed siding issues with blocks with offsets (crab legs was most obvious)
    
  • Added code to override leg children attachment setting
    
  • Fixed siding on cursors

Join Greg and John on their adventures for our next developer livestream. They’ll be showing off new updates and probably dying miserably while trying to take down a boss or two. It happens. Bring your CHKN questions for the guys or just come hang out!

Watch on: ❤️ YouTube | 💜 Twitch | 💙 Steam



See you there!

- Team CHKN






https://store.steampowered.com/app/420930/CHKN/

You guys have been requesting quality of life improvements to inventory management so here they are! (Thanks, btw.) This update also has multiplayer fixes, ability balancing and other creature improvements, and more.

Check out the patch notes below and download the update to try for yourself. Let us know what you’d like to see next and vote in our polls over on the CHKN Discord.

• SHIFT-CLICK an item to automatically move it between hotbar/inventory and chests
  
• DOUBLE-CLICK an item to gather all loose items of the same type. For example, double-clicking one Small Chicken Body in inventory will grab any other stacks of Small Chicken Body and join them all together in one stack. Super handy when you’re low on inventory space.
  
• The store all/pick up functionality now works as intended
  
• Fixed frame drops that were due to inventory refresh

• Fixed spawning in the sky or underground when a client returns to a local game from multiplayer
  
• Fixed possible ID collision errors with client party creatures when returning to their local game from a multiplayer game
  
• Fixed creature teleporting on dismount for clients
  
• Fixed client vs host Lifeshaper mismatches
  
• Fixed client party creature UI textures
  
• Fixed client riding when set to automatic mode
  
• Fixed client creature database record assignment
  
• Fixed initial quest state when returning to local game if not complete
  
• Fixed treadmill animation for clients
  
• Fixed client null exception on creatures when loading data

• AI
  • Party creatures will now walk outside of the build sphere and no longer scream endlessly, thank goodness
    
  • Creatures will bunch up less often when investigating sounds
    
  • Fixed certain creatures knocking into the player and not backing up depending on how they were built
    
  • Fixed creatures becoming untamed when removed from the party
• Abilities
  • Charge and Dash no longer cause slow movement when hit if active
    
  • Laser Eye aiming is now slower and damage has been slightly reduced to balance its power
    
  • Dash now requires movement speed rather than agility
    
  • Fixed Egg Missile and Web abilities not firing in some cases
• Physics
  • Fixed creature popping up while moving or rotating
    
  • Fixed abrupt movement stoppage on creature Dash
    
  • Fixed a bug with creature-to-creature collision
• Animation
  • Changed the order of angle calculation in look mode to do secondary axis first (twist before bend) to improve creature look animations
    
  • Improved look targeting for end block when it's also the root block (This fixes creatures looking at odd angles.)
    
  • Set block animations to default to neutral emotion on creation (prevents odd eye states when adding blocks)
    
  • Turned off chain animations in tutorial edit mode to prevent issues
    
  • Fix to tutorial from voxel fix
    
  • Added autovoxel and voxel-to-parent to the Life Block add logic
    
  • Added autovoxel and voxel to cursor creation

• Added support for ultrawide aspect ratios (21+:9)
  
• Fixed a bug with treadmills that caused the screen to blur
  
• Disabled occlusion culling when Ansel is active for those sweet screenshots
  
• Texture quality is now only set on application start to prevent unresponsiveness (This means any changes made from the options menu will require a restart.)
  
• Seeing 2x Lifeshapers when doing an action with it equipped is fixed
  
• Added the ability for us to send in-game dev responses to players who submitted the feedback form so we can assist with any issues, ask for more info if needed, or just say thanks!
  
• Fixed a bug where it was possible to spawn more than the max amount of party creatures, whoops
  
• Fixed torch shader z sorting
  
• Fixed a bug with the creature database that would cause it to display duplicates of the same creature
  
• Fixed a bug in the world streaming system that could cause sacks and other movable entities to fall through geometry
  
• Fixed chicken armor art when dropped in the world
  
• Fixed stat bars for items when inspecting them
  
• Added safeties to entity loading/unloading to prevent saves from erroring on load
  
• Fixed out of bounds exception for creatures

Don’t forget to subscribe to your YouTube channel for our dev streams, sneak peeks at upcoming updates, and playlists featuring community Let’s Plays.

Happy adventuring!

- Team CHKN



https://store.steampowered.com/app/420930/CHKN/

This latest update has brand new features in the creature builder, improvements to creatures throughout the game, plus a ton of bug fixes thanks to our Discord helpers. If you have any feedback or issues to share, let us know on Discord!

• Creatures now emote and look around while in build mode! This gives you a glimpse into their personality and lets you see how they’ll move before you exit the builder. (Plus, it’s just fun!)

“You want to put feathers where!?”

• Creature’s stamina will not deplete while in build mode, so it won’t get hungry while you’re editing
  
• Rigidity settings are now saved in undo/redo states
  
• When clicking off a creature while Lock Selection Mode is active, your current selection will be deselected (instead of generating new blocks in mid-air)
  
• Background blurring re-enabled so you can focus on what you’re building
  
• And if you haven’t tried it out yet, we’ve also recently added better rotation and more block sizes for all animal types. Building has never been better!

• Creatures will now get happy and excited when pet (in addition to the facial emotes)
  
• Creatures will now back up and give space when you walk very close to them
  
• Creatures will no longer look back through themselves when observing the environment
  
• Friendly creatures will no longer do a death spin when the player walks on their backs or dismounts from a saddle
  
• Spawning a creature from the collection now assembles it block by block
  
• The creature AI sleeping priority has been reduced for wild creatures
  
• General whistle commands are no longer applied to creatures powering mills (so they won’t stop working while you’re commanding your other creatures)
  
• However, mill creatures will stop working if the player is attacked or the creature is attacked directly
  
• Reduced creature animation stutter when colliding with another creature
  
• You can now assign a creature to an empty mill without having to unassign it first
  
• Reviving a creature now starts at 100% energy

• You can now load prior saved game backups from in the game mode. (Hit [ESC] in game to see the option.) This helps in situations where save data is broken and you want to revert to an old version of your game.
  
• Life Blocks no longer litter your inventory in Creative mode when removing them from a creature in the builder
  
• The loot sack spawn distance has been increased so you can see it from further away
  
• Added a field for contact info to the in-game feedback tool so we can contact you if you’re requesting help or more info is needed
  
• Added party menu key bindings to messages
  
• Added a new set of images/backgrounds to the loading screen rotation

• Fixed game state breaking bug involving items and sacks
  
• Fixed possible ways to break a new game before building a creature in Adventure
  
• Fixed an issue with creature AI and saddles that would cause it to freeze
  
• Fixed creature spinning for clients in multiplayer
  
• Clients will no longer get an infinite loading screen on death in multiplayer
  
• Treadmill animation fixes for clients in multiplayer
  
• Treadmill assignment fixes for clients in multiplayer
  
• Physics layer fixes for when a client builds a creature in multiplayer
  
• Fixed network syncing on chest and crafting structures for clients in multiplayer
  
• Fixed interact and distance check mismatch for chests and crafting structures
  
• Fixed applying force to the wrong entities which caused players to fly off creatures when dismounting
  
• Fixed AI bug where creatures would stop working on a mill to break trees and bushes
  
• Defaulted fur off for non Nvidia cards due to reported rendering errors (can be toggled in the options)
  
• Fixed undo/redo in non-Adventure modes
  
• Fixed creature neck eating animation
  
• Added limiting to chain targeting to prevent underground targets and targets behind and above creature
  
• Set forward chain look turn angle limits to be in line with upward twists
  
• Removed all creature sprite creation hitches
  
• Fixed health bar going to 50% after knockout in Arena modes
  
• Fixed Game breaking bug after leaving and loading a save game
  
• Fixed missing XXL mech dino block materials
  
• Fruit respawning fixed, will now respawn after the correct amount of time if an area is left and returned to
  
• Fixed double fruit spawning
  
• Fixed red damage effect being stuck on screen
  
• Fix respawning when not near set respawn location after death
  
• Fixed a bug in AI that made creatures not follow their target
  
• Steam Workshop sync now triggers high priority download instead of polling to fix endless-trying-to-download subscribed creatures
  
• Inactive party creatures now spawn at the right location if abandoned
  
• Ram horn now highlights correctly when selected in the builder
  
• Safety added to animation code to prevent bad states when building

We had to share this creative creature called Giantconesnail by squidking. With a Movement Speed of 7.3, it’s actually faster than you’d think. Spawn a few, party up with your new snail army, and leave a slimy trail of destruction in your wake. *cackle*

- Team CHKN



https://store.steampowered.com/app/420930/CHKN/

This update gives a performance boost to min spec computers. If you’ve had “lag” or framerate issues in the past, please try out this build and join us over on Discord to let us know how it works for you!

We also added a variety of new Life Block sizes so you can build even more interesting creatures. Save them to the Workshop and share them with us - we want to see!

• Optimized FPS and UI rendering to improve FPS by 10-20 depending on hardware
  
• Reduced world streaming hitching by spreading updates over several frames
  
• Brought in low poly versions of trees for improved low end device performance
  
• World generation time greatly reduced
  
• Reduced initial load time

• Additional Life Block body sizes added: Small, Medium, Large, XLarge, XXLarge, and all their half sizes are now available for all animal types to give you more variety and build options.

Perfect sizes for additional extremities or a lovely armored hat.

• Creature/Temple world generation has been tuned. If you haven’t checked out the new larger world, now’s a good time! It’s procedurally generated and player-created creatures can spawn in the wild. You never know what you’ll run into.

The enemy of my enemy is… still my enemy.

• Tuned crafted player items for progression balance
  
• Additional pre-built, player-created creatures added to the game

Like these Octopalms created by Cohollow. Majestic! And quite fashionable actually.

• Fixed infinite loading screen after player death
  
• Fixed the creature collection filling up with white squares when the creature’s data cannot be read from disk
  
• Fixed bug that would cause the player to become invisible and make the game unstable
  
• Fixed dragging to move or remove blocks in the creature builder
  
• Fixed bug that occasionally caused the player avatar to render without a head or arms after death
  
• Fixed odd rotations while swimming
  
• Fixed Lifeshaper upgrade failing to unlock after defeating a Temple Boss

Just defeat the boss and the upgrade is yours! Easy, right?

• Fixed creature block neck shifting while building
  
• Fixed bad data on the Unicorn Horn that was preventing it from being used in building
  
• Fixed game hanging when quitting to desktop
  
• Fixed bad culling settings on world geometry that caused it to disappear
  
• Fixed throwing direction when chase cam is active
  
• Fixed creatures in party not defending the player if the creatures were issued a follow command
  
• Fixed tranquilizer darts not putting creatures to sleep
  
• Fixed distance check to mount when attempting to ride creature

Many thanks to the CHKNeers on Discord. They’ve been helping us find and fix bugs in our Pre-Release test updates and it’s a big help!

It’s also a great place to show off your creations! Here’s the newest version of an old favorite, Destroyer 3.0 by squidking.



So join the CHKN Discord if you want to help us test new builds before they’re released, find new friends for multiplayer, get creature ideas, or share your CHKN suggestions. Also, someone Photoshopped chicken wings onto their real dog. That happened.



See you there!

- Team CHKN

https://store.steampowered.com/app/420930/CHKN/