CHKN Demo

Sandbox games can get immensely popular if they feature the right mixture of elements, since you only need to look at Minecraft, Dwarf Fortress and various other such examples to see how eager people are to create things. On the other hand, the experience must be fun as well, otherwise gamers get bored rather quickly, as it was the case with Spore.

CHKN is not a typical sandbox game, but it a lot of potential if the developers stay on track until the end. This is basically what happens if you decide to cross Minecraft with Spore, which means that you are free to create creatures using the desired blocks. Chickens, horses, snakes, and any combination of these is allowed, and you can even interact with them after you are done with the creation process.

There are no actual goals as of right now, but you have to remember that this is merely an alpha version of the game. As such, all you can do is use a handful of blocks to create your animals and watch them do a few things. Later on, you should be able to bond with your creatures and even protect them from evil poachers. The animals also have the ability to learn new things and get smarter the longer they are alive.

There are a few problems with the game at this stage, and although they are probably going to be fixed in time, it is worth mentioning that not everything is peachy right now. First of all, the controls are a bit too jumpy and not very precise, which makes it a pain to arrange the blocks in the desired shape. You can switch between a first and third-person camera, but the interface is still a bit rough no matter what you choose.

Other than a variety of bugs that are to be expected so early in the production phase, the gameplay is quite engaging. You are free to roam around the map, which is not very big yet, but it has room to grow. Many other nice features are planned for the final version, including resource gathering and an adventure mode that allows you to decide what happens to your character.

CHKN is an original experiment, and it certainly deserves a try from every curious gamer out there. The game has more than enough interesting ideas to work with, and it would be a blast to see it finished one day.

Note: You can help the developers get the project Greenlit on Steam by following this link.