ROADMAP
How we got here.
Every stage of the build, from the first line of code to what comes next.
The road to NIVA
First came FREETONE, a free response to colours disappearing behind a paywall. WIRED reported more than 22,000 downloads in its first four days. Then came Abode, more than 3,000 people backing the idea of creative software they could own, pledging £181,709 on Kickstarter. Abode became NIVA. Same fight, new name.
“The palette that could start a revolution.” · Hackaday on FREETONE
“Clearly, creatives are eager for a change.” · DesignTAXI on Abode
“Taking on software rental can only be a good thing.” · Hackaday on Abode
Shipped
Read the release notes for what is in the current version.
Oct 2026
Stage 14 · Beta V1.2 and Storehouse
Six weeks of work driven by backer feedback. Preliminary touch support, so Niva works on a tablet with a pen or a finger. Measurements in inches as well as millimetres and pixels, consistently everywhere. Flip horizontally and vertically. Invert a selection, and add to or subtract from one in every selection tool. Faster undo and a faster brush. Dozens of fixes from your reports, including blur and blend doing nothing on iPad, hue and saturation ignoring darker colours, text outlines exporting too thick, cropped images exporting uncropped, and signing out not fully signing you out. And the big one: Storehouse, a stable alpha, our way to store, organise and share creative work. Every account has one, behind the vault icon.
Aug 2026
Stage 13 · Beta V1.0 Ships to Backers
Beta V1.0 went out to over 3,000 Kickstarter backers. Everyone who backed Niva can now open it in a browser and start making things. No download, no waiting, no subscription. Thank you for believing in this one. It genuinely would not exist without you.
Aug 2026
Stage 12 · Full Beta Ships
The complete creative studio, delivered to test pilots. Vector illustration, photo editing, and layout all in one place for the first time. Advanced typography with linked text frames and character-level formatting. Multi-page artboards. Gradient fills. Boolean operations on vector shapes. A healing brush, clone stamp, smudge, and blend tool. Convert text to curves. Export to PDF, SVG, ZIP. IndexedDB autosave so nothing ever gets lost. This is Niva. Properly, finally, ready.
Jul 2026
Stage 11 · Studio Polish & Test Pilot Update
Toolbar redesigned with three focused creative modes: Paint, Pen, and Text. Vector and photo tools now activate automatically based on layer context. Layer copy/paste/duplicate, drag-to-import images, keyboard shortcut improvements, and a full responsive pass so the studio works on any screen size.
Jul 2026
Stage 10 · Illustration Foundations
Rectangle, ellipse, and basic shape tools. The first building blocks of the vector drawing engine.
Jun 2026
Stage 9 · Colour, Brushes & Creative Tools
Full colour picker with FREETONE palette, eyedropper with loupe, brush engine refinements, and a complete polish pass across all tools.
Mar 2026
Stage 8 · Studio Interface Rebuilt
The entire studio interface redesigned from scratch. New visual language, three-zone toolstrip, Creative Intentions engine, and non-destructive adjustment pipeline.
Dec 2025
Suite rebranded as NIVA
ABODE Studio officially becomes Niva Studio across all platforms.
Dec 2025
Stage 7 · Photo Polish
Fine tuning tools and workflow using community feedback.
Nov 2025
Stage 6 · Test Pilots Join In
First test pilots providing key feedback. Photo core function tweaking continues.
Oct 2025
Stage 5 · Test Pilot System Built
Secure access for test pilots and feedback system live.
Sep 2025
Stage 4 · Photo Editing Core Complete
Photo reaches professional stability.
Sep 2025
Stage 3 · Expanding Photo
Brushes, FREETONE colours, Curves, autosave added.
Aug 2025
Stage 2 · The Core Comes Alive
Documents, layers, selections, adjustments, export, and undo working. Demo video shared with backers.
Aug 2025
Stage 1 · The Restart
NIVA rebuilt from scratch with a new codebase and vision.
Coming
Late 2026 (ETA)
Stage 15 · Beta Locked, and Storehouse Opens Up
A final run of checks across every tool, the fixes that turns up, and then Beta is declared done and stable so it stays reliable while the next version is built. Storehouse opens beyond backers, so anybody can sign up for one.
Early 2027 (ETA)
Stage 16 · V1 and the Desktop App
Niva as a desktop app for Mac and PC as well as the web version, included for anybody who owns Niva. Offline use, larger canvases, and the features that did not make the beta.
2027 (ETA)
Stage 17 · Public Release
Niva opens to everyone.