Vael

Vael

A multiplayer dark fantasy extraction dungeon crawler

Enter the cursed forest. Descend into forgotten places. Take what you can carry. Decide how far you're willing to go. Escape before the darkness takes you.

Solo or with up to three friends. For PC. Get playtest news by email.

Descend
  • ∞maps to search and loot
  • 4depths to plunder
  • 9skills to level up
  • 4players per party
  • 30fish to catch
  • 6rarities of loot, up to Mythic

Extract or lose it all

Everything you carry is at risk until you're through the gate. Insure one item. Pray for the rest.

Never the same descent

Every run grows four new tiers from a fresh seed: new paths, new vaults, new places to die.

Bring your friends down

Co-op for up to four, hosted from your own Sanctuary. Carry a fallen friend's loot home from their grave.

Runs on anything

Low-poly by design, with a Potato preset and a Compatibility renderer for old laptops.

The loop

How a run goes

  1. Enter

    Leave the Sanctuary through the forest gate. Every run is generated from a fresh seed.

  2. Descend

    Find the stairs down. Each depth hits harder, pays better and hides more.

  3. Take

    Weapons, armour, relics, keys, materials. Your backpack only holds so much.

  4. Decide

    Push one room further, or turn back while you still can. The deeper you go, the more it costs to stay.

  5. Escape

    Reach a waystone or gate and hold it while the dead come for you. Die, and you lose everything but one insured item.

Trailer

Forty seconds in the dark

Recorded in the game itself. Here's what you're seeing:

  1. How deep will you go? The Drake Matriarch, wings spread over her nest, pours fire onto a knight below.
  2. Bring three friends Four players run the cursed forest together under a blood moon.
  3. Fight as one Blade, bow, staff and musket against a horde round a campfire.
  4. The dead don't stay down Zombies shamble out of the dark, eyes burning red.
  5. Goblins. Wendigos. Drakes. Glowing green goblins and an antlered wendigo in the ruins.
  6. Fish the black water A bite off the jetty, the fish out of the water and held up.
  7. Eat what you find Mushrooms picked and eaten, and the forest begins to breathe.
  8. Descend into forgotten places A portal's seal breaks: four depths, each one deadlier.
  9. Traps. Trials. Treasure. The Fire Run: grates roaring in waves round a knight.
  10. Take what you can carry Chests burst open in beams of rarity light.
  11. Lose it all if you fall Your pouch and backpack: everything you carry is at stake.
  12. Get out together The party walks into the extraction beam.
  13. Rest in the Sanctuary Four friends warming their hands at the campfire.
  14. Gamble your haul Hold'em with your party at the skeleton dealer's table.
  15. The Ivory Pocket A break at the pool table, the party watching.
  16. VAEL Take what you can carry. Escape before the darkness takes you.

The world

Four depths down

Every run builds all four tiers from a single seed: forest clearings, ruined courts, crypt halls and catacombs, never laid out the same way twice. The deeper you go, the harder they hit and the better the loot.

A carved depth portal glowing blue between candles in a brick hall
The way down is a carved portal, sealed until the depth's guardian falls.

Depth I: The Cursed Forest

The trees here grew over the graves. Mind where you step.

Rolling hills, a winding river and a dark lake, all grown from one seed. Clearings hide camps, a cemetery, a stone circle and caches. Deep in the trees the Broodmother waits in a lair strung with silk, and in some forests a Drake Matriarch broods over her eggs in a nest of burnt branches.

You'll meet
Skeletons, Ghouls, Spiders, Zombies, Goblins, Drakes, The Broodmother, The Drake Matriarch
Only here
Drakes fly under the open sky here, raining fire. Wade and swim the river, fish the lake, and rest by campfires to win back health, stamina and mana.
Way out
Two waystones. Hold one for 10 seconds.
A clear night in the Cursed Forest: a clearing under the stars, fireflies drifting over the grass

Depth II: The Hollow Ruins

The river runs red from somewhere inside the cliff. Nobody knows what it bleeds from.

Roofless courts on the edge of sheer cliffs. A river of blood springs from the rock, winds between the ruins under arched stone bridges and pools in the Blood Mere, where a skeletal fishmonger keeps a shack on the shore.

You'll meet
Skeletons, Ghouls, Skeleton Knights, Wraiths, Widows, Zombies, Goblins, Wendigos, Drakes
Only here
The Blood Mere's fish are worth more than anything in the forest, if your Fishing is level 20.
Way out
Two extraction points. Hold for 13 seconds.
The red blood river running under a stone bridge in the Hollow Ruins, in the rain

Below this line, corruption builds every second you stay.

Depth III: The Forgotten Crypt

Listen for the click. Then roll.

The crypt is booby-trapped: spike plates inside doorways, dart passages and pendulum blades in the corridors. Every trap clicks or whooshes before it strikes, a roll beats all of them, and they hurt the dead as much as you.

You'll meet
Skeleton Knights, Wraiths, Ghouls, Spiders, Plague Bloaters, Goblin Brutes, Wendigos, Drakes
Only here
Corruption starts here. It thickens the fog, drains the colour and makes every hit land harder, but pays a bounty if you get out.
Way out
One gate. Hold for 16 seconds while they come two at a time.
A stone pillar rising out of a pit in a brick hall of the Forgotten Crypt, ringed by candles

Depth IV: The Catacombs of Vael

The Warden holds the last way out. You will have to take it from him.

The deepest tier. Seventeen rooms, a chasm with no floor crossed on narrow bridges, a Reliquary behind an abyssal lock, and the Bone Warden waiting in the farthest hall.

You'll meet
Skeleton Knights, Wraiths, Widows, Elder Wendigos, Elder Drakes, The Bone Warden
Only here
Kill the Warden to unseal the Abyssal Altar, the second way out.
Way out
The Blood Gate, held for 20 seconds, or the Abyssal Altar.
Narrow wooden bridges crossing the black chasm to a lone pillar in the Catacombs of Vael

New Weather

The sky turns on you

Every run rolls its own sky over the Cursed Forest and the Hollow Ruins. Most nights are clear. Some are not.

Clear night over the Cursed Forest

Clear night

A full moon, a sky thick with stars and a river that glows violet. The forest at its kindest, which is not very kind.

Rain over the Cursed Forest

Rain

Rain begins to fall.

Cloud rolls over the moon and rain hisses through the canopy, splashing off every stone. The ground takes on a wet sheen, puddles gather in the hollows, and lightning shows you the whole forest for a heartbeat before the thunder.

Snow over the Cursed Forest

Snow

Snow is falling.

Flakes drift in on the run's wind and settle on the ground, the ruins and the pine boughs until the forest goes white. No thunder, only the wind.

Blood Moon over the Cursed Forest

Blood Moon

A Blood Moon rises over the forest.

The moon swells and turns red, and everything under it is lit the colour of a wound. Brighter than a clear night, and far less welcoming.

Blood rain over the Cursed Forest

Blood rain

The Blood Moon bleeds. It is raining blood.

The rarest sky of all. The Blood Moon bleeds through the cloud, red rain stains the leaves and the paving, the fog glows crimson and the lightning comes down red.

One sky for the whole party
The weather is rolled from the run's seed, so everyone in your party sees the same storm, late joiners included.
Above ground only
Weather falls on the Cursed Forest and the Hollow Ruins. The Crypt and the Catacombs stay dry, and it's still raining when you climb back up.
Count to the thunder
Lightning strikes every nine to twenty-four seconds in a storm. Count the gap to the thunder to tell how close it fell.
Dark, not blind
Bad weather is an overcast night, not a blackout. It's tested to never put less light on the ground than a clear sky.
Scales to your machine
Rain and snow scale with your quality preset. On Potato the sky still changes, without the particles.

New Puzzles & obstacle courses

Trials of the deep

From the Hollow Ruins down, some doors lead to rooms with no monsters in them. That is not good news. Each one is a puzzle or a deadly course, and each one ends in a prize.

  1. IIThe Hollow RuinsMost runsA puzzle, and the Fire Run
  2. IIIThe Forgotten CryptEvery runOne to four trials, all six kinds
  3. IVThe Catacombs of VaelEvery runOne to four trials, at their hardest

Puzzle rooms

Solve it and the bars over the vault alcove rise.

The Order of Flames
  • II
  • III
  • IV

The Order of Flames

Read the tablet by the door, then light the braziers in the order they burned.

A tablet replays a sequence of coloured flames, each with its own bell. Light the braziers in the same order: four flames in the Ruins, up to six in the Catacombs. Choose wrong and the fire bursts in your face, and deeper down it wakes the dead at the door.

The Watchers
  • II
  • III
  • IV

The Watchers

Turn the watchers until every one of them looks on the altar.

Stone watchers on turning plinths, bound together by grooves cut in the floor. Turn one and the ones it's linked to turn with it. Get every pair of eyes on the altar and they burn gold.

The Rune Floor
  • II
  • III
  • IV

The Rune Floor

Every rune stone must burn. Each one you step on flips its neighbours too.

A grid of rune stones, three by three in the Ruins and four by four below. Every step flips the stone and the ones beside it. Light them all. In the Catacombs, the dark runes bite.

Deadly courses

Cross it alive and the prize on the far dais is yours.

The Blade Walk
  • III
  • IV

The Blade Walk

A blade doesn't just cut. It throws you off.

A causeway a stride and a half wide over a pit, with pendulum blades sweeping across it out of step. Three of them, four in the Catacombs.

The Crumbling Stones
  • III
  • IV

The Crumbling Stones

Look before you leap.

Stepping stones over the pit, a running jump apart. Each one cracks the moment you land and drops into the dark a breath later. The cracked ones beside the path go the instant they're touched.

The Fire Run
  • II
  • III
  • IV

The Fire Run

Watch the rhythm, then go.

Rows of grates from wall to wall, each roaring on its own clock in a wave down the room. Deeper down the rows split out of step and spike plates wait between them.

Vault chests behind the bars
Every puzzle guards a caged alcove of vault chests: two, or three in the Catacombs. Solve it and the bars rise.
No falling forward
Drop into a pit and you come to back at the start, hurt. There's no falling your way to the prize.
Solved for everyone
When one of you cracks a puzzle, the cage opens for the whole party, and everyone sees it solved.
Meaner the deeper you go
Longer sequences, tighter fire, shorter-lived stones and more blades in every tier down.

Weapons & loot

What you carry

Six slots on your belt, drawn with 1 to 6. Every weapon class trains its own skill, so the more you fight with one, the harder it hits.

Daggers
Fast cuts and a quick roll out. The weapon every origin learns first.
Longswords
Heavier swings, more poise damage and more knockback for a little more stamina.
Staves
Ember Bolt on a tap, Soulfire Orb on a hold, Grave Nova when you're surrounded. Runs on mana.
Bows
Draw, hold, loose. The arrow's real flight path shows as you draw, with a ring where it'll land. Aim high enough to bring down a drake. Trained by the Archery skill.
Muskets
Three shots, then a full reload with powder and ramrod. Shoulder it to pick a drake out of the sky; club them with the stock when they get close.
Rings & necklaces
A ring on each hand and a charm at your throat, every one modelled in full and worn on your character, stone facing out.
The pouch
Gold and every material go in a pouch under your backpack, with no stack limit. Your gold is a pile of coins that grows with the sum, and you can drop any amount with a slider.
Firing a flintlock musket at a skeleton: the flash lights the floor and smoke rolls off the barrel

Six rarities. One rainbow.

  1. Common
  2. Uncommon
  3. Rare
  4. Epic
  5. Legendary
  6. Mythic

Rare drops land with a beam of light in their colour. Mythics are one of a kind, glow in your hand, and only a trader who trusts you completely will ever part with one.

Enemies

What waits below

Skeletons
The bulk of the dead. Some carry bows, some carry fire, some carry hexes.
Ghouls
Fast, low and fond of a pounce.
Skeleton Knights
Raise a guard that drains as you hit it. Break it and they're stunned. Their overhead can't be parried.
Wraiths
Hover, then blink to your flank.
Spiders
Spiderlings, Gloomweavers and Widows. Their webs slow you to a crawl.
Zombies
Shamblers, Rotters and the swollen Plague Bloater, who spits bile. They limp, lurch and twitch, and they don't stop.
Goblins
Quick little thieves in packs: cutthroats who leap at you and brutes who hit like a falling tree.
Wendigos
Gaunt, antlered hunters of the deep. The Elder's shriek throws you back.
Drakes
From dog-sized drakelings to the Elder Drake. Under the open sky they take off, circle out of a blade's reach and breathe fire down on you.
The Broodmother
Three times the size of a Gloomweaver, waiting before her silk funnel. Enrages at half health and calls her brood.
The Drake Matriarch
Guards her eggs in a nest of burnt branches. Lead her too far and she flies home; hurt her badly and her eggs hatch.
Mimics
One chest in a hundred has teeth. You'll find out which when you open it.
The tier guardians
One stands before the way down on each of the first three depths, and the portal stays sealed until it falls: the Hollow Huntsman and his volley of five arrows, the Pyre Lord with his ember bolts, and the Hex Matriarch, who raises the dead when she's hurt.
The Bone Warden
Guardian of the Catacombs and the key to the Abyssal Altar.
The Hollow Huntsman, a skeleton archer glowing green, bow in hand
The Hollow Huntsman, guardian of the Cursed Forest
The Broodmother rearing up in her web-strewn lair
A Mimic lunging at a knight in the Cursed Forest, eyes burning and jaws wide

The dead don't stand still waiting for you. They wander, they spot you, and they turn on whoever is closest. Crouch to stay out of sight.

A drake flying low over the forest at dusk, a trail of fire burning on the ground behind it
Fire still burning on the ground round a knight after a drake has breathed on him

New The Cursed Forest & the Hollow Ruins

Fire from the sky

Under the open sky the drakes don't stay on the ground. They climb above the trees, circle out of reach of any blade and hang in the air to pour fire down on you. Where it lands, the forest burns.

  • 4kinds of drake
  • 22metres of fire from the air
  • 14metres up, out of a blade's reach
  • 2lairs in the Cursed Forest
  1. Take off

    A few seconds into a fight it crouches and launches itself up on heavy wingbeats.

  2. Circle

    It climbs above the trees and circles you, banking into its turns. No blade reaches it there.

  3. Burn

    It slows to a hover, leans over you and pours a roaring stream of fire across the ground.

  4. Land

    Sooner or later it comes down near you to fight on foot. That's the blade's chance.

The crimson Drake Matriarch roaring beside her nest of glowing eggs
Orb webs strung between dead trees in the Broodmother's lair
The ground burns
Wherever the fire lands, on the ground, a rock or a tree, it catches and burns for a while, then leaves a scorch mark. Don't stand in it.
Bring it down
Arrows, musket balls and spells reach it in the air; raise your weapon and you can aim almost straight up. Break its poise and it crashes, stunned. Kill it up there and it falls.
The Drake Matriarch
A boss bigger than any Elder Drake, guarding her eggs in about two forests in five. She wakes when you come close and won't be led far from her nest.
Her eggs
Scaled like her, lying in glowing coals with ember light in their cracks. Drive her below half health and the nearest two hatch into drakelings.
Her nest
A scorched clearing, a bowl of burnt branches, smoke rising and small fires in the twigs, bones of her meals and a chest of hoarded gold.
The Broodmother's lair, rebuilt
Orb webs strung between dead trees, sheets of silk overhead, a silk funnel into the earth behind her, cocoons hanging from the branches. Every thread tied to something.

Drakes and dragon fire on the wiki

A glowing headstone marking a fallen friend's grave, holding their loot

Multiplayer

Go down together

Bring up to three friends
Host from your own Sanctuary for friends, for anyone or by invite only. Friends join from the party list or with an invite code, ready up and enter the forest together.
Join a run already under way
Late joiners start from the Sanctuary and catch up.
Your loot is yours
Drops are rolled per player, so nobody fights over a chest. Vault gates open for everyone.
Graves for the fallen
When a friend bleeds out, a headstone rises where they fell holding everything they carried. Carry it home for them.
Friendly fire, if you want it
The host decides. Turn it on and mind your swings.

Find a party on Discord

Home base

The Sanctuary

A walled keep above the forest, lit by lanterns and a campfire that never goes out. Bank your haul, trade, take a contract and lose a little gold at the tables before the next run.

Four traders, each with their own trust
The Bone Merchant, the Armourer, the Apothecary and the Powder-Wright. Earn trust from Stranger to Sworn for rarer stock, discounts and better prices.
Contracts
Each trader posts four random jobs every run: bring back bones, slay knights, delve to a depth. Take one at a time and track it under your minimap.
Stash and insurance
Bank what you extract. Mark one item as insured and it survives your death.
Upgrades
The Satchel-Wright sells a bigger backpack and stash. The Key Cutter sells keys, ember vials and purifying salts.
The Gilded Ossuary
Roulette, blackjack, slots and no-limit hold'em poker, against skeleton dealers in bow ties and card sharps in top hats, solo or with your party.
The Ivory Pocket
A pool and snooker hall through an arch in the east wall. Play your friends or a skeleton hustler, for gold.
The stone chessboard
Carved gothic pieces in the courtyard. Play a friend or four skeletons rated 650 to 1850, for gold or for your own rating.
The Climb
Eight rocks spiralling up to a summit stone, each a running jump from the last. The clock runs from the first leap; your best time is kept.
The trophy wall
The head of every boss you've slain, mounted on a plaque with the count. The ones you haven't beaten hang as black silhouettes.
The training yard
A straw-stuffed dummy in a kettle helm and an archery butt. Test a new weapon before you take it down.
Trader stalls around the Sanctuary's contract board
Inside the Gilded Ossuary: skeleton dealers at the blackjack and poker tables
A skeleton croupier in a bow tie at the roulette wheel
Skeleton card sharps in top hats round the poker table
Chess in the courtyard
The Ivory Pocket: green lamps over the pool tables and a full-size snooker table
A skeleton hustler bent over his cue, lining up a shot

The Sanctuary

The Ivory Pocket

Through an arch in the Sanctuary's east wall, a smoky hall of green baize and brass lamps. Rack up against your friends between runs, or put your gold on the line against a skeleton who's been practising for three hundred years.

  • 3tables under the lamps
  • 2games: 8-ball and snooker
  • 3skeleton hustlers
  • 1000gold, the top stake
  1. Line up

    Drop into the cue-cam behind the cue ball. A guide shows where it meets the object ball and where both of them go after.

  2. Add spin

    Strike high for follow, low for screw, or either side for english that bends off the cushion.

  3. Draw back

    Hold to pull the cue back. The further back you draw, the harder you strike.

  4. Let it run

    Every ball slides, grips and rolls like the real thing, and every machine in your party sees the same shot.

Real tables, real physics
A 9 ft pool table's 57 mm balls and a full 12 ft snooker table with its tighter pockets. Breaks spread, balls rattle in the jaws, and screw and stun behave the way they should.
8-ball and snooker
Proper rules for both: groups, fouls and ball in hand for pool; snooker with 6, 10 or 15 reds, respotted colours and a re-spotted black.
Skeleton hustlers
Rattlebones the nervous novice, Old Knuckles who plays the percentages, and The Marker, who hasn't been beaten since the plague. They walk round the table, chalk up, get down over the cue and strike.
Play for gold
Both players put up the same stake from their banked gold and the winner takes the lot. Or play a friendly frame for nothing.
A hall worth a drink
Panelled walls, green glass lamps over the tables, a bar with a skeleton barkeep, a fireplace and cue racks. You can see its lights through the arch from the courtyard.
Poker next door
Over in the Gilded Ossuary: no-limit hold'em for up to six, against your party or skeleton card sharps in waistcoats and top hats.
The cue cabinet behind the bar, racks of cues under green lamps
A hand of no-limit hold'em in the Gilded Ossuary, with the table's chips and bets on screen

The Cursed Forest

The forest begins to breathe

Something glows between the roots. Eat it and your wounds close. Then the trees start to sway, the colours run, and for ten long seconds the forest is not quite where you left it.

  1. Find them

    Glowing clumps grow at the feet of the Cursed Forest's trees. In the dark they're hard to miss.

  2. Pick and eat

    Kneel, pluck one, take two bites and swallow. Your health comes back by nearly a third.

  3. Breathe

    For ten seconds the forest breathes: colours cycle, edges split into rainbows, a kaleidoscope blooms at the corners of your eyes, and every sound bends.

The Cursed Forest swimming with colour after a mushroom
Still playable
The middle of the screen stays clearest and your HUD is untouched, so you can fight your way through it.
Greedy?
Eat another while it lasts and it starts again, a little stronger.
With friends
Everyone who eats one gets their own trip, and the rest of the party can watch them do it.

Characters & skills

Who you become

Up to eight characters, each with their own skills, stash and gold. Skills level by doing: swing a sword to train Attack, take hits to train Defence, land a fish to train Fishing.

  • Attack
  • Strength
  • Defence
  • Vitality
  • Stamina
  • Archery
  • Magic
  • Fishing
  • Shooting

Every skill climbs to level 50, through Novice, Apprentice, Adept, Veteran, Expert to Master, with a burst of light at every milestone.

Shape your character's face, hair, beard, scars, warpaint and eyes. There are millions of combinations, and a few eyes that glow.

The skills panel: Attack, Strength, Defence, Vitality, Stamina, Archery, Shooting, Magic and Fishing, each with its level, XP and next bonus

Expanded Fishing

Gone fishing

Swap your sword for a rod and the forest lake for a while. Fishing in VAEL is a full game of its own, with a skill to master, rods to find, records to break and a water that runs red.

  • 30species
  • 2waters to fish
  • 5mythic fish
  • 20Fishing to cast in the Mere
Casting a line from the jetty on the forest lake
The reel bar mid-fight with a Mythic fish
  1. Cast

    Time the meter and throw up to thirteen metres. The ring turns green over deep water.

  2. Wait

    The float twitches. Nibbles come first, and a fish's shadow circles in. Strike too soon and it's gone.

  3. Strike

    A splash and a “!”: you have under a second to set the hook.

  4. Reel

    Keep the fish inside your hold as it darts up and down the line. Big ones fight longer, and sometimes there's treasure to snatch on the way.

  5. Land

    It arcs out of the water into your hand. Note the weight, chase the record, and look for a perfect catch.

The angler’s log

Thirty species, from a finger-long minnow to a ninety-kilo leviathan.

RarityThe forest lakeThe Blood Mere Fishing 20
CommonMurk Minnow · Bog Roach · Gloomgill Perch · Ashen CarpClot Minnow · Veinfin Dace
UncommonLantern Eel · Bonefin Trout · Pale PikeRustgill Perch · Leechmouth Eel
RareWidow Catfish · Moonscale Salmon · WraithfinScabscale Carp · Sanguine Pike
EpicDuskmaw Gar · Amethyst Lurker · Hexed SturgeonMarrowjaw Gar · Crimson Lurker
LegendaryCrowned Grimfish · The Drowned BishopHeartsblood Sturgeon · The Red Abbess
MythicHeart-Koi of Vael · Starspawn Angler · The Old One BelowThe Bleeding Leviathan · Ichor Seraph
Rods from chests and shacks
Willow, Bone-Spine, Witchwood and Grave-Wire, each with its own luck and control, plus one Mythic rod: the Drowned King's Line.
Two fishmongers
A skeleton in a sou'wester runs a shack on the forest lake. Another keeps the jetty on the Blood Mere. Both pay full price and gut your catch on the block.
The Blood Mere
Fishing level 20 opens the red water in the Hollow Ruins. Every fish there beats its forest cousin, Epic-or-better bites come twice as often, and each one is worth half as much XP again.
An angler's log
Every species you land goes in the log with your heaviest catch, so there's always a record to beat.

Rest & respite

Between the fighting

Mushrooms in VAEL

Mushrooms

The glowing clumps on the forest floor can be picked and eaten. Two bites and a swallow win back your health, and then the forest begins to breathe.

Taverns in VAEL

Taverns

Some runs turn up a tavern mid-depth. Buy stew, black ale and spare keys, and rest by the hearth where the dead won't follow.

Campfires in VAEL

Campfires

Stand by the flames, hold out your hands and get your strength back, as long as nothing is hunting you.

Performance

Runs on a potato

Low-poly by design and tuned for low-end laptops and integrated graphics.

Four quality presets
From Potato to High, picked for your graphics card the first time you launch.
Your choice of renderer
Forward+, Mobile or Compatibility, for older and integrated GPUs.
It recovers from crashes
If the game goes down, it comes back one step safer.
First or third person
Switch whenever you like.

Gallery

Screenshots

FAQ

Questions

What is VAEL?

A multiplayer dark fantasy extraction dungeon crawler. You go down into four procedurally generated depths, take what you can, and try to get back out alive with it.

Can I play solo?

Yes. Every run works alone, or with up to three friends.

What happens when I die?

You lose everything you carried except your one insured item. In co-op, a grave holds your gear so a friend can bring it home.

Does the weather change how a run plays?

It changes how it looks, sounds and feels: rain and lightning, settling snow, a Blood Moon. It's rolled per run for the forest and the ruins, and the whole party shares it.

How do I kill a flying drake?

Shoot it. Arrows, musket balls and spells reach it in the air, and raising your weapon lets you aim almost straight up. Break its poise and it crashes to the ground stunned. With only a blade, survive until it lands, then hit it while it's on its feet.

Who is the Drake Matriarch?

A boss who guards a nest of dragon eggs in about two Cursed Forests in five. She wakes when you come close, flies, breathes fire, won't be led far from her nest, and hatches her eggs into drakelings when she's badly hurt.

What are trials?

Puzzle rooms and deadly obstacle courses that turn up from the Hollow Ruins down. Solve a puzzle to open a sealed vault, or cross a course to reach its prize.

Can I play pool?

Yes. The Ivory Pocket in the Sanctuary has two pool tables and a full-size snooker table. Play your friends or a skeleton hustler, for banked gold or for nothing. There's chess and poker too.

What do the mushrooms do?

Eat one of the glowing clumps in the Cursed Forest and you get back nearly a third of your health. Then, for ten seconds, the world starts to breathe.

Is fishing worth it?

It's a whole game of its own: thirty species, a Fishing skill, rods with their own stats, fishmongers who pay in gold, and the Blood Mere's rare catches for anglers at level 20.

Will it run on my laptop?

VAEL is built to run on low-end machines, with a Potato preset and a Compatibility renderer for integrated graphics.

What engine is it made in?

The Godot Engine.

Is AI used to make VAEL?

Yes. VAEL is made by a solo developer using AI-assisted development: AI tools help write the code and optimise performance, while the design decisions, direction and playtesting are the developer's own.

When can I play?

VAEL is in active development. Leave your email and we'll tell you when playtests open.

The gate is opening

VAEL is in active development. Wishlist it on Steam, pull up a seat by the fire on Discord, or leave your email and we'll write once when playtests open.

or by email

We only use your email to tell you about VAEL. See our privacy notice.

Wishlist on Steam Discord