— asked often —

Questions

Asked often. Answered quietly.

When will Vellum release?

There is no release date. The work is the answer. The devlog is the only promise.

How is this different from Ashes of Creation, Pantheon, or other 'in development' MMOs?

It is fair to ask. The honest answer is that Vellum does not promise anything. There is no Kickstarter goal. There is no roadmap. There is no "early 2027" or "by Q3". There is one engineer, working in the evenings, publishing what was done that week. If you read the devlog and the work is moving, that is the evidence. If it stops moving, you will see that too. Vellum exists in pre-alpha today — not as a screenshot or a sizzle reel, but as a build that runs in a browser. The differentiator is not the pitch. The differentiator is that the work is visible, weekly, in public, with no claim that exceeds what the build already does.

What happens if you stop?

It is a fair concern in a solo project. The honest version: the architecture is documented (the devlog is half-engineering notebook, half-public record), the code is in version control, and the engineer's intent is that if life ever forces a stop, the work that exists can be picked up by someone else. The Pledge is monthly precisely so that no scribe is ever locked into a bet on a future that did not arrive. If a month goes by and the work has not moved, do not subscribe. The devlog is the proof of life.

Why no release date — really?

Because every MMORPG release date in the last fifteen years has been wrong, including the ones from teams of hundreds. A solo engineer has no business naming one. The honest commitment is: weekly devlog, visible work, pre-alpha access for scribes today, and the public launch announced when the build can carry it. No countdown, no "coming soon", no hype cycle.

What is the business model?

Monthly subscription. Five euros a month for Pledged, fifteen for Binding. The subscription includes access to the game from pre-alpha through launch and beyond. No microtransactions, no cash shop, no battle pass, no ads. Both tiers offer the same experience inside the game.

Do I need to install anything to play?

No. Vellum runs in a modern browser. Open the site, sign in, and you are in the world. No launcher, no client download, no gigabytes on your hard drive. This works on any machine you can open a browser on — your own PC, a borrowed laptop, a public terminal, a demo unit in an electronics store.

Can I play from any computer?

Yes. Your character lives on Vellum's servers. Sign in from any browser on any machine and you pick up exactly where you left off. Subscribe from your phone at lunch; play from a desktop that evening. Nothing follows you except what you have written.

What is a Pledge Token?

Every month of access is represented by a consumable object in your in-game inventory called a Pledge Token. When you subscribe with euros, Vellum puts one in your account and redeems it for you. But tokens can also be bought from other scribes on the in-game marketplace, in exchange for gold you earned by playing. A player with enough gold can pay their subscription without spending any more euros.

Is this pay-to-win?

No. Pledged and Binding subscribers play the exact same game. Binding extras are all out-of-game — a printed annual devlog volume, priority on email replies. Nothing that touches combat, crafting, or the world.

No microtransactions — really? Not even cosmetics?

Really. The subscription is the whole price. No cosmetic shop, no battle pass, no "founder's pack" with exclusive mounts, no "name reservation" sold for €30, no convenience tokens, no XP boosters, no premium currency. The closest thing to an in-game purchase is the Pledge Token — and that buys a month of access, not a sword. The reason is that every microtransaction system, however cleanly it starts, eventually shapes the game around itself. Vellum is shaped around the world. The subscription pays for it; nothing else needs to.

What's the difference between Pledged and Binding?

Both get game access, the long-form devlog, the Discord room, and a monthly open hour with the engineer. Binding adds a yearly printed copy of the devlog as a bound notebook and priority on direct email replies. That is the full difference.

Can I cancel any time?

Yes. No penalty. Your character, inventory, and progress wait for you if you come back later.

What platforms?

Any modern browser — Windows, macOS, Linux, and large-screen tablets. The target is desktop-class input (keyboard and mouse), but controller and touch support is on the roadmap for later.

Will there be a free trial?

No free trial is planned. The devlog is the free sample. Read a year of it and decide.

Who is building Vellum?

One software engineer, on evenings and weekends, over two years and counting. There is no team.

Is Vellum an AI-generated game?

No. The world, the writing, the systems, the art direction, the code architecture — all of it is built by one human engineer. The only place a model is used inside the game is the combat adaptation loop, where a small behaviour model observes how a player fights and adjusts the NPCs they meet. Nothing in Vellum is generated by a language model. Nothing is asset-flipped. The devlog shows the work week by week.

How does the adaptive combat actually work?

Each NPC records the encounters it has with a player — what attacks landed, what was dodged, what tricks repeated. A small behaviour model draws on those observations to adjust the NPC's tactics for the next encounter. It does not try to win every fight. It tries to stop losing to the same thing twice. The implementation is described in the devlog.

Will Vellum have NFTs, crypto, or Web3 anything?

No. Pledge Tokens live only in Vellum's database — they are not blockchain items, not transferable outside the game, and not extractable as digital assets. They are simply consumable subscription items.

Can I invest?

Not at this time. If that changes, the devlog will say so.

Can I write about Vellum?

Please do. Use any text from the devlog or this site. Credit is appreciated but not required. If you write something, the engineer would like to read it.

Question not here? Send it.