Vellum's Upcoming Chapters
Vellum, Early Access, and the Road Ahead
Welcome, Honored Scribes!
As custodians of the Illuminated Library and protectors of its Tomes - you've already been hard at work pushing back the Torn! You've grown, your foes have grown.
[h3]Time for Vellum to grow![/h3]
This shows the structure of our planned updates - and we'd like to go into more detail on our first Interlude Patch and our first Major Chapter! The timeline of these will become more solidified as we refine our update cadence.
This is very fluid, will definitely change, and will be driven by your feedback as we continue through Early Access.
[h2]Interlude Patches & Major Chapters[/h2]
Our plan for Vellum's Early Access development is split into two, alternating content types: Interlude Patches & Major Chapters.
Below, you can see the kinds of items you can expect from these updates. These items won't all appear in every update; we want to create a compelling (and feasible) selection each time. Our goal is to release a variety within these updates where you can always come back to the Library to check out something new.
[h3]Interlude Patches include content like:[/h3]
- Pages of Power
- Torn Pages
- Bindings
- Cosmetics
- General Font Powers
- General Bonus Objectives
- Quality of Life Features
- Balance & Tuning
[h3]Major Chapters include content like:[/h3]
- New Major Features
- Spells
- Tomes
- Torn: Bosses
- Torn: Elites & Standard
- Map Sets
- Binding Sets
Let's explore what this looks like in practice! Here's a preview of our first Interlude Patch and Major Chapter!
For the First Interlude Patch...
[h3]Release Date: April 10th[/h3]
[h2]New Spell - Foil[/h2]
We're immediately, and stylistically, bending some rules to bring you a new Generator Spell in our first Interlude Patch. Normally, as you can see above, we'd wait for a Major Chapter to drop a new ability - but we want to cover an attack profile we've been eager to expand on: melee.
Foil is a three-hit combo generator ability - summoning an inky blade to slice twice, then lunge forward to damage many foes at once. We're pumped to bring our first melee spell to the game, and are looking forward to hearing and iterating on your feedback!
[h2]New Pages of Power[/h2]
To continue on the feedback thread - we're planning to add a selection of new Pages of Power to be found in Tomes. We want to expand the coverage of defensive pages for some Signature Inks. We'll also be redistributing the power of a few over-performing pages to spread strength and make different angles more accessible (rather than too many feast or famine feelings).
There's bound to be some fun shenanigans, as well!
[h2]New Quality of Life Feature - Death Recap[/h2]
Dying is bad - but a death recap helps make resurrection that much better! Seeing who dealt you a killing blow should help with directing your vengeance - or simply learning a bit more about the dangers of those 37 extra Bindings you threw on because "how bad could they be, really?".
Major Chapter I: Endless Saga
[h3]Release Target: Late April[/h3]
In the week since launch, we've heard a lovely piece of feedback: more. We're planning to address that feedback with two new features.
[h2]New Major Feature: Endless Runs[/h2]
An endless mode has been suggested and asked about quite often - so we're making it the centerpiece of our first Major Chapter. Have the perfect build? Want to throw out just a few hundred more Swoops with that busted combo? Time to shine!
Once unlocked, you'll be able to Continue the Saga when defeating a boss at the end of a Tome!
You and your fellow Scribes will be presented a difficult choice: pick 1 of 3 Appendices - randomly rolled groupings of Bindings! Beat the next three Chapters (2 standard, 1 Boss), then pick from additional Appendices and keep the run alive - if you can!
[h2]New Feature: Prestige![/h2]
When all the Ink has been researched - the cycle of Scribes will still get to continue! We'll be adding the ability to Prestige, resetting your Ink Level, Binding Attunement, Quillmarks, and unlocks - but you will keep your Gildings and Cosmetics!
Reaching higher levels of Prestige will yield cosmetic rewards - show off all that research you've done! You'll also get the chance to admire your Lifetime Quillmarks - so don't worry about that stockpile you might be accruing!
[h2]New Spell: ???[/h2]
We're raring to get more of our spell ideas out into the wild - each with their own upgrades and specific combat profiles. With a new Generator (Foil) coming soon, we're going to be looking toward the other spell categories to start rounding out more of the roster.
This is a great area for your feedback to help us decide what's next in line - what are you interested in? What combat profile do you really want to spend all your mana on? How do you want to use a new movement spell to strategically enter/avoid combat? Let us know!
Epilogue
For us, Early Access is all about making new, exciting discoveries. The feedback process is pivotal in helping us make those discoveries together - it has already helped us immensely in shaping the outline for the future of Vellum.
There's no better time to join the Vellum Discord and tell us of your grand victories and heartbreaking defeats - we love to hear about them!
Thank you all and we'll see you in the Library!
- The Vellum Team
