VEL

Description

VEL is a side-on action-platformer in the vein of Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown, built around one bronze spear. Aru, a reed-weaver's foster son, throws it, stands on it, calls it back and blinks to it, and every throw buys him something: a foothold, a place to blink to, a blade on its way home. Until it comes back, he fights with his fists.

The world is drawn from the five landscapes of old Tamil poetry, each with its own hour and flower: a reed lake at dawn, a forest forge camp in the evening rains, a dry gorge at noon, a mountain of illusions at midnight, a drowning shore at sunset, and a sea fortress in a storm with no hour. Forty years ago the tide stopped going out, and the Tide-King's armies of salt, coral and shell have come up the rivers with the salt ever since.

Features

• One spear for everything. Every throw is a foothold, a blink target or a blade on the way home, and Aru is weaker until it's back.
• Climbs you solve. One spear step per jump, and only real ground gives it back.
• Weight you can read. Frame-timed fights with posture, parries and finishers, and a warning before every blow you can't block.
• One connected map through the five landscapes of Sangam poetry and the sea beyond them, each at its own hour, with each new power opening paths through places you've already been.
• Bosses that fill the screen: a general who grows back his heads, a king who hides in a mountain of illusions, a great ray flying on a stolen wind, and the Tide-King himself.
• Six smiths at a forge camp who temper each power the spear wins back.
• Built for a gamepad, with the Steam Deck as the minimum spec.

History

VEL began with research and ideas around August 2026: the five landscapes of Sangam poetry, the old tales of cities the sea swallowed, and how much one spear could carry in a game. Building started in October 2026. The spear was made fun with plain boxes before any art: every room is played as greybox until it works, then dressed a pass at a time. The first region, the Lion Gate, plays from start to finish and is being dressed now; Heron Mountain plays in greybox up to its boss.

Clips

From the game as it is now, with the HUD put away.

Images

Paintings and stills, each linked at full size.

• Aru on his spear above the still sea (painting)
• Aru calls the spear home at the reed lake (painting)
• The Tide-King (painting)
• The Lion-Faced General (painting)
• The Lion Gate at noon (painting)
• Heron Mountain at midnight (painting)
• The gate bridge, as the General leaps the gorge (in game)
• The bell court (in game)
• The top stair (in game)
• The General's courtyard (in game)
• A fight on the shield wall (in game)
• The yali sockets, where the spear is a key (in game)

Logo

The name is set in Cinzel, as on the game's title screen.

How VEL is made

VEL is made by OrcaWhisperer Interactive. It was created, designed and directed by OrcaWhisperer, who has shaped it since its first research in August 2026 and writes its code, its tools and its words with generative AI tools.

Created, designed and directed by

OrcaWhisperer

Studio

OrcaWhisperer Interactive

Code, tools and words

OrcaWhisperer, with generative AI tools

The tools

• Engine. Godot 4.7 with Jolt Physics. The game is written in GDScript, and its look in Godot's shaders.
• Code and tests. OrcaWhisperer writes the game, its tools and its tests with generative AI tools. Python builds the rooms from their tables and runs the art and sound tools, and headless Godot tests play the game on GitHub Actions with every change.
• Pictures and models. Blender, driven by script, builds, rigs and fits every model. Generative AI tools paint the concept art, design rounds, murals, surfaces and the paintings on this site, turn the designs into 3D models, and rig and animate them. Pillow and NumPy do the rest.
• Sound and music. The sound effects, each place's air and the drums are synthesized in Python with NumPy. The orchestra's strokes are cut from VSCO 2 Community Edition's recordings (CC0), and the flute leads in the exploring music are made with generative AI.
• Typefaces. Cinzel, Catamaran, Hind Madurai and Noto Sans Brahmi, under the SIL Open Font Licence.
• Film. Godot's Movie Maker records the clips, and FFmpeg cuts them.
• This site. Python, Jinja and Markdown, built from the game's own art and footage.

What AI made

Some of what you see and hear was made with generative AI tools and then built into the game: the concept art, paintings and design rounds, the 3D models of its people and foes with their rigs and animation, and the exploring music's flute leads. The game's code and words are written by OrcaWhisperer with generative AI tools. The spear's model, the sound effects, the drums, the typefaces and the rooms themselves are made without them. VEL's Steam page will carry Steam's AI content disclosure.