The Velvet Arcade presents
A painted fantasy story RPG
A healer the Cathedral fears. The warden sent to bring her in. Ten chapters to decide whose side you are on.
The story
You are a Warden of the Hearth. You bring in the mages whose Gift is slipping out of their control, before they Bloom and take a village with them.
Then you are sent for Tamsin Vale, a healer who has done nothing but save people. What you do about what she tells you is up to you.
Nobody the Cathedral takes in ever comes back.
Watch
The film that plays before the title screen, and a minute of the free demo: a choice, the map, and the fight for Tamsin.
How it plays
IEvery scene is written, and the choices are real. Who you trust decides who follows you.
IITurn-based battles with Tamsin's Gift in your hand. A lost fight never ends the story.
IIIRoads, villages, rivers and an old forest of standing stones. Days and nights pass.
IVA hidden waystation fills with the mages you free. Give each a room and a place at the table.
The cast
The healer the Cathedral fears. She has done nothing but save people.
Quick with a sword, and slow to trust a warden.
She opens doorways in the air onto somewhere else.
A sloop captain whose wind answers to her mood.
Enough heat to work a forge, or to burn a town. Her temper decides which.
She takes you upriver on the Heron, and knows every bend of the water.
Frost in her hands, and a winter that follows her wherever she goes.
Wry, sharp, and amused by everyone. Including you.
She Bloomed in a single night. Her city is still a crater of black glass.
He wants Tamsin brought in alive, and whole.
Free demo
From the opening scene to the fight in the overgrown garden. It runs in your browser: nothing to install, and your saves stay on your device.
Play the free demoBloom is made by one person, working as the studio The Velvet Arcade. It is a working game you can already play from the first scene to the last: ten chapters, with written choices, card fights, a map of the kingdom and a home that fills with the people you free.
It is a story with mature themes: power, fear, loss, and what one person can ask of another. The full game goes further, and darker, than the demo. It is not for children.
You should know exactly where AI helps. The world, story, characters and canon are mine. Scenes and dialogue are drafted with AI writing assistants to my outline and canon notes, then revised and approved by me. The engine is written with AI coding assistants under my direction. Characters, backdrops, cards and video clips are made with AI image and video generation, from my prompts and reference sheets, and I choose and approve every look; none of it starts from a photograph of a real person. Voices are AI text-to-speech, using original voices designed from written descriptions, not clones of anyone. Music and sound effects are also made with AI tools. No AI runs in the game while you play.
