Vesper and The Umbral Passage

Trailer

Watch the Trailer

Genre3D action-platformer
For fans ofSpyro, Jak and Sly Cooper
PlatformPC (Steam)
EngineUnreal Engine 5

The Story

The Vaughn Legacy

Find the Passage. Bring Them Home.

Vesper Vaughn is nineteen, quick on his feet, and quietly sure he’ll never live up to his parents. Cassius and Lyra Vaughn are the most famous explorers in Lamoria. They came home heroes from the expedition that found the Nowhere Shard.

Nobody else from that expedition came home.

Years later, his parents vanish chasing the Shard again. Kiya Laestelle, a childhood friend whose own parents led that expedition, turns up with a lead. The Shard pulls Vesper into the Umbral Passage, a hidden chain of worlds where the lost crew is still waiting, and every one of them remembers the name Vaughn.

Learn from the past to define the future.

An animatic sketch of a newspaper: Vaughns unearth ancient crown — The Vaughns make the front page

An animatic sketch of a wall of notes headed: Where are you? — Where did they go?

An animatic sketch of Vesper and Kiya facing a glowing shard in a cave — The Nowhere Shard

Frames from our story animatic

A painted map of the islands of Lamoria — The islands of Lamoria

Relics

How Relics Work

Long ago, Lamoria’s ancient civilisations sealed their strongest feelings inside objects. A relic only works for someone who shares its feeling. Fewer than 150 are known, and one good find can make an explorer famous.

Relics in the story

Nowhere ShardInsecurity
Kasu’s ArmourCaution
Unknown relicEmpathy
Unknown relicCourage
Unknown relicIngenuity
Unknown relicRage

The Cast

Meet the Cast

Vesper Vaughn

The Explorer

Nineteen, curious and quick-thinking, with a staff he can throw and teleport to. He’s spent his whole life in his famous parents’ shadow.

Left-handed. Never seen without his hat.

Kiya Laestelle

Voice on the Line

A treasure hunter and Vesper’s oldest friend. She talks him through the Passage by payphone, and when a fight turns ugly she answers his call with her golden khopesh-whip.

Her parents never came home.

Kasu Clangs

Ruler of Velyxara

Once the famed geologist of the Vaughn Expedition Crew, he was left behind in the name of progress. Now he hides inside his relic armour, and his Sentinels rule the streets.

Never seen outside his armour.

The lost expedition

The Crew That Never Came Home

Taiden and Sage Laestelle, Kiya’s parents, led the crew that found the Nowhere Shard. Kiya has been looking for them ever since.

Taiden Laestelle

Expedition Leader

A brilliant, clumsy researcher who made the Umbral Passage his life’s work, and led the crew inside.

Missing, somewhere in the Passage.

Sage Laestelle

The Steady Hand

Kiya’s mother. She’d been leading relic hunts since she was young, and she was the one who kept the crew together.

Missing.

How It Plays

Throw. Teleport. Strike.

One move runs the whole game. Throw the staff into a marked wall, post or ledge, then teleport to it. Throw it at an enemy and it’s a weapon.

01Throw
Aim at a marked wall, ledge or enemy and let it fly.
02Teleport
Press again and Vesper is there, hanging from the staff, ready to climb.
03Strike
The same staff is his weapon: combos, parries and finishers.

Aim in mid-air and time slows
Umbral Mirrors bounce the staff around corners
Recall it and it hits enemies on the way back

A train station between the worlds of the Passage, and Vesper’s base. Every trip into a new world starts and ends on its platform.

The Library

A scarab relic sits in a glass case on the library balcony. Break the glass, catch it before it hits the floor, and it’s yours.

Kiya on the Line

Kiya talks Vesper through the Passage from the payphone on the platform, one call at a time.

Leaving the Station

01Offer the relic
Place it in the station clock. Its doors shut and lightning fills the atrium.
02The train arrives
A train bursts out of the tunnel, bound for the relic’s world.
03All aboard
Pull the lever and the train heads into the Passage.

A desert town under Kasu’s thumb. His Sentinels patrol the streets and push the townsfolk around. Step in when they do, and the town starts to come round to you.

How a World Plays

1ExploreThrow the staff, teleport to it and climb over rooftops, ruins and canyons.

Combat

Abilities

Staff combos, a last-second parry and a dodge that slows time, plus abilities to unlock at Umbral Vigil shrines and upgrade with gems. Pick one to watch it.

Strength

Speed

Magic

Discovery

Kiya

The Umbral Vigil

Unlock abilities with the totems you find, then upgrade them with gems. Every ability has its own preview clip, so you know what you’re getting before you spend.

Systems

Vesper's Journal

The map, your quests, every enemy you’ve studied and your outfits all live in one book.

Velyxara

0% explored · 0 places found

The map couldn’t load. Try reloading the page.

Drag to pan. Scroll to zoom. Double-click to explore.Drag to pan. Pinch to zoom. Double-tap to explore.

Map

This is Velyxara from the game, drawn the way Vesper’s journal draws it. It starts blank, the way it does before he’s been anywhere. Double-click a spot (double-tap on a phone) and the ground around it inks in, and every district you uncover writes its name on the page, just like when Vesper walks into it.

The Umbral Passage

Beyond Velyxara

The Passage is a chain of trapped worlds. Each one is held by a member of the lost expedition, and each one keeps a relic. Velyxara is only the first stop on the line.