Games like Vellum
If Vellum is your kind of game, the closest matches are Gatekeeper, What the Fog and Risk of Rain 2 — picked from the ranked list below. Reviewers single out its atmospheric, challenging and contemplative. Each pick is ranked by what players of this game also play, shared genres and tags, and review-mined similarity — not a generic popularity list.
Get personalized picks →Vellum is a third-person action roguelite with a literary fantasy setting, developed by Alvios Games and released in 2025 at $19.99. Players navigate challenging runs either solo or with up to three others online, wielding an ink-color class system that defines their combat approach. The game features raid bosses with distinct mechanics, a spell upgrade page system that ensures run variety, prestige-style progression resets, and a co-op reconnect system that preserves progress if players disconnect. Players describe the experience as atmospheric and whimsical, with reviewers highlighting how the literary theme with puns permeates the design. The spell upgrade pages make every run feel distinct while the co-op reconnect system addresses a common frustration in the genre. Vellum holds a 91% positive rating from over 1100 Steam reviews and is marked as playable on Steam Deck.
About Vellum: Write on! Defend the books in Vellum, a co-op, literary roguelike! Harness class-defining colors, master an inspired spellbook, and influence the growth of your enemy! As a group or solo, you'll craft plot-twisting builds to rewrite the rules in Ink!
Players who liked Vellum also play
Steam players who put hours into Vellum also tend to own these titles — a signal called collaborative filtering. imho.run cross-references millions of library ownership patterns to surface games whose real audiences overlap, regardless of whether their genre tags match.
Gatekeeper
WHY THIS
Shares an atmospheric mood with Vellum.
Top pick for Vellum fans by collaborative filtering across millions of Steam libraries. Shares Action and Indie with Vellum.
Gatekeeper is a fast-paced rogue-like. Go on a quest to chase down Chaos and reclaim the stolen Heart of Time, fighting your way through relentless enemy forces. Play solo or in 4-player co-op and become the next Gatekeeper!
What the Fog
WHY THIS
Shares an atmospheric mood with Vellum.
Second-strongest match for Vellum fans by collaborative filtering across millions of Steam libraries. Shares Action with Vellum.
What the Fog?! You’ve been sucked into a cursed boardgame! Now you and a friend will need to work together to survive. Run, jump, dash, and shoot to escape swarms of angry monsters in this chaotic co-op roguelite from the world of Dead by Daylight.
Risk of Rain 2
WHY THIS
Shares a challenging mood with Vellum.
Third-strongest match for Vellum fans by collaborative filtering across millions of Steam libraries. Shares Action and Indie with Vellum.
Escape a chaotic alien planet by fighting through hordes of frenzied monsters – with your friends, or on your own. Combine loot in surprising ways and master each character until you become the havoc you feared upon your first crash landing.
Atomic Picnic
WHY THIS
Shares a contemplative mood with Vellum.
Ranked #4 for Vellum fans by collaborative filtering across millions of Steam libraries. Shares Action and Indie with Vellum.
Third-person bullet heaven meets explosive co-op action! Swing, dash, and blast through monster swarms while combining upgrades and discovering rare evolutions to create game-breaking builds of destruction.
Deadzone: Rogue
WHY THIS
Shares an atmospheric mood with Vellum.
Ranked #5 for Vellum fans by collaborative filtering across millions of Steam libraries. Shares Action with Vellum.
Deadzone: Rogue is a roguelite FPS set in space. Blast through swarms of hostile machines, combine powerful augments and elements to forge your build, and grow stronger with each run — solo or in co-op.
ArcRunner
WHY THIS
Shares an atmospheric mood with Vellum.
Ranked #6 for Vellum fans by collaborative filtering across millions of Steam libraries. Shares Action and Indie with Vellum.
Traverse 'The Arc' in this beautiful, Cyberpunk-styled action rogue-lite as you attempt to reset an evil rogue AI. Experiment with different weapons and augments as you fight hordes of machines programmed for your annihilation! Collect Nanites & power-up after every run either solo or with friends!
Crab Champions
WHY THIS
Shares a whimsical mood with Vellum.
Ranked #7 for Vellum fans by collaborative filtering across millions of Steam libraries. Shares Action and Indie with Vellum.
Claw your way across exotic islands combining fluid movement with fast paced combat to become a Crab Champion in this third person roguelike shooter.
Ziggurat
WHY THIS
Shares an atmospheric mood with Vellum.
Ranked #8 for Vellum fans by collaborative filtering across millions of Steam libraries. Shares Action and Indie with Vellum.
Dungeon-Crawling First Person Shooting at its finest! Fast-paced combat! Dozens of perks, spells and enemies! Level ups! Random Dungeons! Traps! Badass bosses! Carrots!
Reviewers mention these as similar to Vellum
Surfaced from review text: when other players write 'if you liked X, try Y', we catch the name and resolve it back to a Steam game.
Roboquest
WHY THIS
Shares a whimsical mood with Vellum.
Reviewers of Vellum cross-mention this title as a similar play. Shares Action and Indie with Vellum.
Roboquest is a fast FPS Roguelite in a scorched futureworld. You're a rebooted Guardian, ready to kick some metal ass! Fight with your buddy or by yourself and annihilate hordes of deadly bots in ever-changing environments.
Risk of Rain 2
WHY THIS
Shares a challenging mood with Vellum.
Reviewers of Vellum cross-mention this title as a similar play. Shares Action and Indie with Vellum.
Escape a chaotic alien planet by fighting through hordes of frenzied monsters – with your friends, or on your own. Combine loot in surprising ways and master each character until you become the havoc you feared upon your first crash landing.
Wizard of Legend
WHY THIS
Shares a whimsical mood with Vellum.
Reviewers of Vellum cross-mention this title as a similar play. Shares Action and Indie with Vellum.
Wizard of Legend is a no-nonsense, action-packed take on wizardry that emphasizes precise movements and smart comboing of spells in a rogue-like dungeon crawler that features over a hundred unique spells and relics!
Ziggurat 2
WHY THIS
Shares a challenging mood with Vellum.
Reviewers of Vellum cross-mention this title as a similar play. Shares Action and Indie with Vellum.
Ziggurat is back, and now it's even better! Use powerful weapons and spells to break through hordes of enemies and explore labyrinthine dungeons in this hectic roguelite FPS, while you improve your skills and discover new equipment.
Immortal Redneck
WHY THIS
Shares an atmospheric mood with Vellum.
Reviewers of Vellum cross-mention this title as a similar play. Shares Action and Indie with Vellum.
Immortal Redneck is a FPS set in Egypt with rogue-lite elements. Frantic gameplay, twitch controls and an arcade-style feel meet randomly generated dungeons, a complete skill tree, permanent death and 9 classes with different traits.
420BLAZEIT 2: GAME OF THE YEAR -=Dank Dreams and Goated Memes=- [#wow/11 Like and Subscribe] Poggerz Edition
WHY THIS
Reviewers of Vellum cross-mention this title as a similar play. Shares Action and Indie with Vellum.
Prepare yourself for the long awaited sequel. You will 360. You will noscope. You will see some weird af s*** on your quest to destroy the Illuminati and rescue the memes. Are you ready for 420BLAZEIT 2????!!1
Battle Shapers
WHY THIS
Shares a whimsical mood with Vellum.
Reviewers of Vellum cross-mention this title as a similar play. Shares Action with Vellum.
Battle Shapers is an action-packed, sci-fi FPS roguelite in which you shoot and smash your way through swarms of corrupt robots. Wield powerful weapons, abilities, and game-changing new powers stolen from ruthless Overlords.
![420BLAZEIT 2: GAME OF THE YEAR -=Dank Dreams and Goated Memes=- [#wow/11 Like and Subscribe] Poggerz Edition — Steam game cover](https://shared.akamai.steamstatic.com/store_item_assets/steam/apps/2624280/ece4fc1f38eb959e8086f18c61e67a4aab645df6/header.jpg?t=1766096641)
Cheaper alternatives
Games in the same vein priced at least 40% below Vellum at current Steam store prices.
Garry's Mod
WHY THIS
Priced ~75% under Vellum on Steam right now. Shares Indie with Vellum.
Garry's Mod is a physics sandbox. There aren't any predefined aims or goals. We give you the tools and leave you to play.
Lethal Company
WHY THIS
Priced ~50% under Vellum on Steam right now. Shares Action and Indie with Vellum.
A co-op horror about scavenging at abandoned moons to sell scrap to the Company.
Left 4 Dead 2
WHY THIS
Priced ~50% under Vellum on Steam right now. Shares Action with Vellum.
Set in the zombie apocalypse, Left 4 Dead 2 is a co-operative action horror FPS takes you and your friends through the cities, swamps and cemeteries of the Deep South, from Savannah to New Orleans across five expansive campaigns.
People Playground
WHY THIS
Priced ~50% under Vellum on Steam right now. Shares Action and Indie with Vellum.
Shoot, stab, burn, poison, tear, vaporise, or crush ragdolls in a large open space.
Fallout: New Vegas
WHY THIS
Priced ~50% under Vellum on Steam right now. Shares Action with Vellum.
Welcome to Vegas. New Vegas. Enjoy your stay!
Free alternatives
Free-to-play games that recommended players of this title also tend to enjoy.
Bongo Cat
WHY THIS
Free-to-play pick from the same recommendation pool — no purchase to try it. Shares Indie with Vellum.
Bongo cat needs your help. Bongo cat needz more hatz!!! Every time you press a key, Bongo cat will punch your taskbar. Type, click, play, work to collect more points. Which hats will you find?
Indigo Park: Chapter 1
WHY THIS
Free-to-play pick from the same recommendation pool — no purchase to try it. Shares Action and Indie with Vellum.
Explore the abandoned childhood wonder of Indigo Park! Guided by Rambley the Raccoon, help restore power to the destroyed amusement park while you run from the reason it shut down.
The Looker
WHY THIS
Free-to-play pick from the same recommendation pool — no purchase to try it. Shares Indie with Vellum.
You wake up, alone, on a strangely familiar island full of puzzles that will frustrate and annoy you.
Counter-Strike:Global Offensive
WHY THIS
Free-to-play pick from the same recommendation pool — no purchase to try it. Shares Action with Vellum.
Counter-Strike:Global Offensive (CS:GO) expands upon the team-based action gameplay that it pioneered when it was launched over 2 decades ago. CS:GO features new maps, characters, weapons, and game modes, and delivers updated versions of the classic CS content (de_dust2, etc.).
The Expendabros
WHY THIS
Free-to-play pick from the same recommendation pool — no purchase to try it. Shares Action and Indie with Vellum.
The Expendabros have assembled and set their sights on the forces of ruthless arms dealer Conrad Stonebanks in the forests of Eastern Europe.
Iron Snout
WHY THIS
Free-to-play pick from the same recommendation pool — no purchase to try it. Shares Action and Indie with Vellum.
Iron Snout is a fast, colorful and brutal fighting game in which you will be helping a piglet fight for its life against hordes of wolves.
UNBEATABLE [white label]
WHY THIS
Free-to-play pick from the same recommendation pool — no purchase to try it. Shares Action and Indie with Vellum.
A young girl learns a song. An exclusive side-story set in the world of D-CELL GAMES' upcoming rhythm-adventure.
![UNBEATABLE [white label] — Steam game cover](https://shared.akamai.steamstatic.com/store_item_assets/steam/apps/1290490/header.jpg?t=1736770503)
Narrow it down
Head-to-head comparisons
Plays great on Steam Deck
Valve-Verified or Playable picks from the similar pool — ready to go on Deck out of the box.
Gatekeeper
WHY THIS
Shares an atmospheric mood with Vellum.
Deck Verified — runs on Steam Deck out of the box. Shares Action and Indie with Vellum.
Gatekeeper is a fast-paced rogue-like. Go on a quest to chase down Chaos and reclaim the stolen Heart of Time, fighting your way through relentless enemy forces. Play solo or in 4-player co-op and become the next Gatekeeper!
Deadzone: Rogue
WHY THIS
Shares an atmospheric mood with Vellum.
Deck Verified — runs on Steam Deck out of the box. Shares Action with Vellum.
Deadzone: Rogue is a roguelite FPS set in space. Blast through swarms of hostile machines, combine powerful augments and elements to forge your build, and grow stronger with each run — solo or in co-op.
ArcRunner
WHY THIS
Shares an atmospheric mood with Vellum.
Deck Verified — runs on Steam Deck out of the box. Shares Action and Indie with Vellum.
Traverse 'The Arc' in this beautiful, Cyberpunk-styled action rogue-lite as you attempt to reset an evil rogue AI. Experiment with different weapons and augments as you fight hordes of machines programmed for your annihilation! Collect Nanites & power-up after every run either solo or with friends!
Ziggurat
WHY THIS
Shares an atmospheric mood with Vellum.
Deck Verified — runs on Steam Deck out of the box. Shares Action and Indie with Vellum.
Dungeon-Crawling First Person Shooting at its finest! Fast-paced combat! Dozens of perks, spells and enemies! Level ups! Random Dungeons! Traps! Badass bosses! Carrots!
Frequently asked about Vellum
- Does Vellum run on Steam Deck?
- Vellum is rated Playable on Steam Deck — it runs, but expect some manual adjustments (control remapping, text size, or graphics settings) for the best experience.
- How much does Vellum cost?
- Vellum is listed on Steam at 19.99 USD (current store price; Steam sales may reduce this temporarily).
- Does Vellum have multiplayer or co-op?
- Yes — Vellum supports multi-player play according to its Steam store listing (Multi-player, Online Co-op, Co-op).
- What games are most similar to Vellum?
- Based on Steam play patterns and shared genres/tags, the games most often recommended alongside Vellum are Gatekeeper, What the Fog, Risk of Rain 2.
- Who developed Vellum?
- Vellum was developed by Alvios Games and published by Alvios, Inc..
imho.run ranks Steam game alternatives using a mix of collaborative filtering (ALS / iALS / EASE / LightGCN), content scoring over genres, categories, Steam tags, developers, and publishers, plus AI-extracted vibes mined from review text. The page above is generated in seed mode anchored on Vellum.
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