# Veloren: a voxel RPG in Rust where the GitHub repository is a mirror > An open world action RPG inspired by Cube World and Dwarf Fortress, built on a two dozen crate Rust workspace with its own terrain simulation. What the mirror tells you, and what it does not. **veloren/veloren** — [mirror of https://gitlab.com/veloren/veloren] An open world, open source voxel RPG inspired by Dwarf Fortress and Cube World. This repository is a mirror. Please submit all PRs and issues on our GitLab page. - Repository: https://github.com/veloren/veloren - Website: https://veloren.net - Stars: 7,638 · Forks: 570 - Language: Rust - License: GPL-3.0 - Published: 2026-10-08 · Updated: 2026-10-08 · Language: en - Canonical page: https://hysenlabs.com/projects/veloren-veloren ## The repository description is the first thing to read The GitHub repository for Veloren opens with an instruction rather than a description of the game: > This repository is a mirror. Please submit all PRs and issues on our GitLab page. That single line changes how you should treat everything else on this page. GitHub reports 7,576 stars and 547 forks, but those numbers mostly measure how many people have found the mirror, not how many people are contributing through it. The four open issues are similarly misleading, because the actual issue tracker is the GitLab milestone and issue tracker linked from the README. Every badge confirms the same point. The pipeline status, coverage report and contributor count badges all resolve to gitlab.com/veloren/veloren, not to the mirror. The Weblate translation widget points at translate.codeberg.org, and the Weblate project itself is hosted on Codeberg. So the project's real infrastructure spans three forges: GitLab for code and issues, Codeberg for translation hosting, and GitHub as a read-only copy. The mirror is not archived and the last push was 2026-09-20, so it is being kept current. That is the difference between a stale fork and a deliberate mirror, and it matters for anyone who wants to read the source without a GitLab account. ## Twenty four crates and what each one is for The Cargo workspace is the clearest map of the codebase. Twenty four members, edition 2024, version 0.18.0 at the workspace level: ```toml members = [ "client", "client/i18n", "common", "common/assets", "common/base", "common/dynlib", "common/ecs", "common/frontend", "common/i18n", "common/net", "common/query_server", "common/state", "common/systems", "network", "network/protocol", "rtsim", "server", "server/agent", "server-cli", "voxygen", "voxygen/anim", "voxygen/egui", "voxygen/i18n-helpers", "world", ] ``` The names say a lot. `common/ecs` is an entity component system, which is the standard architecture for a game with tens of thousands of active objects. `common/frontend` is the graphics layer, and the repository topics list gfx-rs, the Rust graphics ecosystem, alongside voxel, procedural-generation and terrain. `world/` is presumably world generation, and `rtsim/` is the piece worth pausing on: a real time simulation crate sitting beside the server. The split between `server`, `server/agent` and `server-cli` indicates a dedicated server plus a supervising agent, which is what you need for a multiplayer game with a public server. `common/net` and `network/protocol` hold the wire format. The naming pattern where a top level crate is also a workspace member with subdirectories, as `common` and `voxygen` both are, suggests parent crates with features that gate their children. ## Lints and profiles set by the people writing the game The workspace carries a set of lint decisions that read less like tooling defaults and more like a record of arguments the developers had and finished. Each one has a comment explaining the reasoning, and the tone in two of them is unusually blunt: ```toml [workspace.lints.clippy] # This lint is widely considered an annoyance by Veloren developers and doesn't pay its way. unnecessary_map_or = "allow" ``` ```toml # This suggests turning if statements into if guards in the match. This is # often not ideal because it can make the match arms inconsistent and make # them reliant on being followed by a no-op wildcard arm. collapsible_match = "allow" ``` That is what a maintained codebase looks like: the linter is configured deliberately, the exceptions are documented, and the standard workspace lint table means crates outside the workspace can opt into the same rules by adding one entry. The dev profile is tuned for a project with a very large dependency graph, where compile time is the developer's real complaint: ```toml # default profile for devs, fast to compile, okay enough to run, no debug information [profile.dev] opt-level = 2 overflow-checks = true debug-assertions = true panic = "abort" debug = false ``` Opt level 2 with no debug info is a deliberate trade. You get a build that runs at a playable frame rate so the developers are testing the real thing, without paying for symbols. `overflow-checks` and `debug-assertions` stay on, so arithmetic mistakes still panic in development rather than silently wrapping. ## Getting the game: builds, Airshipper, and the compatibility warning Veloren provides builds for Windows, macOS and Linux, downloadable from veloren.net/download. The README then explains why downloading a random build is a bad idea: due to rapid development, stable versions become outdated fast and might be incompatible with the public server. That is an unusual admission to put in a download section, and it is a real operational constraint rather than hedging. A voxel RPG with procedural world generation and a live multiplayer server has a state format and a protocol, so a client several months out of date can fail to connect or fail to render correctly. The answer the project gives is Airshipper, the official game launcher, which keeps the client current. For platforms, the README says Veloren runs on Windows, macOS and Linux across a wide range of CPU architectures, with x86_64 as the main development focus and official ARM64 builds for macOS and Linux. It also notes it is likely possible to compile elsewhere. Compiling from source is documented in the book at book.veloren.net rather than in the README, which is a sensible split given that the contributor introduction lives there. The repository also carries a `flake.nix` and `flake.lock` and a `nix/` directory, so a Nix flake exists for reproducible builds, along with a `rust-toolchain` file that pins the compiler. ## Licensing, with a small wrinkle worth knowing The license story is short and emphatic. The README's own FAQ answers the licensing question with a bolded sentence: it is free to play, modify and distribute, forever. The reasoning given is that it is a community project, and the choice made was the GNU General Public License v3.0, which means it will always stay free and open source. GitHub reports the repository license as GPL-3.0. The workspace manifest is more precise, and the two are not in conflict so much as at different levels of resolution: ```toml [workspace.package] version = "0.18.0" edition = "2024" license = "GPL-3.0-or-later" ``` GPL-3.0-or-later means contributions can be distributed under GPL version 3 or any later version, which is the standard formulation for a project that expects to keep updating its terms of use. The README links to the standalone GPL v3 text. There is a LICENSE file in the tree, and the README header carries an SPDX license identifier for the documentation snippet. The contributor agreement angle is worth noting too. Sending a patch to the project means it is offered under a license compatible with GPL-3.0-or-later, which is why the tree includes a CONTRIBUTING.md and a code of conduct linked from veloren.net. ## What a player needs that this repository does not say The README is written for contributors and community members, not for someone deciding whether to play. It states the game is an action-adventure RPG in a vast fantasy world, inspired by Cube World, Breath of the Wild, Dwarf Fortress and Minecraft, and that it is in active development with a flourishing player community. What it does not say is anything about single player versus multiplayer structure, save formats, system requirements, or what progression looks like. For that the project points at the wiki at wiki.veloren.net, described as an information repository about the game made by and for players, and the book at book.veloren.net for supplementary information useful to both players and contributors. The future plans link goes to the GitLab milestones page, which doubles as the issue tracker. Multiplayer needs an account. The README notes you should sign up at veloren.net/account to play on most Veloren multiplayer servers, and expands on the authentication server in a collapsed section: it uses TLS extensively, employs salted hashing for stored credentials, and neither tracks metrics nor uses the data for anything beyond providing authentication. That is a specific privacy claim worth noting for a free game with a public server. So a reader deciding whether to install this gets its clearest signals from the project's own infrastructure rather than its prose: a version at 0.18.0, coverage and dependency status badges that are published rather than aspirational, and an Open Collective page for financial contributors alongside the Discord, Zulip, Mastodon, Reddit, YouTube and Twitch channels listed in the README. ## Conclusion Veloren is a serious piece of software that happens to be a game. Twenty four crates, a dedicated deterministic simulation in `rtsim/`, edition 2024, and a CI pipeline that publishes coverage and dependency status badges are the marks of an engineering project rather than a hobby demo. The one thing that trips people up is where the work happens. Pull requests and issues belong on the GitLab page at gitlab.com/veloren/veloren, and every badge in the README points there, so a GitHub issue you file is filed in the wrong building. Start with the published builds on veloren.net and Airshipper, the official launcher, rather than compiling, since the project's own warning is that a stable build goes out of date quickly and can stop working against the public server. ## FAQ ### Is Veloren like Cube World? Cube World is one of the games Veloren lists as an inspiration, alongside Breath of the Wild, Dwarf Fortress and Minecraft. The project describes the result as an action-adventure RPG set in a vast fantasy world, built on procedurally generated voxel terrain. Inspiration is not the same as a clone, so the honest comparison is that Veloren takes the open world voxel shape from that lineage and develops it its own way. ### Is Veloren free to play? Yes, and the terms are stated more firmly than that. The README's own FAQ says Veloren is free to play, modify and distribute, forever, licensed under the GNU General Public License v3.0 because it is a community project. Builds are downloadable from veloren.net without payment, and the project takes donations through Open Collective. ### Do I need to post issues and pull requests on GitHub? No, and the repository says so at the top of its own description. The GitHub repository is a mirror of gitlab.com/veloren/veloren, and all pull requests and issues are wanted on the GitLab page. Every badge in the README, including pipeline status and coverage, resolves to GitLab rather than to the mirror. ### Can I build Veloren from source myself? Yes, though the README points you to the book rather than documenting it inline. Builds are provided for Windows, macOS and Linux, and the repository carries a rust-toolchain file plus a flake.nix for reproducible builds. The manifest uses edition 2024 with 24 workspace crates, and the contributor introduction at book.veloren.net covers the setup. ## Sources - [License: GPL-3.0](https://github.com/veloren/veloren/blob/master/LICENSE) - [Project website](https://veloren.net) - [README](https://github.com/veloren/veloren/blob/master/README.md) - [Releases](https://github.com/veloren/veloren/releases) - [veloren/veloren on GitHub](https://github.com/veloren/veloren) --- Hysen Labs editorial analysis, written from the project's own repository and release notes. Cite the canonical page: https://hysenlabs.com/projects/veloren-veloren