The Archives of Trevosa
"I am Ludir, oloth-til of Oreleth-cyno-taayen of Trevosa. If this signal has reached you, the situation is dire. The dreadful nyscet lies in wait to destroy, and theevei look to the solaam for an omen: who is the true heir?"
Search through the hidden archives of Trevosa, translate their cultural terms, and uncover the relationships within a complex royal family tree. Can you untangle all seven generations? A challenging narrative deduction game inspired by The Roottrees Are Dead.
How to Play
- Your goal is to identify the name and title for each of the 30 family members.
- On the right, read the documents you've discovered and search for clues.
- Search Trevosan words or family members' names to find the first three documents mentioning them.
- Click a word to search for it.
- Or go to the Search tab and type in your search.
- Based on what you learn, set each person's name and title in the tree. Once 3 people are correct, they'll lock in.
Tips
- Stuck? Enable undiscovered document count under Settings, then check the Archive. This will show how many new documents you can find by searching the words in each document.
- Click on the right side of a scroll to set a bookmark color - this is just for notetaking. Use it for documents you want to revisit, etc.
- Use the notes tab or your own notes!
- You can always use the Filter section at the top of the Archive to search for any text in the documents you've already found.
⚠️ Progress is saved to browser storage, except in Safari, which doesn't allow storage from embedded games.
Credits
Originally created in 72 hours for Ludum Dare 59. This is the post-jam version with some additional improvements.
- Bucktown did design and writing.
- Marcus did design, writing, and music.
- Celia did design, code, and UI.
- Rose did the art.
Trevosa is coming to Steam!
Want more Trevosa? We're working on an expanded version with new characters, story, and puzzles, as well as new and improved UI, art, and music. To get the latest news, you can sign up for the Jamwitch Games mailing list. Join our Discord server to follow along with development or join in playtests.
Development log
Comments
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Absolutely fantastic game, I loved it to pieces!!!!! Really good fun and well put together, great work!!!
this game was amazing!! i played it non-stop until finishing, it's so cool..... can't wait for more!!
This game was so much fun!
Had a great time!
so fun - really immersive - defo recommend
This was great, but you should add a glossary (that you make yourself) so that you don't have to keep checking your notes or clicking down a word.
That’s the plan! I shared a screenshot here, more details really soon: https://bsky.app/profile/celia-14.bsky.social/post/3mw6rkmp3tk27
very very fun! slow start but once i got into the flow it was great! i didnt end up finding the last two documents though, maybe if i replay this game i will try to find them :[
this was so freaking good. I hope you make another one (:
What an amazing experience <3 I would say the only downside was I solved it in around 90 minutes, but scrapping all the documents I discovered was a genuine thrill, some of the titles were very tricky to find! I honestly wish to see more games like this in everyone's future and I hope my memory is bad enough I'll be able to play it again someday! Although, the twist is so good I'm unlikely to ever forget it! :D
This was SO GOOD! I never thought I could get so invested into a family tree but the writing was superb and assigning the titles was such a good addition. I was playing this in lecture and missed half of it - WORTH IT. Good job, devs!
Really fun! And the "twist" in the end is quite cute actually, or morbid, whichever way you want it to go. Lovely overall!
Never felt stuck, I feel like this is probably the ideal length for this type of game? Not long enough to get boring and frustrating and not too short. Lovely tree hours spent!
I have not been that much invested in a game for a very long time. Thanks for making such a great intersting and challenging yet solvable puzzle. Top 3 games I have ever played.
10/10 Very fun journey trying to connect the bits and pieces of history and learning their vocabulary! Admittedly, I was only half sure about my last 3 entries, but I can confidently say I came out of this with a finished story.
10/10!! Genuinely such a fun and engaging puzzle that scratched my brain in all the right ways. Love how fleshed out the world and characters felt, especially with the different types of documents available. Just enough breadcrumbs scattered everywhere to make you search for the answers. Can't wait to see the expanded game!
Really fun! The process of slowly starting to understand texts without having to translate them is so satisfying. Reminds me a lot of Obra Dinn, one of my favorite games. I'm definitely gonna check out for more.
I enjoyed this game. so much. oh my goodness this was so fun, gosh. eleven out of ten.
Absolutely wonderful, ty
I really enjoyed this! Looking forward to the expanded game!
I loved this game
Five stars! it's been a while since a mystery like this really captured my focus and I really enjoyed myself. It felt like it was going to be very hard at the beginning but just by paying close attention and putting together the clues was very satisfying.
One point of feedback I would like to give is that it would be nice if you could see your notes and the text you are looking at at the same time.
really had fun with this game! not too long but had enough in it for me to bounce around figuring things out, without much need for brute forcing. 10/10!
[SPOILERS]
I love how you get just enough information for the world to feel fleshed out but not so much that it gets boring slogging through endless birth and death and driver's liscence renewals, and I love how like... there's a lot of scheming and anger and betrayal but it's not like, senseless. Like... Basheel is rightfully not happy about the way her dumb brother and sister in law treat her but you can tell by reading about her that she's not the kind of person who acts rashly or wants revenge - like, when she meets telai she's not angry at her, she sits down with the exiled daughter of her enemy and talks to her, trades with her, envies the peacefulness of her life. and taal who has this outward appearance of being kind to everyone is awfully mean to her, and when she accuses her sister of a bitterness that could taint her bloodline... Basheel talks to people and learns. It's taal's bitterness that starts the war. it's her husband who says "yeah kill anyone you want as long as OUR kid gets that crown." like. its lots of little things like that. its fun.
would definitely organize genealogy for weird little bug people living in my walls again! still gonna leave out ant traps though.
I loved this :) Really made me use my brain for once. Not too easy but not too difficult. Made for the inquisitive.
[Spoiler!!]
One note, though: Wouldnt the family line be connecting to Temig, and his marriage line to Nolara, not the other way? And why is he convincing his Tamoth mom about Tamoth-varelen being good?
Lastly, can anyone tell me their interpretation of what solaam means? To me it almost reads as god but maybe more
Judging by the Intro & Outro letter, plus the story in the latter generations, I would personally define solaam to be Human.
Thanks for playing!
Temig’s mom isn’t pictured on the tree. We can assume she’s Yoret by his surname.
For solaam, you might want to read the Final Note again for the biggest clue to what the solaam, theevei, and nyscet are.
Is there a way to auto-replace translated terms?
No… but I will note that’s an optional feature we’re planning for the expanded version on Steam! (Join our mailing list for updates.)
Felt overwhelming at the start, but with extensive note-taking I was slowly able to piece everything together. Very fun!!
Wow, unexpectedly fun - and great UX too!
For accessibility, would be even better if the keywords can be bold and put into a slightly different color.
Very fun brain teaser.
good massage for my brain. undid at least one month of brainrot
I was playing this during free time in school and I didn't realize that I was so locked in that I was basically glaring at the screen lol (when I focus on something my eyebrows do a thing then apparently I look mad lol)
that...was the peakest web game i played so far
Hello. I was looking for a browser based game to kill time at work. I must have spent at least 4 hours to complete this wonderful game. Thank you so much for making this simple yet fun puzzle game!
I have a hard time with these kinds of games, but this one hit the perfect balance of challenging me while still making me feel very smart when I figured things out. Really well made
I'm gonna be honest: this game just gives me a headache. I struggle enough with language and keeping track of symbols when I actually know the referent. I've never been able to figure out a context clue in my life, and I'm not starting here.
I don't think it's a bad game. I just don't think it's at all possible that it's for me.
I've played this game multiple times and somehow only now put together that they're tiny people and that the nyscet is our cat eating their mice caravans
oh my god
The description of the nyscet sounds like a snake though
i think that's the efscet
Awesome game, loved the concept and execution. Had a lot of fun, really scratched an itch in my brain that used to be scratched by text adventures, room escape games, CYOAs, point-and-click mystery games, and the like. Would definitely play more games in this style.
Maybe I'm reading too much into the lore, but I am intrigued by the implication "The Gate Opener" did more than just 'open a gate' (that their betrothed's death wasn't strictly an accident).
"May you find a [partner] that mixes and rises with you, like the smoke of a candle." Lovely!
this is peak
Awesome game, unfolding the new pieces of lore and personalities and concerns of each generation was so fun! Even though my brain broke a few times as I learned new info or had to correct my translations, I wouldn't have it any other way :')
I'm really looking forward to what future updates will hold!
amazing!
super fun game !!!
absolutely wonderful
SO AWESOME!! I absolutley loved finding the meanings of all the words, it was so satisfying when i recognized the gender diffrences. The titles were super cool too because they made you look into the story and personality of each character! I had 4 sticky notes filled with translation by the end lol. Super fun game!!
I had a lot of fun! a pretty quick game once I started understand what some of the words meant. But a great time!! I will definitely look for this game on steam.