What Is The Archives of Trevosa?
âI am Ludir, oloth-til of Oreleth-cyno-taayen of Trevosa. If this signal has reached you, the situation is dire.â
The Archives of Trevosa is a narrative deduction game from Jamwitch Games, originally built in 72 hours for Ludum Dare 59 and then polished into the post-jam version you can play here. The kingdom of Trevosa is in crisis, a dreadful nyscet is waiting to strike, and everyone is looking for an omen that will reveal the true heir. The only way to find it is to dig through the archives and reconstruct seven generations of the royal family.
The catch: the documents are full of Trevosan cultural terms that nobody has translated for you. Words like oloth-til and solaam only make sense once youâve seen them used in enough contexts. The game is a fusion of Roottrees-style genealogical fact-finding and language-deciphering puzzles in the vein of Chants of Sennaar or Heavenâs Vault.
How To Play
Your goal is to identify the name and title of each of the 30 family members on the tree.
- Read the documents on the right-hand panel and search them for clues.
- Click any Trevosan word or family memberâs name to search for it. Each search reveals the first three documents that mention that term.
- Form theories from what you learn and set each personâs name and title in the tree.
- Once three people are correct at the same time, they lock in, confirming that part of your reconstruction.
- Repeat until all seven generations are complete.
You can also open the Search tab and type a term directly, and the Filter section at the top of the Archive lets you search any text within documents youâve already found.
Tools For Detectives
- Notes tab â keep a running record of your theories and translations in-game (or use your own notes).
- Bookmarks â click the right side of a scroll to give it a colour, handy for flagging documents you need to revisit.
- Undiscovered document count â enable this in Settings and the Archive will show how many new documents each word can still unlock. Stuck? This is the hint system.
Progress is saved to browser storage, so you can leave and come back. The one exception is Safari, which blocks storage for embedded games.
Tips For Untangling Trevosa
- Translate before you assign. Titles are usually Trevosan words. Work out what a term means from three or four contexts before guessing who holds it.
- Start with the certain. Find the handful of documents that name a person and their relationship outright, lock those in, and expand outward.
- Use the lock-in to test theories. If youâre torn between two placements, set both alongside one youâre confident in; a lock confirms the correct combination.
- Search names, not just terms. Names often surface journals and letters that tie together branches you assumed were separate.
- Track generations. Decrees and announcements are dated by reign; ordering them chronologically resolves most âwhich of these two people is olderâ questions.
About The Developers
The Archives of Trevosa was made by Bucktown (design and writing), Marcus (design, writing and music), Celia (design, code and UI) and Rose (art). Following the jam versionâs reception, the team is building an expanded release with new characters, story and puzzles, and improved UI, art and music, which is heading to Steam with publisher Inner Pocket.