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 rightful 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 three people are correct, they'll lock in.
Tips
- Stuck? Enable undiscovered document hints under the Filter section of 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!
- Starting tip: Some people in the tree have an additional title. Try searching for those as a starting point.
Known issues
The jam version of the game was made in 72 hours, and we're working on improving it. (Follow to get the update posts!) Notable gaps:
- We're missing a better notification of family members locking in.
- There's no final test at the end, you'll win after completing all 30 people.
⚠️ Progress is saved to browser storage, but not in Safari, which doesn't play nice with embedded games.
Credits
Originally created in 72 hours for Ludum Dare 59. Click here for the jam version of the game.
Comments
Log in with itch.io to leave a comment.
I've really become a fan of your detective games. This one was a lot of fun, going from barely understanding anything to being able to comfortably navigate the text felt very natural. V ernyyl yvxrq gur ynathntr'f pncnpvgl gb rnfvyl pbafgehpg traqre-arhgeny grezf, naq V jbhyq'ir ybirq gb frr zber abaovanel punenpgref.
This definitely scratched the Roottrees Are Dead itch for me! I was so focused I finished it in one go.
I hope you all keep making games, because I would take a 100 of games like these
The glossary you mentionned in a comment would be a great addition. I also accidentally deleted all my notes by clicking on the X at the bottom (I don't see it now strangely) so a warning pop-up for us clumsy folks would be appreciated!
Thank you!
I removed the notes X button after getting feedback that yeah, it was only going to cause more trouble than it would be useful.
This was delightful! Really fun set of deductions working out the history of these people and meanings of their words. Thankfully we had a brief interruption when we'd finished 27 out of 30, which gave me time to reflect and realise a few fun things (yvxr jung znfprg naq alfprg ner) before we filled in the final answers to get the ending message. Loads of fun - thanks so much for making it and sharing it with us!
Lovely little experience, here are my thoughts:
I managed to get through with no brute-forcing or wild guessing, which was very satisfying. Poring through documents reveals a very interesting narrative, which is reflected in the family tree. I was a bit annoyed by how difficult it was to discover the last few documents, figuring out the feature of unclicked words was helpful, and highlighting the specific ones would be too much, but I think that unclicked words should account for ones searched on other documents.
The alternate language was a really cool concept, you can learn a lot about their culture through the word construction, and it's a helpful layer on top of the documents that creates additional depth to the puzzles. I did think the end was a bit abrupt, I felt the central question was who the rightful heir was, and I didn't get a chance to work it out. You already know about the locking in by three things, I definitely agree there needs to be something there that indicates which have been affirmed.
I was looking forward to a new puzzle from you, I'll be eagerly anticipating future work.
Wait, saw you agreed about the ending being a bit anticlimactic. Nevermind!
Thank you! I’m glad you enjoyed and I always appreciate all thoughts!
The number is counting how many new documents you can reach by searching the words on this document. (This is confusing since it was unsearched words in the original jam version.) If you read a new document A, then the number goes down on any documents containing search terms that lead to A. I hope that does line up with what you saw numerically, even if the clarity of what it meant isn’t there yet.
I suppose that makes sense, I didn't really have the knowledge you do, but I still think that I clicked on words that led me to no new documents, but still decreased the number, so perhaps I'm misunderstanding something. Still looking forward to new puzzles!
If that’s the case then it might be a bug! I’ll double check it. Thanks!
loved the game! Had lots of fun decypgering the language!
I was down to the last 3 titles and got them by swap, I might have missed a clue somewhere:
rot 13:
Vf gurer n pyhr gb xabj gung gur Tngr Bcrare vf Yrzny? V jnf fher vg jnf bcrarq ol Gnny! Gura ol ryvzvangvba V frg Pryqrv nf gur zbgure (nf vgf gur bayl jbzna V unq yrsg) naq fbsg-ibvpr gb Yrzny ol ryvzvangvba.
One last thing:
Ner gubfr crbcyr ernyyl fznyy naq fpnerq bs pngf? :Q
Thanks again for the good time?
The very last document we found was the biggest clue to your first question. We got there by (rot13) frnepuvat sbe plab-yrv. It's not signed but it's pretty clear who it's referring to if you understand the relevant words.
To your second question: that was something I only realised once we'd placed 29 out of 30 titles! But there are hints in documents such as (rot13) "Genafvg Fbyhgvba Ercbeg". We'd already been suspecting something like that given (rot13) gur inevbhf pbashfvat guvatf jr'er gbyq nobhg fbynnz: jr'er nqerffrq nf fbynnz, ohg gurl'er uhtr naq pna fgrc ba gerrirv, naq qvfnccrne ng avtug...
Bu! V nffhzrq gung yrggre jnf jevggra ol gnny. Ohg whfg abj V erzrzorerq gung vg pbhyq abg or fvapr gnny qvrq qhevat crnpr gvzr!
rot13:
V guvax vg'f n znggre bs vaqhpgvir ernfbavat. Vs lbh pna gryy gung gur Rfgva yrrirguf ner svtguvat nzbatfg gurzfryirf ba jub vf gur "gbqvv", naq ubj gur erfg bs gur ineryra ner gerngvat gur nqbcgrq bynvgu -- vg jbhyq or fnsr gb fnl gung gurl qvq abg unir gurve rlrf ba gur bgure bhgfvqre va gur snzvyl. Gurl unq yrff ernfba gb fhfcrpg gurz orpnhfr gurl pnzr sebz gur fnzr ineryra nf gur wbva oryra.
V vzntvar gung guvf tnzr nyfb gnxrf cynpr va n havirefr jurer Jneevbe Pngf naq fuevax-enl'q xvqf funer gur fnzr ybg, yby.
This was great, I really enjoyed it!
This is really well-done! I enjoyed the process of unlocking documents and working out the relationships. I would love to read more about the history of Trevosa.
One minor issue I had was that I couldn't get the game to exit full-screen when I was finished. I pressed ESC and flailed a bit and in the process hit the X below the notes. And just like that, poof! All my notes were gone. A confirmation on clearing the notes would be appreciated. Fortunately I was already done with the game. I had to refresh the page in order to close the game and read the comments, though.
Thank you and thanks for the feedback!
You’re right about the notes X button. It’s something I added unthinkingly when I was working on it and trying to test out the notes functionality, but it’s much less useful for a real player. I got rid of the button. Thanks for bringing it up!
Exiting the full-screen game is something that’s more controlled by itch.io than the game itself, unfortunately. The back button works (as does refresh.) Although, I think I could hook something up like a button that triggers a Back in the browser… Let me think about it.
Oof, yes, the [X] on the Notes page definitely needs a confirmation, or, I might suggest it doesn't need to be there at all. I could always cmd-a & delete if I wanted to clear my notes on my own.
Your wish is my command (in that I just updated the game to remove the button thanks to Reiko’s feedback) 😄
What a fun and engaging game! It got me strangely invested in these nobles and their affairs. If you ever wanted to make an IF in this world, I'm in! :D
Do I not need to decide who is the rightful heir? It feels kinda weird to skip it since Ludir explicitly asked me to do it.
Also possible typo in rules of succession: it should say "have a beirvet" instead of the english translation.
From what I see, it's impossible to answer for sure without knowing what a "sevel" is. That word is in the rules of succession, but nowhere else.
isnt it? 😈 I see that root word at least one other time
Yep, a more complete ending is something we completely ran out of time for during the jam! We will be revisiting that in a future update.
Thanks about the typo, just fixed it.
I can't find 2 document and the name of two heirs. There's no notifications and hint I could find. Other part of the game was great and I enjoyed it greatly.
Thank you, this is fixed now!
This was super fun and very easy to get lost in! I almost finished it, but for some reason I can't find the last 2 documents, even with the "undiscovered hints" turned on, it doesn't show anything, which is a bit of a shame. I'm not sure if this is an issue with the game or user error, but I thought it worth bringing up in case it was some kind of bug.
It's the same for me, I hope it'll be fixed to be able to finish.
Thank you, this is fixed now!
I've just (mostly) played through this and I am stuck at 45/47 documents, no names for the other two heirs and 0 undiscovered documents with the filter turned on - I think there might be a bug?
Thank you, this is fixed now!
Finished. Great game, like the others. You should start selling these on Steam, IMO.
Fantastic work - I absolutely loved it!
(FYI I think some recent changes might have made the document with the name of the last two heirs inaccessible by searching: I tried the search terms suggested lower down in the comments, and that document wasn't in the top 3.)
I can confirm that. The keywords that led to those documents in the jam version no longer lead to them in this new version.
Thanks for reporting! I had a fixed an issue with the documents not being ordered correctly, but that changed the search results. 🤦♀️ I put it back for now.
Hi folks, I went ahead and made some small updates, so I split out the 72-hour-jam version into its own page, for any Ludum Dare raters.
I thought I’d note today’s changes here, and we’ll make an official update post once we have even more to share!
Let me know what you think! Lots more updates coming soon - thanks for sharing your thoughts and feedback.
Took me a moment to find the toggle, but the intuition count worked a lot better my second go-around and allowed me to easily fully finish and find all documents!
Absolutely wonderful combination of Obra Dinn and language/anthropological deduction! I look forward to everything else you do!
oh this was so fun! :)
My nickname for this game is "The Roottrees of Sennaar"
I would like an option to replace a word with our personal translation of it (I think Chants.., and Heaven's Vault had a similar mechanic), but I wouldn't expect that kind of quality-of-life feature from the first version of a jam release.
Knowing the constraints of the jam, this is already a remarkably compelling game, as is.
I've enjoyed playing every Jamwitch deductive game, but what made this one stand out was how rich and compelling the world-building is.
The previous nods to Forgotten Realms tropes and Pokemon lore were a lot of fun, but I actually felt invested in the fate of Trevosa, as a community.
It was especially satisfying to revisit it all once I realized the nature of the world, after finishing the game.
Thank you so much Paolo!
My codename for the idea, which I’ve been mulling for quite a while, was “The Roottrees are Aliens”. 😄 Given infinite time, I wanted to make players untangle even less familiar kinship terms and cultural words than what we have here, but I’m really happy with how this turned out! It’s all thanks to Marcus and Bucktown, who did all the world-crafting and writing.
I loved this game far more than I expected to. Once I got those first three names locked in, everything started to fall into place. I'm proud of myself for managing this without a walkthrough, but I could only find 47 out of 48 documents.
Edit: figured out what the green numbers are for.
This was a blast to play through, really scratching that Obra Dinn itch. A couple days after my first playthrough, I did a second one in order to really understand the story of the game and translate as much as I can. Then, when going over the entries with words I didn't yet understand, it hit me.
Is this a game about (rot13) tabzrf? Vf guvf n fgbel nobhg gval crbcyr naq gurve gval xvatqbz? Gval crbcyr jub evqr zvpr naq "sbentr" zl cnagel sbe oernq? Jub snprq fgneingvba jura zl png fgnegrq rngvat gurve zbhagf?
V'z zbfgyl pbasvqrag va zl genafyngvbaf - fbynnz ner uhznaf, alfprg vf png, znfprg vf zbhfr/eng, naq lrsfprg vf cebonoyl, yvxr, syl. V'z abg gung fher nobhg snanng naq rsfprg; zl orfg thrff vf gung snanng ner nagf (pbbeqvangrq, znal yrtf) naq gung rsfprg ner jbezf (ab nezf be yrtf, yvir "orybj" gur gurrirv).
Guvf, V guvax, vf gur nafjre gb "jub ner gurfr crbcyr naq jurer qb gurl pbzr sebz?", naq V unira'g frra nal bgure pbzzrag gnyx nobhg vg. Ng gur irel yrnfg, V ubcr nal bs guvf vf evtug, gung gur ornfgf nera'g whfg snagnfl zbafgref, naq gung V'z abg n yhangvp.
I was thinking fzhesf/obeebjref, fcvqref, fanxrf, naq oveqf.
Well, now I feel like a right todii! I didn't make that connection until I reached [ROT13] gur svany zrffntr.
Gura V jrag onpx naq er-ernq gur pngnybt bs ornfgf, naq ernyvmrq jung jnf ernyyl tbvat ba.
Fb vg'f onfvpnyyl Gur Obeebjref be Anp znp Srrtyr, ohg jvgu gur cbyvgvpf bs Jrfgrebf (be, V thrff, Eranvffnar-ren Ratyvfu srhqnyvfz).
I would also never have figured that out before reading this comment. Omfg. You're totally right, and I reached the same conclusions as Sonata Green's guesses.
So cool, i love it. Having english as my second language and playing this game made the challenge harder but it was fun nonetheless
yall are the dream team, epic as always my friends. Cant wait for a more robust version with a final test etc :3
a volume slider rather than toggle is my gentle request
Adding it to the list! I assume this is because you’d like to turn the volume down?
Exactly! I was streaming the game for my friends and it made it much more difficult to both: Enjoy the BGM and to hear them speak. Ended up having to go into my discord settings to individually increase all of their volumes.
Loved thiiiiis. At one point I felt like Ryan Gosling in Hail Mary.
Honestly, pretty cool!
great game!
Can you add save/load? I can't solve with a reason amount of time.
Automatically saving progress to the browser should be working! (Except in Safari, which doesn’t allow embedded games to save to browser storage unfortunately.)
This was an awesome game. It was fun learning the meanings of the words. I genuinely have never been excited to take notes for a game but for this one? I was pumped.
this was very nice! titles and names didn't disappear as intended after being locked in but that just added to the challenge for me :)
i got everything but im still missing two documents .. kinda wanna read those so im gonna try some more. awesome game!
edit:
i got them! yay
omg... only now did i see the numbers in the green thing mattered......
ok maybe i'm going about this wrong but ive unlocked 45/47 documents and still have no titles locked in
update, i have my first 3 done, still confused
loved this!! it's quite challenging but very fun! you have yet to make a bad deduction game!
Another banger, I think my favorite family member is Basheel.
One document with typos I noticed
The Monster: “the team was attacked by [a] massive monster” and “grabbing one of the the pack mascet”
We noticed a couple more tiny typos/quibbles. I don't want to start a top-level thread for them, so maybe I'll post them down here:
"My days of exploration have past" - should be "passed"
"I have a heir" - should be "an heir"
and a couple more spoily ones:
"Gnzbgu-ineryra jvyy or gur svefg planv-gvy" - V guvax planv-gvy zrnaf svefg dhrra, fb vg'f vapbeerpg gb nyfb unir gur Ratyvfu jbeq svefg urer
"Rngf znfprg Cynlf jvgu vgf ivpgvz" - zvffvat n crevbq / shyy fgbc orgjrra gurfr gjb fragraprf
She's great! I love the snark between her and her leevaith!
This game is fantastic but my entire thought while playing through it was a quote from a ProZD skit: "nakama is a word that means your closest friend like in one piece and there really is no English equivalent to how powerful that word is so we have decided to keep it as nakama"
What a fantastic little game! Loved the combination of the Roottrees-like 'filling a family tree' and a language solving puzzle. Very fun to figure it all out, and to have been made in only 72 hours! I give you all a thundering round of applause :D
Someone, please help! I have one scroll left which I am assuming contains the only mentions of last two names, in the last two generations! Can someone give me at least a keyword that will make it appear search bar?
I don’t know specifically who you’re missing but try these:
Spoiler
beelain, obraoJust spent a few hours completing this with my partner! We've really enjoyed creating a little glossary of words to figure out everyone and the underlying story. Thank you for all your effort in creating the game! :)
Thanks for making this! I had a great time with it!
Another amazing entry from the jamwitch herself!
We can feel the Roottree's inspiration here, sprinkled with what makes The Case of the Dungeon Descent special. Love your work, always.
ETA: Would love a version that saves your progress so that I can recommend it to my friends that don't have a lot of time on their hands!
Thank you! Though there are of course two jamwitches (me and Rose) and this game would be nothing without Marcus and Bucktown creating the world and story! 😁
And I’ve just added saving progress to browser storage since I agree that’s important for this length game.
Loved it! Was very fun starting from the top with historical events and slowly getting to the more recent entries at the bottom and trying to figure out the real-world correspondences along the way, though I don’t think I recognised all of them.
I can't believe I was more scared of a
nyscet than a faanat at first, now I'm horrified.Finished it with 47/48 without any more green dots, I thought the one I was missing might have been a secret one (maybe involving using the counting system), but looking at the comments I probably just found a document and didn’t click on it or something and missed it.
oh and I never figured out. What exactly is a todii?
I translated it as idiot based on Basheel's letter containing the word, since it suited the other use too.
Oh, its just an anagram. Turns out the todii is me..
Awesome game! I had to brute force the last 3 (the gate opener, the clipped wings, and the temperate) as I must have missed some things despite having all the documents lol but I had so much fun figuring out the translations and relationships
I figured our The Gate Opener via process of elimination, with 1 Archive document missing. When I saw who it was, I speculated what the character's motivation might be.
Then I mangaged to find the missing document, which explicitly spells out The Gate Opener's rationale. And I was pleased to realize that my guess was accurate. Very gratifying!