Foon →
Ludum Dare Explorer →
LD59 →
The Archives of Trevosa
The Archives of Trevosa
By celia14 and rose
View on ldjam.com
| Category | Rank | Score | Count |
|
|---|
| Overall | 3 | 4.50 | 25 | |
| Fun | 3 | 4.41 | 25 | |
| Innovation | 22 | 4.30 | 25 | |
| Theme | | | | |
| Graphics | 311 | 3.95 | 25 | |
| Audio | | | | |
| Humor | | | | |
| Mood | 26 | 4.45 | 25 | |
Comments
2026-04-21 07:23
Really cool game. I was skeptical at first but eventually I became immersed in this game and its narrative, setting, and characters. Despite beating the game, it still seems like I had four documents left, but I couldn't find them even after going through the whole "archive" tab. There also seems to be a bug where the archive tab lists some documents as having unexplored links, but when mousing over the green number nothing is highlighted, and the number doesn't go away even when every link in the document is clicked. Lastly, I don't know if it's intentional or not, but a couple of documents seem to not have had their placeholder English words changed to the "untranslated" words of the conlang, which might not be a big deal but one of these words pretty blatantly reveals the hidden truth of the setting that I think the player is supposed to figure out more naturally. Overall, though, this was a really fun puzzle to solve, and now that I've finished the game I would love to play or read more material in this same setting.
2026-04-21 07:23
Really cool game. I was skeptical at first but eventually I became immersed in this game and its narrative, setting, and characters. Despite beating the game, it still seems like I had four documents left, but I couldn't find them even after going through the whole "archive" tab. There also seems to be a bug where the archive tab lists some documents as having unexplored links, but when mousing over the green number nothing is highlighted, and the number doesn't go away even when every link in the document is clicked. Lastly, I don't know if it's intentional or not, but a couple of documents seem to not have had their placeholder English words changed to the "untranslated" words of the conlang, which might not be a big deal but one of these words pretty blatantly reveals the hidden truth of the setting that I think the player is supposed to figure out more naturally. Overall, though, this was a really fun puzzle to solve, and now that I've finished the game I would love to play or read more material in this same setting.
magalix
2026-04-21 07:35
I really like the concept, the music is very pretty and calming, and the design is very clean! Well done!
celia14
2026-04-21 12:41
Thank you @maeve-walls ! Just squeezed in a small bug fix for some of those so that people can access all the content.
At first I was a bit overwhelmed but then I decided to stick with the game and it was so much fun. Took me an hour at least to beat though. This somehow reminded me of blue prince and obra dinn. Super polished in every way. You must have had some stuff prepared for the jam right? Learning what the words meant made me feel immersed. Best game I've played so far :)
msipp27
2026-04-22 00:00
i love roottree-likes!
celia14
2026-04-22 03:46
Thanks @verttixpertti! If one were to map out a narrative deduction game family tree, this is certainly a descendant of Obra Dinn, by way of The Roottrees are Dead. 🙂
We had the idea in mind before the jam (a family tree game like Roottrees but with an alien culture and language), and the music is from outside the jam, but we didn't have any concrete plans prepared. There were four of us and we worked very hard putting this together, and still ran out of time for a lot of revisions and improvements!
fae-pdf
2026-04-22 08:21
Absolutely OUTSTANDING work holy SMOKES I love you. This game is so good. So so so so so so good. You did this in just the time of the jam? You're cracked. Absolutely cracked. It's so fun and immersive and pretty and sleek and well-crafted. So smart to use the "Her Story" mechanics for a linguistics puzzle. The framework of puzzle-solving of reconstituting the family tree is just very clean and SMART. So clever. You're awesome. You rule. One of my favorite submission for this jam. Not super thematic but WONDERFUL. Thank you for making this <3 <3 <3 <3 <3
EDIT after finishing the game: I kind of saw the twist coming but I still LOVED the final reveal. It felt so so good to be immersed in that world. I feel like an orphan, like when you finish a long series of books, what do I do with this extensive knowledge of the bloodlines and intrigues of the varelen of Trevosa now :sob: <3 <3
I loves how clearly the titles slowly came into focus for each character as I read everything. The hints are well-crafted, and the documents feel very organic and cool to read. Some of the documents felt like BIG reveal and I loved how messy the relationships between some characters are. It was really thrilling to put everything together and I never felt like I had to brute-force anything, I was really putting together puzzle pieces slowly and holding several possibilities for titles in my mind until a document came along and cleared the ambiguity.
This is so impressive for a jam game. I think this is my first 5.0 of the jam.
nozomu57
2026-04-22 10:53
It's sooo good! It took me like... two hours, two and a half? to untangle it. And I couldn't stop until I was done :) Enormous for a gamejam, I can't even imagine how you came up with such a detailed bloodline history in three days. I love when the story unfolds through letters and notes, when hints are subtle, but not too subtle. And you did it beautifully. (Am I right that there's three genders?.. The words for rulers and spouses confused me at first)
Thank you for this game!
tymus
2026-04-22 15:28
super impressed by the game, took me some time to understand the archives but really enjoyed it.
I LOVE this type of game. It's a lot of text and I'm no english-native-speaker, so the use of both old-english term and fictional language is harder than ever , but the challenge was fun! I'm sad that you can't select which heir is the rightful one , but for a jam it's already a HUGE game.
I wish we could add "possible translation" above the different term we cross (as in Chants of Sennaar) which can be both funny and useful, but I understand the lack of time.
Congrats!
rainot
2026-04-23 02:11
I LOVED IT. It took me around 2 hours to finally finish it and I had a great time. It could use some quality of life improvements, but for a game jam game it's amazingly polished and complex.
gil4
2026-04-23 07:11
Loved it. Incredibly well done for a jam game, with some more content (e.g. several storylines instead of one) I'd have gladly paid for it on Steam or a similar platform.
I loved how the art direction, music, UI and narrative just clicked into place together. On one hand, I have to admit I gave up after half an hour of not getting any further. On the other hand, I still admire the complexity of your game and how polished it turned out. Well done!
I loved the art but I especially like the cleverness of the idea and execution - v good use of theme. I could easily see this getting some post Jam polish and being released as its own game - well done!
fractal
2026-04-26 20:10
Really nice and challenging game! I managed to finish it but it took me a couple of hours or so. I play The Daily Spell every day and I definitely recognize the writing and world building :D
Great entry, i loved finding out more and more words, didn't quite finish but bookmarked for later, will go for the non jam version then and see if i can get a hold of the whole situation! Musik was great, art fitting, text were lovely written, everything worked!
This was really enjoyable. I spent a lot of time working my way through and figuring everything out! Other than some obvious QoL improvements, I also think it would've been nice if we were able to assign translations to words that we figured out to help fill in the books. Great Job!
miltage
2026-05-03 13:17
Definitely the most time I've ever spent playing a jam game... I think over an hour at least. I thought I had no chance at first but stuck with it and got it mostly solved! Very cool!
I really enjoyed the game. It captivated me in a way I didn't expect. The story of Trevosa is very well written, and the family relationships are dramatic in a way that feels like real stories. Honestly, I'm not even halfway through yet, but I've already found some important "Olaith." I'm already a "talo" and I need to take care of my 3 "oloth," so I play in my free time. I saved the game because I definitely want to finish it. At various points I felt almost like a "historian," trying to understand each word and expression like "Toloi," "Cyno," or "Tamoth." Each discovery gives a very good feeling. :) The soundtrack also helps a lot with immersion. It gets into your head and makes you travel through the story and the relationships between the characters. I was wondering if it was made by you or if it came from a library. I think some small sound effects (like paper sounds or small voices for the characters) could further enhance the immersion. Which game inspired you to create "The Archives of Trevosa"?
Thank you so much for this experience. Even though it's a more "static" game, it makes the imagination soar.
Congratulations!
rose
2026-05-03 22:07
@euler-moises Thanks for the feedback! The music was composed by our team member @haveagreatday prior to the jam rather than specifically for this game (which is why we opted out of the Audio category.) The main inspiration for the game is "The Roottrees are Dead".
Fascinating -- love the logic puzzle you've built, and the beautiful graphics and sound to go with it.
Excellent work -- well done!
2026-05-07 09:19
Very cool idea and vibe. Great game.
2026-05-07 09:19
Very cool idea and vibe. Great game.