TRACES IN TIME
Era I · Before History

TRACES IN TIMEBefore History

c. 9000 BCE

Read what the ground, the fire, and the tools can tell you. Learn to recognize traces, understand them, test them, and finally reconstruct what happened.

StoneFireShelterTrace
Your progression

Six steps from seeing to investigating.

Each level changes the kind of thinking the game asks from you. Historical difficulty comes from evidence and reasoning, not obscure wording.

RecognizeLevel 1
UnderstandLevel 2
ApplyLevel 3
DeduceLevel 4
ReconstructLevel 5
InvestigateFinal Case
The world you enter

A remote world, read through matter.

Era I is not a caricature of “cavemen.” It is a world of skilled people working with stone, wood, fibre, hide, fire, water, and close observation.

c. 9000 BCE

The setting is a fictional southern-European hunter-gatherer community inspired by early-Holocene environments and Mesolithic evidence. The visual language remains plausible without claiming that every object or technique belonged to one real community.

Material vocabulary

StoneFireShelterTrace EarthOchreFibreWoodAshWaterBoneHide
Procedural challenges

The game does not always ask a question.

Historical content remains curated. At play time, procedural structures change the puzzle, combination, and difficulty so the same knowledge must be used in different ways.

Spot the Differences

Compare evidence scenes and identify meaningful changes.

Reconstruct

Choose the components needed to rebuild an object or toolkit.

Put Events in Order

Reconstruct chronological or technical sequences.

Match Evidence to Activity

Connect archaeological traces to the actions that most likely produced them.

Logic Puzzle

Use a set of clues to reach one unique solution.

Find the Anachronism

Spot objects that do not belong in the historical period.

Contextual Maze

Navigate historically framed routes with tighter limits at higher levels.

Investigation Scene

Select the clues that support a specific activity or interpretation.

Final investigation

Earn the case.

The Final Case is the destination of the learning path. Its internal investigation experience will have its own dedicated visual treatment.

Era I · Final Case

The Last Ember

Locked

A storm has nearly put out the campfire. By dawn, a protected ember is missing. Examine four locations, compare twelve clues, reconstruct WHO, WHY, WHERE, WHAT, and WHEN, then choose the three pieces of evidence that prove your theory.

Theory: 5/5 required Evidence: 3/3 required Unlock: complete Level 5
Locked Complete all five levels to begin the investigation.
Era I progress is stored on this device. English (en-US) remains the master language; stable IDs keep progress independent from future localizations.