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In developmentArchaeology Adventure Simulator

You start with a small crew, an old field vehicle and a few tents. By the end, you will have drawn the map of a civilisation history forgot.

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Regions
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Specialists
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Find types
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Lost civilisation
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PotteryCoinsMosaicsInscriptionsBurial ChamberSealsStatuesShipwreckTempleTabletFrescoesLost SettlementPotteryCoinsMosaicsInscriptionsBurial ChamberSealsStatuesShipwreckTempleTabletFrescoesLost Settlement
Concept

This is not a treasure hunt.

In ARCHEVIA the most valuable thing is rarely gold. Sometimes a shard of inscription that fits in your palm rewrites an entire chapter.

You play a young archaeological field researcher. The first assignments are modest: a small rural site, a thin budget, a crew of three. But every artefact you lift and every line you read pulls you toward the next, larger discovery.

Not an action game in the Indiana Jones sense. Not a digging simulator where you only swing a shovel either. Somewhere between the two — grounded, atmospheric and story-driven.

Art direction — subterranean structure cutaway study

  • Simulation

    Stratigraphy, the right tool, the right order. Rushing costs you.

  • Exploration

    Eight regions, eight climates, eight different archaeological problems.

  • Mystery

    Finds that connect and lead to one question: who lived here?

  • Management

    Crew, budget, equipment and your own research centre.

  • Story

    Not a single lost treasure, but a career that spans years.

Core Loop

How a season goes.

Every dig runs through the same ten steps. But no two sites are alike — and every step can be done wrong.

Research

Study maps, old records, satellite imagery and notes from earlier digs. Excavation begins at a desk.

01 / 10
Site Survey

You have to see before you dig.

Walk the ground yourself. Read the colour and texture changes in the soil. The instruments give you a cross-section — never a certain answer.

  • Drone

    Maps vegetation marks and soil discolouration from above.

  • GPS markers

    Pin suspect coordinates and lay out the trench plan.

  • Metal detector

    Shallow sweep for coins, weapons and metal goods.

  • Ground radar

    Reveals voids and wall anomalies with a depth profile.

  • Soil reading

    Colour, compaction and texture — a trained eye beats the instrument.

Depth profile
Scanning
0.0 – 0.6 m

Topsoil

No surface finds

Clear
0.6 – 1.4 m

Pottery sherds

Late Roman, scattered

High
1.4 – 2.9 m

Stone structure

Regular block course — a wall

High
2.9 – 4.8 m

Unresolved anomaly

Signal breaks up, unreadable

Low
4.8 – 7.2 m

Chamber / tomb / structure

Large void — enclosed volume

Medium

A trench opened in the wrong place does not just cost you time; it burns the season's budget.

Lifting Protocol

You do not lift a find with a shovel.

The moment an artefact appears, the game slows down. Order matters, tools matter, patience matters. This is ARCHEVIA's real skill layer.

  1. 01

    Clear the soil

    Take the loose fill back with a trowel. Never touch the artefact surface.

  2. 02

    Small hand tools

    Narrow the boundary. Break up compacted fill by scraping.

  3. 03

    Brush

    Open the surface. Precision excavation begins here.

  4. 04

    Define the edges

    Find the true outline. Never lift before you know how far it runs.

  5. 05

    Photograph

    Record it in place. Add scale, log the angle. This record never comes back.

  6. 06

    Lift

    Support it from below and raise it as one piece. Account for the weight distribution.

  7. 07

    Pack

    Cushion, label, crate. Move it safely to the camp store.

Artefact condition38%

Pick the wrong tool and the artefact cracks. A cracked find can be restored — but part of the writing on it is gone forever.

Crew

You cannot lift anything alone.

As your crew levels up, more complex regions open. Every specialist sees something on site that you cannot.

  • Y01

    You

    Field Researcher

    The one who picks the assignment, builds the crew and decides where the trench opens. Every clue converges in your notebook.

    SpecialityDirection & synthesis
  • M02

    Murat

    Field Archaeologist

    Reads how the trench should be opened and which layer belongs to which period. He is the first to notice a bad dig.

    SpecialityStratigraphy
  • J03

    Julian

    Geophysicist

    Detects voids, walls and buried structures underground. Digging without his report is gambling.

    SpecialityRadar & anomalies
  • A04

    Ayşe

    Conservator

    The second a find meets the air she is racing the clock. She rejoins what broke and halts what is decaying.

    SpecialityConservation & repair
  • D05

    Deniz

    Documentation Lead

    Nothing moves until it is recorded. An undocumented artefact scientifically does not exist.

    SpecialityPhotography & archive
  • K06

    Kerem

    Local Guide

    Knows the ground, the weather and the tracks that never made it onto a map. Sometimes the best lead is a story from the village.

    SpecialityTerrain & local knowledge
Finds

Everything is part of the story.

Gold is not the most valuable find. Sometimes a broken tablet says far more than a crate of coins.

  • Pottery

    The most reliable tool for dating a layer.

    001

  • Coins

    Gives you dates, rulers and trade routes.

    002

  • Statues

    Style, workshop and belief system.

    003

  • Tombs

    How a people buried tells you who they were.

    004

  • Mosaics

    The most fragile scene under the floor.

    005

  • Inscriptions

    One line can change an entire chapter.

    006

  • Weapons

    Conflict, defence and metalwork.

    007

  • Everyday objects

    Proof of a life nobody wrote down.

    008

  • Seals

    Names, titles and administration.

    009

  • Ancient structures

    Plan them out and a city appears.

    010

  • Underground chambers

    Volumes unopened for centuries.

    011

  • Wreck remains

    A single moment frozen under the sea.

    012

This inscription shows there was an unknown settlement right here.

Field notebook — Chapter 2, day 14

And a brand new research chain opens on the world map.

The Mystery

The symbol surfaces in three regions.

ARCHEVIA's story is not built on one lost treasure. It is built from discoveries that connect — and you are the one making the connection.

  1. Find 01

    An ordinary sherd

    A body fragment from the very first dig. Broken, cheap, nothing unusual for the period. Except for a small incised symbol at its base.

  2. Find 02

    The same mark on a tomb wall

    In the second region, kilometres away, the same symbol on the wall of a burial chamber. The odds of coincidence start to drop.

  3. Find 03

    The tablet speaks

    A broken tablet in the third region reveals that the symbol is not a workshop mark at all — it stands for a city, a people.

Conclusion

You are tracking a civilisation that appears in no history book.

And its centre is waiting for you in chapter eight.

World

Eight chapters, eight archaeologies.

The game does not stay in one place. As you progress the climate, the ground, the technique and the equipment all change.

  • Chapter 01

    Anatolia

    Rural excavation site

    The first season. A small mound, a test trench and your first sherd. Everything is learned here.

    Layered digging
  • Chapter 02

    Mediterranean

    Ancient harbour

    Shoreline and shallow submerged remains. Seawater preserves artefacts — then destroys them the moment they surface.

    Coast & shallow dive
  • Chapter 03

    Desert

    Settlement under the sand

    The wind erases your map overnight. Sand is protector and enemy at once.

    Sand clearance
  • Chapter 04

    Highlands

    Structures cut into rock

    Vertical archaeology. Ropes, scaffolding and rockfall risk. Kit weight becomes critical here.

    Vertical access
  • Chapter 05

    Forest

    A city under the canopy

    Roots have both destroyed the walls and held them up. Clearing is as delicate as the dig itself.

    Canopy clearance
  • Chapter 06

    Underground City

    Tunnels and chambers

    No light, limited air, no map. Every corridor connects to the last — or it doesn't.

    Confined space
  • Chapter 07

    The Wreck

    Underwater archaeology

    Dive time, current and visibility. A wreck is a time capsule.

    Underwater dig
  • Chapter 08

    The Great Discovery

    Centre of the civilisation

    The source of the symbol you have chased for years. Every find from every chapter finally makes sense here.

    The finale
Research Centre

Your discoveries need somewhere to accumulate.

As success arrives you build your own research centre. It grows season after season — and becomes the physical record of your career.

You start with

An old field vehicle, a few tents, basic excavation equipment and a crew of three.

Research Centre

9 × Centre

  • Artefact Laboratory

    Dating, material analysis and symbol logging.

  • Conservation Laboratory

    Rejoining breaks, cleaning and halting decay.

  • Archive

    Every field notebook, photograph and solved clue.

  • Map Room

    The world map, open research chains and your next targets.

  • Store

    Crated finds and season equipment.

  • Researcher Offices

    Where crew members specialise and unlock new abilities.

  • Drone Centre

    Aerial survey, equipment servicing and flight plans.

  • Vehicle Garage

    Field vehicles, trailers and site logistics.

  • Exhibition / Museum

    The hall where every significant find of your career is displayed.

Build your own museum

The important finds you bring back are displayed here. As the years pass the hall fills up; you'll see the cracked sherd from your first season standing beside the tablet from the final chapter. That, to me, is the strongest feeling in the game.

Walk the exhibition
The Moment

A stone surface. Then a step.

  • You have worked the same spot for thirty minutes.
  • You pull the trowel back and a flat stone surface appears.
  • You clean it with a brush — it is a step.
  • The steps keep going down.
  • The crew descends with lights.
  • And in front of you stands a door unopened for centuries.

This is where the strongest moments in the game begin.

Media

Footage from the field.

Screenshots, art direction studies and field recordings from development.

Visuals are from development and may not represent the final product.

Questions

What people ask.

  • An archaeology adventure simulator. Simulation, exploration, mystery, management and story layers all run together. It is neither a purely action-driven adventure nor a simulator where all you do is dig.

  • A real system. You descend layer by layer, pick the right tool in the right order, and a wrong choice permanently lowers the artefact's condition. All seven steps of the lifting protocol are playable.

  • No. Most of a season goes into research, survey, documentation, conservation and archive work. You also grow your own research centre and museum.

  • No. The central mystery is built from finds that connect. A symbol from one region reappears in a tomb in another, and the chain runs all the way to the centre in chapter eight.

  • Eight chapters: Anatolia, the Mediterranean, the desert, the highlands, forest, an underground city, a wreck, and finally the centre of the civilisation. Each is designed to feel visually and mechanically distinct.

  • Twenty-one languages, this website included: English, Turkish, German, French, Spanish (Spain and Latin America), Portuguese (Brazil), Italian, Polish, Dutch, Czech, Russian, Ukrainian, Simplified and Traditional Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Thai, Vietnamese, Indonesian and Arabic — with right-to-left layout for Arabic.

  • The game is in development. No release date has been announced yet — wishlist it or join the newsletter to hear first.

See all questions
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