Designing the cogitats economy
Why hint prices in Cora's Atlas are 40, 80, and 120 cogitats — and why the first version was four times cheaper, and why that was the problem.
A narrative puzzle adventure
Seven years after she walked out, Cora Verras returns to decode her grandfather's cipher. The map is half-finished. The brass pin on her collar feels heavier than it should. The notebook is waiting.
Five nations. One continent.
Every map hides a puzzle
Reason through systems. Each constraint leads somewhere.
Think sideways. The answer lives outside the question.
Rotate. Fold. Find the seam. The map knows.
Roll, place, resolve. Numbers that want to behave.
36 letters. One alphabet. Theodor left clues in the margins.
Tap the right star. The sky is a map too.
Stuck? Three hints per puzzle, priced in cogitats. The first nudge is the cheapest.
The carnet fills as you play
A bound journal that fills itself. Every chapter finished stitches a page. Every NPC conversation lands as a souvenir you can re-read. Every cipher decoded lights up a glyph in the codex.
"The harbour still smells like salt and old rope. Theodor used to say it was the oldest clock in Vellestria."
— Tomás, Old Town
Every morning
The daily is a single hand-picked riddle. No account needed. No streak pressure. Just a sit-down with coffee. Signed-in travellers earn cogitats and unlock the archive of past dailies.
Notes from the workshop
Why hint prices in Cora's Atlas are 40, 80, and 120 cogitats — and why the first version was four times cheaper, and why that was the problem.
Vellestria is one of five named nations in the saga. Here's the shared skeleton that lets each one feel different without feeling like a different game.
"Hold the carnet steady when the wind picks up."
— Theodor Verras, in pencil, 1998