Screenshots
Watch trailer on Steam ↗Finding Lake Chewaucan
Meaghan Wetherell, Charlie Scott, Atticus Birkett, Ellie Martin, Evan Williams, Gavin Lester, Clovis Glasner · Published by Meaghan Wetherell · Official site ↗
9 user reviews — 33% positive (9 reviews) · 8 achievements
Last updated 6 Oct 2026
You’re a time-traveling detective with a bone to uncover. Hunt for clues, solve puzzles and complete minigames to unlock pieces of the past and identify fossil animals.
Simulation, Free To Play · 2026 · More free games
Step into the shoes of a time-traveling detective in Finding Lake Chewaucan. Uncover clues, solve puzzles, and complete minigames to piece together the past and identify ancient creatures.
About this game
You're a temporal forensics specialist - or, more informally, a time-travelling detective. Between your analytical talent and your ability to visit the past, there aren't many mysteries you can't unravel. But this new client's job might be the coldest case you've ever come across.
You’ve been hired to find the story behind a broken fossil bone from the vast sagebrush deserts of Oregon. Hunt for clues, play minigames to solve puzzles and travel through time to learn as much about this ancient animal as you can – where it came from, how it lived, and when and how it died. Because if you can’t figure those things out... well, not only will you not get paid, but a little girl's birthday party is going to be straight up ruined.
Explore the mysteries of Oregon's Great Basin Desert and its ancient past in this educational game focused on over 50 years of scientific research in the Fort Rock Basin. The bones and clues are real – see how they unlock the past for modern scientists and travel there yourself. You’ll play science-informed minigames like the 3D platformer game where you sample tufa rocks for radiocarbon, or the Match 3 game used to identify fossil animals. This free educational game is supported by NSF Award #2228632.
System Requirements
Will my PC run this? →Minimum
- Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
- OS: Windows 10
- Processor: X64 architecture with SSE2 instruction set support
- Memory: 100 MB RAM
- Graphics: DX10, DX11, DX12 or Vulkan capable GPUs
- Storage: 4 GB available space
Recommended
- Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
Supported Languages
*languages with full audio support
Latest news
Patch NotesOfficial
September Update!
This update fixes previous bugs, updates narration, and adds in some new features. Did you miss a piece of narration? Now there's a narration journal where you can listen again (or simply read the subtitles). Feeling lost and have a question? We've got a help menu now! The overall astrolabe system works much better (we'd say perfectly, but that would guarantee it would immediately break). We viciously hunted down the 30,000 popups and pruned them down to the most important.We gave the rancher driving lessons and turned off that super jittery camera jiggle in the intro – now you can ride in the back of a truck in smooth, undisturbed style. And of course while that Pika was cute… you don't have to see it more than once anymore. We also turned on a super secret cutscene that was supposed to be on before but wasn't, exciting!Read full article on Community Announcements (Meaghan)Patch NotesOfficial
July Patch
This patch includes a bunch of bug fixes and minor updates. For example, would you like to be able to press the quit button and actually quit the game? Now you can! Tired of having to hunt down tufa? We gave you more time, required fewer tufa, and also fixed a few weird point counting bugs. Nauseous from how quickly the camera moves? You can now control your vertigo by adjusting the camera sensitivity. For those of you who found that the music was too loud or that the sound effects were over-prioritized, we did some behind the scenes DJing and that too should now be fixed. Several of you got stuck in one or both of the modern lakes. You weren't supposed to be able to get into those in the first place, and now those bulrushes should be a bit more resilient to your swimming efforts. Rattlesnake bites aren't quite as dangerous now - you've been given the ability to miraculously heal in 20 seconds rather than 60. There are still a few other bugs we are working on for the next update (including addressing a frame rate issue noticed by a few people), but this should hopefully make the game a bit more enjoyable!Read full article on Community Announcements (Meaghan)AnnouncementsOfficial
Finding Lake Chewaucan is now live!
Finding Lake Chewaucan is now live and playable for both Mac and PC! Identify bones, search for clues and travel through time in this free game about the prehistory of eastern Oregon. The more clues you find, the better your ending!This game is intended to showcase some of the amazing science conducted on the paleontology and geology of Oregon's Great Basin Desert region. Play through mini games that mimic the processes that scientists use to discover the mysteries of the past. All are inspired by real techniques and processes used by scientists today.(Except the time travelling part. That bit's creative license.)Read full article on Community Announcements (info)AnnouncementsOfficial
Playtesters needed!
We're almost ready to launch, but need fresh eyes to playtest the game while we finish up the window dressing! Do you have a Windows computer and a knack for finding bugs? Sign up for our beta test now by clicking on that big green button that says "Request Access."Read full article on Community Announcements (info)
