To move from one room to the next, players must find a famous quote from visual clues, words and anagrams, and then derive an ultimate solution to the game.

[1] Throughout the game, the player is guided by the professor's long-dead love, played by Terry Farrell, who was brought into the project by Star Trek/Star Wars author Daryl F. Mallett, who worked at the company at the time.

Much of the game's popularity stemmed from the developer's openness about, and players' willingness to share, clues and room quotes, so long as the final solution was kept confidential.

In order to make sure the ultimate answer remained unknown even by company employees, the game was split in half, 5 rooms each, and tested by two separate groups.

This has led others to speculate that the errors were intentional and meant to drive players to the game site forum and to stimulate sales of the companion book.

"[4] The game had originally been scheduled for release on March 22 at 12:14 a.m. EST, reportedly also selected as a clue, but was delayed by technical issues and number of copies shipped.

[5][6] In a unique marketing ploy, Sirius Publishing, Inc. offered a $1,000,000 prize to the first eligible player who could solve the mystery of Treasure Quest and submit an explanation of the solution to the complete satisfaction of a panel of judges.

[10] Entertainment Weekly wrote that "Sirius Publishing is using a time-honored motivator to get skeptical shoppers to cough up 50 bucks for its latest game, Treasure Quest: avarice.