The Roottrees are Dead lives on in revamped commercial re-release for PC

• Announcements by Jack Allin
• Published:

Genealogical 2023 game jam mystery reimagined with a new look, extended story and refined gameplay on Steam

What do you know of your family history? It may be as easy to find out as a quick spit and logging into Ancestry.com (no affiliation!) to let others do the detective work, but it's so much more fun to do some sleuthing yourself. And if your own family tree isn't filled with enough intrigue, you can always turn your attention to the titular one in the newly released updated commercial remake of The Roottrees are Dead.

By 1998, the Roottree Corporation had become "America's largest maple candy empire" before a tragic private plane crash wiped out all three Roottree sisters and their father Carl, leaving behind a combined estate worth over a billion dollars. The sisters' eccentric great-great-grandfather Elias decides that the wealth should be fairly distributed among blood relatives. It's your job, then, to determine who is and isn't a real Roottree, equipped "only with the power of your mighty dial-up modem." On your period-appropriate in-game computer, you must scour the internet for "photos, books, articles and other evidence" from which to form "connections and deductions based on the family relationships you uncover." It won't be as easy as it may sound, as with each name you place on the family tree board, the available clues for those who remain become "harder and more obscure to find." Keep tracing "digital breadcrumbs," however, and you won't just find new leads to pursue, you'll also uncover the "scandals, lies, and infidelities" the secretive Roottree Corporation had managed to keep hidden until now.

The Roottrees are Dead was originally conceived by Jeremy Johnston as part of the Global Game Jam in 2023. The new version, co-developed by Robin "Evil Trout" Ward, is a comprehensive overhaul of the freeware entry with significant enhancements and additional story content. Described as a mix of Her Story and Return of the Obra Dinn, this "armchair detective" game now features a more intuitive hybrid 2D/3D interface, hand-drawn illustrations by board game artist Henning Ludvigsen that replace all original generative AI artwork, fully voiced cinematics, remastered sound effects and an original "jazz-noir" score, Easter eggs that capture "the nostalgic charm of late '90s internet culture," and new or rebalanced puzzles with a comprehensive hint system to go with them. As if all that wasn't enough, a whole new "full-length expansion" called "Roottreemania" has been included, detailing what becomes of the family after the events of the main game. Between the two, the expected play time has doubled in length, now projected to take almost twenty hours to complete. 

The new and improved commercial version of The Roottrees are Dead is now ready for purchase on Steam for Windows, Mac and Linux. A browser-based version of the freeware game jam original is still available on itch.io if you're curious to see how it all started.