The Roottrees are Dead

The Roottrees are Dead is a genealogical detective game that stages its investigation like an internet search in 1998. After a private jet crash, members of the wealthy Roottree family are dead; their multi-billion-dollar fortune is to be divided among the remaining blood relatives according to the rules of the eccentric family patriarch Elias. Your task is to work out, from photos, books, articles and websites, who really belongs to the family.

The commercial remake comes from Evil Trout and builds on the original game jam project by Jeremy Johnston. For the Steam version, the interface, presentation, audio and puzzles were reworked; the formerly AI-generated images were replaced with hand-drawn illustrations.

The fully reworked Steam version was released on Jan 15, 2025. Along with the newly built main campaign, it also includes the bonus puzzle pack Roottreemania. On Nov 5, 2026, a native version for iPhone and iPad follows; Apple's Store also lists Roottreemania there as included extra content.

The PC version runs on Windows, macOS and Linux. From November 5, 2026, the game is also planned for iPhone and iPad. The iOS version requires at least iOS 15 or iPadOS 15. As of the current announcement, an Android version has not been officially confirmed.

Instead of walking through crime scenes, you sit in front of a fictional computer and search the early web for names, jobs, dates and relationships. Clues found are compared with each other and then transferred to a family tree. Correct entries reduce the remaining possibilities, while later clues are deliberately harder to find.

The new edition adds, among other things, a clue system, a reworked user interface, fully voiced cutscenes and newly balanced puzzles. The appeal comes less from reflexes than from careful reading, cross-references and logical elimination.

For Windows, Steam lists as minimum Windows 10 64-bit, a 2.0 GHz dual-core processor, 8 GB RAM, Intel HD Graphics 510 and 1 GB of free storage. The requirements are therefore relatively low and suit the mostly two-dimensional research and puzzle design.

Roottreemania is an additional case in the new edition and expands the family history with another genealogical puzzle. Evil Trout describes the add-on as part of the remastered and expanded version; the iPhone/iPad version also includes it as free DLC.