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(+2)

I haven't completed this yet, maybe 30% through? But this is such a cool game. Everything is so well thought out and it's a great challenge. I'm losing my marbles

(+4)

Skillful fusion between Lucas Pope and Sam Barlow, combined with the theme of genealogy: this game was made for me. I have finally found my Game of the Year for 2023. I made a $20 donation as a token of gratitude for all the happiness you gave me with your game!

PS: Another good point, the game is fully playable for a french player with moderate english knowledge.

(+2)

Such a great game. If I wasn't a broke student I'd 100% give you money for it because I had so much darn fun !!!

(+1)

I just reloaded the tab and lost all my progress. I don't really feel like playing the entire game again, so I guess I'll just have to wait until someone uploads a complete playthrough.

Before that happened, I was thoroughly stumped on the last 4 portraits. I had checked literally every possible lead, and nothing. I feel like the only way to find them is through brute-forcing. Either that or I missed 1 incredibly missable word in one of the articles.

That being said, it was a solid game. 7/10.

(+1)

If you'd like to come to the discord I can try to catch you back up to where you were before, and also help you with the last four. Up to you.

(+3)

Not even close to being finished with this yet, but I've sent a fiver your way anyway. This is wonderful.

(+3)

This was INCREDIBLY FUN! Thank you so much for the hours of free entertainment this gave me, I loved every single discovery I made and never used walkthroughs, which is rare for me!

(+3)

I can't imagine the amount of work that must've gone into making this game. The mechanic of filling out spots on the family tree gives a good goal for the player, which I've found lacking in other research/conspiracy games previously. The intuition chart was also a great help for the back half of the game once you stop getting as much new info. A great way to end out the year!

(1 edit) (+1)

I had so much fun, thank you for this! This has been a ray of light in these very trying times. Now I kind of wish to know more about the so-called Roottree curse :0

The Roottree curse theory says that Roottrees who run the candy company are cursed to die. it's fucking stupid.

(+1)

One of the best games of 2023. What a ride!

(1 edit) (+1)

Great stuff loved this. Just a bit annoyed since I got all the way to the end and forgot to put down 1 picture so I had to go back to the title but that's my fault. Just some other nitpicks...

Wish I could have heard those other music pieces in rotation or option to just loop a certain choice

The text on the search engines would bug sometimes if I swapped between them too fast and become illegible gibberish but swapping back fixes it.

Zooming in and out of the tree would sometimes not work unless you used your mouse to drag a smidge on the tree first.

(1 edit) (-1)

Rollin on down to the city is such a bop

(+4)

wonderful. quite wonderful. nice story, a really balanced level of difficulty and sooo much effort in the clues, texts, sources, music pieces etc. etc. ... and the somewhat 'historical accuracy' regarding the story, the photos, names, ...

In terms of feeling-like-a-real-detective I might have gotten rid of the intuition chart, but I have to admit that it helped me a lot in the end.

Stole a lot of my time, but I instantly wish for more of this.

(+3)

This game was soooo great! The clues are set up well enough that even when you're stuck, it doesn't feel unfair, just like you have to look over all of the information again.  The sheer amount of effort and planning everything must have taken is pretty incredible.

I'm glad all my iteration on the story paid off! The story evolved a lot, and each time it did a few more connections began to take shape.

Thanks for playing!

(+2)

a person recommended me this game and I proceeded to spend any free time I had playing this for the next few days, if this game was on steam I would gladly pay for it!

Thank you!

(+1)

Really enjoying it so far, definitely my style of game. My BFF recommended me to play it.  Never played a in-browser game in itch.io before. I'm at 45/49 and a day in. I'm so stuck to find 2 last photos. Literally 2. I've gone through everything twice but maybe I'm missing something. I recommend using copy/paste. For a while there, I kept getting no results because I spelled theatRE as theaTER. That was embarrassing. Hopefully, I can figure it out.  I have had  great time playing thus far. 

I hope you managed to find the final 2! If you need any hints feel free to drop by the discord.

(+2)

This is an incredible game! I found it when searching for games like The Case of the Golden Idol and Return of the Obra Dinn and was not disappointed. I hope I find more games that "scratch this itch"

Glad it helped you in that regard. Thanks for playing!

(+1)

Really excellent game!! I feel like the flow between states of knowing exactly where to look, having no idea, and suddenly having ideas to check back in different places was really well balanced. The intuition meter especially was great for knowing when we could just ignore stuff. And having to get the pictures just for the blood relatives meant it had a good balance of leaps of logic / guesswork - figuring out a spouse's name by trial and error could then help you search the right stuff for their kids, but you couldn't just guess the blood relatives. I really loved it!

I appreciate it! If you know anyone else who likes mysteries, please pass it along!

All of the spouses do have a way to find them without needing to resort to guess work, though they're the most "out of the box" puzzles in the game, to be fair.

If you have any question about how you were supposed to come across someone or any questions about the game at all, the discord can help.

(+3)

I've finally done it! I got the tree to 100%, first try! It only took me... Multiple weeks. 

I think this is the perfect level of difficulty for a puzzle game; Whenever I got completely stuck, there was another path to go down that ended up either knocking some branch out that was blocking my path, or giving my brain enough of a break to look at other puzzles with fresh eyes. The last few non-blood names were satisfyingly intuitive to all place down at once!

I also LOVE the notebook mechanic, though my one request would be to have either more tabs or scrolling/separate pages under one tab. I ended up having just enough tabs to finish, but some of my writing ended up eye-achingly small due to lack of space. 

Would love to see a sequel / sister game!

(+2)

Speaking of the notebook, I'm curious what other people labeled their tabs. I ended up much more organized than I usually do, lol


My personal tabs were:

  • Blood - Confirmed blood-related family members
  • Profiles - Individuals with enough info that they needed multiple lines.
  • Brands - A list of various companies and brands related to the Roottrees.
  • Books - Books
  • Syrup - Non-blood relatives and unconfirmed/suspected blood relations.
  • Key - Just a list of abbreviations to save space, eg. "RT" for Roottree.
  • Other - Miscellaneous notes that didn't fit other pages

Page 1

Page 2

Page 3

Page 4

Page 5

Page 6

Page 7

Page 8

ah yes of course

ah yes of course

(+5)

This is sooo good, please make 100 more of them!!! 

I would like to know.

(1 edit)

Awesome game, great work. Any way to donate to support you?

Also, I almost got 100% but... any hint for the alternate pictures of [redacted]?

(+1)

No need to donate (I mean it), this game is free on purpose due to its usage of AI art.

(If you are really insistent on donating however, there is a support link that itchio puts below the game window.)

As for the alternate picture, I'd prefer you edit your post if possible to remove their names. One of the people you mentioned, you can think of as a "notable" Roottree, except they were notable before the internet existed. So maybe they could be mentioned somewhere less digital.

Oh, derp. I completely missed the support button. I don't use itch.io much.

Thanks for the hint, I got it now. I had found the relevant article before, but didn't think to then search for the thing that actually gives the picture, oops.

(+1)

I donated a bit anyway because this clever game deserves it. I don't know if you're interested in continuing in this direction, but I'd totally play a series of similar "research puzzle" games!

I do appreciate your donation, thank you. As for continuing in the future right now there are no solid plans. This wasn't supposed to even be the scope that it turned out and I do have a full time job to contend with, so I don't have any immediate plans. I do have some puzzle-game-adjacent stuff I've thought about but its a long ways away from becoming a reality.

(+1)

i did it :D after mannyyy hours. Top tier game its very good. theres nothing else i need to say

(2 edits) (+1)

While I have yet to play "Her Story", I have beat "The Obra Dinn" and this game features puzzles that are enjoyable in the same way the puzzles in that game are, piecing together the puzzle pieces while only being given usually incomplete information so that when you finally figure it out, it feels all the more rewarding. I am not sure how the story stands on its own right, but paired with the mechanics of the game its very enjoyable and intriguing.

It also gives me a feel of how families grow so big so fast and how while some members of the family live completely ordinary or below-average lives, some are prominent figures of society. Despite being of the same family, the people are so much different.
I personally didn't notice or mind the fact that the images were AI-generated and they, for the most part, suit the game for their purpose. I would recommend you to check this game out if you are interested!

Looks cool, but I think I'm missing the bottom portion of the page and can't scroll down. Could you consider either running the game in full screen or possibly adding scrollbars to the frame in the Edit Game interface?

(3 edits)

There should be a full screen button on the bottom right section of the game window itself when it is running that allows you to maximize the game to match your screen size. 

(+1)

Fantastically well put-together investigation sim, thoroughly enjoyable - and I do so respect when a project wears its inspirations on its sleeve.

I'd also like to mention that, in my opinion, the AI-generated images were mighty well used here (I would say 'best implementation I've seen so far', but that's admittedly a low bar). Sure, you can tell most of them are AI, but I never found it particularly distracting - if anything, I was impressed by such consistently adept usage of low-budget tools. For a game I can imagine may well have been put together on the cost of a single jar of peanut butter, it certainly feels like more than the sum of its parts. Bravo!

(+2)

The game is fun, but whenever I save and quit to play it another time,  it just doesn't save, so all the progress is lost... Also, the opening cutscene is laggy, but that might just be my potato laptop.

If you're able to come to the discord I can help you get an exe that will allow you to save permanently. The link to the discord is on the main menu or in the settings.

(1 edit) (+12)(-7)

this is an extremely good game that I would have no qualms rating 10/10 if not for one thing that really drags it down--
the "artwork."
for a game with such care and attention to detail in the mechanics and writing, the sludgy AI generated artwork really does not match the standard of quality. While I understand why it was done with the scale and scope of this project already, skimping on the visual element is probably one of the worst places you could, since a.) we have to stare at these pictures all the time and b.) visual identification is a large part of the game. I don't think I'd be alone in saying that the parts where you have to identify people from images were made artificially much harder because the additional images either straight up had virtually no resemblance to the original people, or because the important details (ESPECIALLY eyes, or clothes) were impossible to distinguish. If these sections were made with original artwork or even photobashing of real people, there would be much more opportunity for intentionality and clarity with the visuals that this otherwise incredible game unfortunately severely lacks.
While getting artwork can be hard, there are a lot of similar indie puzzle games with more "unpolished" or even "amateur" art that succeed immensely at what they're trying to do, because the art fits that purpose. If the photorealistic style is absolutely integral, there are also easy ways to make realistic 3D models of people (like Metahuman) that would let you create realistic images and have a much more increased level of control over any and all connected/future graphics. There's clearly already enough photobashing present in this game that makes me think a tighter graphical direction could really elevate the experience. If this was a 15, 30, or even 2 hour game it might be perfectly serviceable, but for a potentially 10 hour experience, having visuals that feel like placeholders really cheapens the whole thing, which is sad because otherwise this game was extremely good. 
I'd love to see some sort of remaster of this in the future with actual human made graphics, but otherwise, I had a really great time! I'm very interested to see more!  

(+9)(-1)

100%. I understand the economics of it but it really detracts from what was otherwise a fantastic, fantastic game.

If you can find a way to replace the "photos" in a later version, please do.

(+2)(-5)

I actually thought the pictures were fantastic and the resemblance between children/parents and siblings was really great.

(+1)

This was really great, thanks :)

(+2)

10/10 !! I got so invested into the game and its world I could not tear myself away for the ~7 hours it took me to completely fill out the tree (including the locked section :D). If only I could wipe my memory to be able to experience this game and solve the mystery all over again.

(+5)

weird how this game exists within the universe of the game.

(+3)

I honestly created an account just to say that this is probably the best game I've played on this website! It's so cool and satisfying when you finally figure out the part you've been missing and I felt like a problem solving god when I solved the locked part. I hope you make more cool games! 

(+1)

Heya! Wanted to play the game because of all the good reviews, but I am encountering a problem.

When I try to load the game, only a black screen shows up and nothing more. I have been waiting for a while but to no avail. My computer had its OS recently upgraded, and can run other games just fine. I have also tried to load on other computers, and it worked on only one (that one crashed and we could not turn it back on upon loading) My internet works just fine.

Is this an issue on my end? Please let me know, and thanks.

I don't know about any of this. I have not heard about this from anyone else. Which browser do you use? Perhaps if you could try through a different browser?

I use Chrome, Bing on occasion.

Will try that.

Sorry for bothering you and thanks for replying!

It shows the same problem on both browsers.

There is a file linked in the Dev forum of the update- Is it good for installing?

You can try but its the same file. Is this a windows computer?  If so I can get you an exe version of the game. But I'm not comfortable posting it here or a link to the discord here. Is there any other way you could get in touch with me where DMs exist? 

Either via twitter or reddit? I can post a link to my twitter or reddit here if you'd like.

Hmmm- let me think.

Most of my social media is fairly at a low- I do have Discord, and I can make a Reddit account. 

And yes, I have a Windows computer.

I have the same problem, although I try to play on an extremely old laptop. I checked the console in both Edge and Chrome and found this warning in both cases: "Uncaught (in promise) Your browser does not support graphics API "WebGL 2" which is required for this content." 

If other people have the same problem and they want to check whether this is the problem for them, they could google "webGL 2 test". The first link will be a site that shows whether webGL2 is enabled on their device. (I have no idea how strict itch is with links in comments.)

Thank you for looking more into this! If you can find a way to contact me privately, on twitter here:
https://twitter.com/SuperrodanDotA

Or on reddit here:
https://www.reddit.com/user/Superrodan


I can send you an exe version of the game that should hopefully work even on an old laptop.

(+2)

does anyone have a similar game to this one? cuz it was so enjoyable

(+1)

have you played return of the obre din? that’s somewhat similar, it shares the triple deduction feature

(+1)

i haven't . ty i'm gonna check it out 

(+1)

Check out "The Case of the Golden Idol"

The other game I heard someone compare this to is "Her Story".

(+3)

doing a playthrough on this :)

(2 edits) (+1)

I've been watching. Some of your fans made me aware in my discord. Thanks for giving it a shot!

I'm annoyed that you're the first person to point out the three es in that one section of the game. I fixed it but won't push a new build for a while, not until I have more fixes.

I did catch a lot more typos as I played through the game so yeah, best to wait lol. 

on my mind is that the small font size made it more difficult to read in retrospect, i wish you adjusted the game's viewport to make it fit better

(+1)

It would be very nice if confirmed names and periodicals showed up as suggestions you can click on instead of having to copy-paste or type it every time

(+1)

how do you do a periodical search?

(1 edit)

If you're not through the tutorial, you can't yet, and won't need to in order to solve the tutorial. 

If you are past the tutorial there will be more website options on the computer, one lets you search for periodicals.

okay, thanks

(+1)

Hi there! I just wanted to say that it was an amazing game! I just started today and I'm on 18/33 blood relatives. The thing is, I've filled out 5 guesses for the blood relatives but the verification isn't happening. Is there anyway for me to see whether my guesses were wayyyy off or not? Thanks in advance and it is such a high quality and amazing game!

(+1)

I started getting stuck around that time too. If they're not getting verified, that means less than 3 are filled out correctly. Some family members have very similar names, or share the same first name, and that tripped me up quite a few times, so try checking the full list of family names to make sure you haven't mixed anyone up.

(+1)

thanks for the reply! I double checked and am pretty sure the names are right. It's the pictures that keep tripping me up. 

If you come to the discord there are people that can give you hints for your direct situation. 

The game can be completed in a wide variety of orders, so knowing you are at 18/33 doesn't really help me know where you're stuck (And as far as I can tell there is unfortunately no good way to put spoiler tags in itcho posts like this)

(+2)

WOW this game took me a long time! I spent a few hours on it every day for the past few days and I've finally filled it in and solved the mystery! I had a feeling from the start that it was going somewhere like that, and I was satisfied (though, sort of saddened) to be proven right. I have never seen a game like this before, and I really enjoyed playing. 

(+2)

Completed it. wonderful game. took around 9-10 hrs to complete
found it a little hard to name all spouses. did guess work on five.


(+5)

just finished the game, and I really enjoyed it! lost a couple of hours of sleep the past two days getting hooked on unraveling the family tree, but I have no regrets haha.

I love that it was a mixture of investigative skills and deductive reasoning (and some guesses lol), but it was so satisfying to get the optional two answers right! 

(+8)

I really really enjoyed this!! This was incredibly well made and I literally almost pulled an all-nighter because I didn't want to stop playing. Love the atmosphere you've created and the whole late 90s aesthetic with the computer!! Super cool :>

The story totally sucked me in and the way you were able to tell it through a family tree, some internet articles and photos is incredible. You're very talented and I'd love to see a version of this with proper art instead of AI art. I understand why you used AI generated portraits, so, no judgement here :> !! Just saying, you could totally earn some money with this if you decide to work with an artist.

Everything else was fantastic!

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