TITLE
How The Roottrees are Dead ditched AI and became a hit
AUTHOR
Jay Castello
PUBLICATION
The Verge
YEAR
2025
ARTICLE TYPE
Article
FROM THE ARTICLE
Robin Ward was recovering from a broken arm when he fell in love with The Roottrees are Dead, a free browser game hosted on itch.io, an indie games salesfront. He reached out to its creator, Jeremy Johnston, and told him, “This should be a bigger deal than it is.” At the same time, Ward says, he “knew why” it couldn’t be.The browser version of The Roottrees are Dead used AI-generated art for its images, a central part of the puzzle game that tasks players with investigating dozens of people and filling out its complex family tree. At the time, Steam, the biggest platform for PC games, did not allow the use of generative AI in games released using the storefront. In addition, Ward and Johnston agreed that they felt it was “unethical to sell artwork created in this way.”
GAMES MENTIONED
The Roottrees are Dead
PEOPLE MENTIONED
Jeremy Johnston
Henning Ludvigsen
Robin Ward
TOPICS MENTIONED
Generative AI
ALTERNATE LINK
Archived Copy @ Internet Archive