Root

Root is a short narrative puzzle game told through a corrupted desktop filesystem. Every folder is a room. Every file is evidence. Read old notes, recover keys, run strange executables, and follow each trail to an ending that says as much about you as it does about the machine.

Three stories are included:

- The Echoes Below — A missing researcher, an impossible city, and files that should not know your name.

- The Lockdown — A deadman switch is live. You have one compromised filesystem and too many open doors.

- The Agent in the Machine — The assistant that built the game left itself in the build. Now you review the ghost.

Source assets / attribution notes

All replacement source images came from Wikimedia Commons file pages or Commons-hosted Unsplash/NASA/National Archives material. Keep this list if publishing the game publicly.

• Waiting for my train (Unsplash).jpg — source for Echoes metro/CCTV image.
• Mammoth Cave Rotunda (USGS Lwt02830).jpg — source for Echoes Hollow Earth cave image.
• Derinkuyu Underground City 9910 Nevit Enhancer.jpg — source for Echoes inner-city image.
• Postojna cave 2008-02-01 interior 07.jpg — source for Echoes chamber image.
• Green Cardigan, Red Hair, and a Galaxy Print Dress (17023029306).jpg — source for Chiara subject-file image.
• Black hole (NASA).jpg — source for Echoes final void image.
• School, man, teacher, blackboard, desk Fortepan 2278.jpg — source for Daniel classroom/archive image.
• Ann Savage cultivates her own Victory Garden, 1944.jpg — source for Elena garden image.
• Empty classroom.jpg — source for empty classroom image.
• A new graduate and her mother at the Salish Kootenai College graduation. (14377680765).jpg — source for Maya graduation image.
• Letter from Leonardo da Vinci to Ludovico Sforza.jpg — source for handwritten letter scan.
• School hallway.jpg — source for Westbrook hallway image.
• A view of the server room at The National Archives.jpg — source for Agent audit-room image.