DEEP INTO THE ROOTS

by tomastanhgor

co-authored: @andreytyulenev, @felloy, @salient, @zeropoint, @microvava

Overall★★★★★★★★★★2.86

Fun★★★★★★★★★★2.60

Innovation★★★★★★★★★★3.00

Theme★★★★★★★★★★3.50

Graphics★★★★★★★★★★2.88

Audio★★★★★★★★★★3.10

Humor★★★★★★★★★★2.30

Mood★★★★★★★★★★3.33

🌱 A quiet game about reaching deep, remembering, and restoring.

You are a root — one of many, guided by an AI.
Your purpose is to burrow into the forgotten earth, searching for lost water sources that can bring life back to a silent planet.

Draw your path, absorb energy, avoid dangers buried deep, and uncover human artifacts long lost to time. Some may help. Some may warn. All of them remember.

As you dig deeper, the world responds — and slowly, begins to wake up.

🔜 More levels are coming soon.
Follow the project to see how far the roots will reach.

itch.io - https://deadlineteam.itch.io/deep-into-the-roots

________________________

How to play:

1) Start growing roots with the hand of the machine.
2) Click the left mouse button and draw a line. Roots will grow along the path you’ve created.
3) Click the right mouse button and move camera.

UPD 9.04.25: Fixed major black screen bag

Tags: #atmospheric, #drawing-based, #exploration, #indie, #narrative, #post-apocalyptic, #relaxing, #resource-management, #sci-fi

Genres: adventure

Tools: Unity

Comments16

Indiealesha8 Apr 2025, 12:20

I tried to play the game, but it won't launch :(

HDVR0210 Apr 2025, 16:31

Very interesting game idea I like it, I would like to see more levels. Upgrade button does not work? Or is it just a bug. Nevertheless, great job!

Stratcat6610 Apr 2025, 16:38

Wow, the tone of the game was a bit darker than I assumed. Very atmospheric.
Also a nice interpretation of everyday's life objects.
The gameplay is very straightforward, maybe a bit too simple.

TomasTanhgorauthor10 Apr 2025, 17:06

@indiealesha it was a bag, we fixed it!
@hdvr02 @stratcat66 thanks a lot! Upgrades were part of the game, but we didn't have time to make them. We plan to finish it in the following updates :)

silkworm_sweatshop10 Apr 2025, 18:24

That's pretty deep... :sweat_smile:. Excellent and artsy theme use! Short and bittersweet, would be interested to see what you could add to it.

matim9011 Apr 2025, 12:48

The concept is interesting and I really liked the music! I've played it twice but couldn't figure out what to do besides reaching for the fork and the water. Maybe I'm missing something?

EDIT: Nevermind, I just read the description and I was able to move the camera :)

gemcc11 Apr 2025, 14:02

Wow very cool game- we had a similar idea for ours, growing roots under the surface!

AldenWitt12 Apr 2025, 00:25

Interesting concept - I like the click and draw functionality. Obviously it's missing some elements. The biggest upgrade I'd like to see is a more interesting root growing graphic, since it's such an integral part of the game.
I like the writing and tone of the game.

floppynub12 Apr 2025, 00:44

Cool game, really interesting tech involved for the line drawing and digging stuff. Super neat. I had a good timing getting all the way to the bottom. The vibes were captivating, and the little blurbs about each item were really well written.

Really the only critique I could give is that there wasn't much in the way of challenge, it was just kinda going through the motions until I reached the bottom. With the mechanics you have in place here, you could definitely implement some interesting puzzles/branching paths, or something like that. Either way, cool entry, good work!

Broco12 Apr 2025, 04:43

I like the idea. There's room for much more! I just think it's missing some decision making, or some obstacle that blocks your paths, so you have a little challenge.

I just missed some noises, digging, grabbing items.

Anyways nice entry guys! 😉

Zigtalk12 Apr 2025, 21:16

It felt kind of eerie to play, and was a unique spin on the jam theme. I couldn't really figure out how to progress after grabbing the stuff I could see, and the way the roots were drawn felt jarring and didn't match the rest of the game's feeling.

PretendCoding12 Apr 2025, 21:32

The music was really well done. I'm not sure the function of the upgrades text at the top, didn't seem to do much. It would have been nice to revert to the main menu without hitting F5, but that's fine. Without going fullscreen, the UI was a bit cutoff, so the first time I failed because I ran out of fuel, but I couldn't see how much fuel I had.

Eugenik14 Apr 2025, 06:07

That's a AA game for a jam! Well done!.

Yuri Antonov16 Apr 2025, 12:55

Nice mechanic. But I dont understand hot to detect fuel level

TomasTanhgorauthor16 Apr 2025, 13:49

@yuri-antonov Hi, Yura, it's been a long time!
Unfortunately, the water supply is only visible on the full screen or on the https://deadlineteam.itch.io/deep-into-the-roots

xpoho17 Apr 2025, 08:08

Ура, я выиграл!

Очень интересная игра. Хотелось бы даже не уровней побольше, а побольше развития истории. Каких-то персонажей, уровня-хаба, где можно было бы общаться, чего-то такого ^_^