Leaftaker

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When Stephen Hester died, his grave was already occupied.

Platforms: Browser, PC, Mac, Linux
Price: Free
Rated: 4.5 of 5 from 111 ratings on itch.io
Length: 1 to 2 hours
Players: 1
Controls: Mouse to click and read; type names and search terms on the keyboard and press Enter (Enter on an empty field hangs up the phone).
Made by: K-Ramstack
Released: 2025

What frightens When Stephen Hester died, his grave was already occupied. Back at your desk after a sabbatical, you try to identify the unknown body by searching an in-game internet, reading the autopsy and calling the locals on a rotary phone, and the case grows stranger and more unsettling with every call.
Content: medical descriptions of injuries, head and brain trauma, car crashes, descriptions of human remains, cognitive decline and memory loss, no gore pictures.

Leaftaker is a short mystery and deduction game by K-Ramstack, made in a week for Scream Jam 2025. A body is found buried in the plot meant for Stephen Hester, and from your office desk you search the internet, call the locals and examine the evidence to identify it. The case turns uncanny as you dig.

About Leaftaker

Leaftaker is a free mystery game by K-Ramstack, made in one week for Scream Jam 2025, where it won the gHost's Choice award. The browser version is the expanded post-jam 3.0. Its maker lists The Roottrees are Dead, Type Help, Another Night at the Archives, The Magnus Archives and Immortality among its inspirations.

It opens at a desk drawn in soft greys: an old computer, a mug of coffee, a rotary phone and a box of files. Your boss is glad to have you back after your sabbatical. On October 23rd, cemetery staff breaking ground for Stephen Hester's funeral found an unidentified body already in his grave, with no coffin. Your job is to find out who it is.

You work it like a real detective. The evidence panel holds the incident report, the autopsy and a parking stub. The computer has a login and a search engine for the town. The phone book lets you dial anyone whose name you have found, and you type names and places to call them. When you think you know the answer, you submit it.

The horror is quiet and grows out of the case itself: injuries described in clinical detail, memory loss, and a creeping wrongness the deeper you go. The maker lists content notes on the page, and states that there are no pictures of gore. It takes one to two hours, and a walkthrough is linked from the page.

How to play Leaftaker

Read the opening conversation and open the evidence panel to study the incident report and autopsy.
Use the computer to log in and search for names, places and events.
Pick up the phone and type a name or place from the phone book to call it.
Collect what you learn, and when you are sure, use Submit to name the body.

Screenshots

Leaftaker screenshot: a grey office desk with an old computer, a mug, a rotary phone and a file box as the boss welcomes you back

Leaftaker screenshot: the evidence panel with an incident report about an unidentified body found in Stephen Hester's plot

Leaftaker screenshot: the phone off the hook and a box asking for a name or place to call

Tips

Take notes; names and dates from one source unlock calls and searches in another.
To hang up the phone, click the text field and press Enter with it empty.
Reread the evidence after each discovery; details you skipped often matter.
The maker links a walkthrough on the itch.io page if you get stuck.