Death and Taxes

Death and Taxes places you in the office of the Grim Reaper, who somewhat unexpectedly has bureaucratic work to do. Each day, a stack of paperwork lists potential mortals with brief biographical sketches. You decide who lives and who dies. Your choices affect the world around you, keep chaos at bay or unleash it, foil plots to destroy the world, and climb through the Reaper hierarchy to the dizzying heights of middle-management.

The game sits in the tradition of Papers Please, Reigns, Beholder and Animal Inspector: choices have consequences, the mystery of your own existence threads through the work, and the boss check-ins constantly recontextualize what you thought you were doing. You can talk to your boss, get paid, buy stuff from Mortimer's Plunder Emporium, decorate your desk, pet the office cat, and stare in the mirror talking to yourself.

Fully voiced NPCs, original soundtrack, watercolor original artwork, dialogue options and an upgrade shop fill out the production. Twitch integration lets streamers involve their audiences in life-or-death decisions. Multiple secret endings reward different choice paths, and the existential dread that the Reaper might or might not be experiencing is left intentionally ambiguous.