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Games

Control the Alphabet in 'What Do We Do Now?'

Played collaboratively or alone, What Do We Do Now? pits players against typography-based puzzles.

It's a verb. "Do" is to perform an action or undertake an objective, to achieve or to complete an action. It's execution or accomplishment. Performance.

What Do We Do Now? separates the verbs' two letters, each operated independently from the other. "D" gets one side of the keyboard while "o" gets the other. A puzzle game designed to be playable by one person or two, "do" is how problems are solved—together. Each letter has something in particular it offers: "O" is the faster of the two, who jumps higher as well. "D", on the other hand, can squish through tight spaces and is tall enough to give "o" a boost up.

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With these abilities, players must use "do" to solve word puzzles that move the narrative forward. And that narrative emphasizes just how much each letter needs the other.

Header and all screens courtesy of WantAJob Studios

There's an "n" sitting alone on a single platform. "D" certainly can't make it up there, but "o" can jump. Still, "o" is not able to make it on its own. "O" needs "d" for a boost. Climbing atop "d", "o" pulls itself onto the platform. On. "O" is now on the platform. And a light turns on, revealing a hidden piece of What Do We Do Now?'s puzzle. Dependence. That's what the letters must work together to spell. One of the earlier puzzles, it's setting the stage for What Do We Do Now?'s increasingly difficult levels. "D" and "o" are dependent on each other.

What Do We Do Now? is not very long. Created in 48 hours during the Global Game Jam in January 2015, the gamehas 15 different levels with two endings. The team, which called itself WantAJob Studios during the game jam, is working on a final version of the game with updated graphics and gameplay changes.

What Do We Do? is playable for free in your browser.