Return to Office

The return-to-office mandate is in full effect. HR has planned mandatory fun. You have a lanyard, three hearts and a coffee habit. Good luck.

Return to Office is a 16-bit platformer about one working week, from the Monday commute at 7:00 AM to an all-hands meeting on Friday at 4:59 PM. Run, jump, stomp printers that have developed opinions, and throw paper-plane memos at anything that schedules a meeting. Every floor ends at an exit door. Linda from HR is standing in front of it. She has forms.

THE WEEK - The Commute: car or bus. Cones, pigeons, and a supervisor who wants to align on your ETA. - New Hire Orientation: no desk yet. The printers are already angry. - Desk 404: find your desk, do real work, and face the Big Copier, which has been jammed for years and has feelings about it. - Mandatory Fun Day: karaoke, egg and spoon, a trust fall, a dunk tank and icebreaker bingo. Participation is optional. Non-participation is noted. - The Hybrid Meeting: you are on mute. - The Hot-Desk Hunt: every desk is taken. The basement has rumours. All of them are true. - Bring Your Baby: daycare, a fever, a presentation, and a baby who is three times their normal size today. - The All-Hands Infestation: something has moved into the auditorium. It has many wings.

FEATURES - Eight levels and seventeen mini-games, including karaoke, a trust fall, printer baseball and a run for Premier with a baby on your hip - Get promoted from Intern to Director by finishing assignments at your desk - Befriend Phil from IT, the office mice and a flock of pigeons. Being kind to oddballs is rewarded. Being kind to Linda is complicated. - Manage hearts, energy and coffee. Nap behind a large plant when you need to. Everyone does. - Design your own new hire: hair, skin, shirt, tie and trousers - Intern mode for a gentler week: fewer pits, slower enemies, wider work zones - A daily shift with a fresh seed, for comparing results with colleagues who should be working - Plays with touch, keyboard or a controller - No accounts, no ads, no tracking

It is a journey, not a destination. Let us take this commute offline.

"Return to Office (The Game)", written and created by Jasmine Ramratan. An AILI Studios release.

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