DERU - The Art of Cooperation

What the game is

DERU - The Art of Cooperation is an abstract puzzle game by the small studio Ink Kit, released for PC in November 2018 and also sold on Nintendo Switch. Two players control two blobs of color on a single screen. There are no words, no characters and no story. Each level is a flat, hand-painted tableau with beams of colored light crossing it and an exit on the far side.

The light is what kills you and what saves you. A beam passes harmlessly through a blob of its own color and destroys a blob of any other, so crossing a room means one player standing in the way while the other moves. The blobs can also merge and split, transferring mass, so one can be made big enough to block a wide beam while the other shrinks to slip through a gap.

Steam lists a solo mode played with twin-stick controls, local shared-screen co-op, and online play through the third-party Parsec service. The intended way to play is two people with two controllers on one couch. It is a one-time purchase.

What you actually do

A level opens and neither player can cross it alone. You look at the beams, work out who has to absorb which one and in what order, then say it out loud, because the game gives you no way to signal. One of you steps into a stream and holds it while the other runs, then you swap. Mass transfer adds a second decision: how big does each of you need to be, and who gives up size to whom. A mistake resets the room instantly, so the cost of trying something is a few seconds. Getting better looks less like faster reflexes and more like two people agreeing a plan before either moves.

What it exercises

• States a plan out loud, because the game provides no other channel
• Takes a supporting role so the other player can make progress
• Coordinates two actions that have to happen in a particular order
• Reads a static layout and works out the sequence it demands
• Recovers from a failed attempt without blaming the other player

Why we rate it Minimal Worksheet score 31 / 100

1. FitHow much real knowledge or skill does the play itself make you use?30weight 45%

   Scored 30, at the edge of its band. Levels are built so one player must spend a move making the other player's move possible, and there is no in-game way to communicate, so talking is forced out of you. That link between cooperation and progress is real, but the skill on display is a general soft skill, communication and turn-taking, worked in a wholly artificial puzzle rather than any subject matter.

2. TransferWill what you practise here work outside the game?25weight 30%

   Scored 25, near the bottom. Agreeing a plan, taking the unglamorous half of it, and not blaming a partner when it fails are real habits the game demands within minutes. But the tasks are abstract puzzle mechanics and the partner is always sitting beside you on the same couch, a long way from group work at school or anywhere else, so we hold this low.

3. PracticeDoes the game make you use that skill again and again, as it gets harder?40weight 25%

   Scored 40. Every level is the same negotiation in a new arrangement, and an instant reset means a pair will run that conversation dozens of times in an hour, which is real, dense repetition. It stays in the lower half because the game is compact: once the puzzles are known they do not reward a second run, so the practice window is short.

What the evidence says

Editorial onlyNobody outside our desk has checked this. It is our reading of how the game plays.

This is Editorial only. The Steam and Nintendo listings, checked in August 2026 with Steam re-read here, confirm the developer, the November 2018 release, the price, and the modes: solo, local shared-screen co-op, and online play through Parsec. They also confirm the mechanics described above, blocking streams for a partner and transferring mass between the two shapes. Nothing in these sources concerns cooperation as a measured skill. This assessment rests on the fact that the levels are literally unsolvable without one player supporting the other, weighed against how narrow and artificial that cooperation stays. We found no research on this game.

• Nintendo eShop ↗
• Steam ↗