After the tragic death of his parents, Jud Cohen decides to do some good in the world and formulate his own company: a company that would embrace employees like himself: workers who were often late, show up drunk, take toke breaks, and forget to wear pants. Throughout the game, players (poised as Work With No Pants employees) hunted for clues, performed a series of absurd work related tasks, and solved the mystery behind Jud Cohen’s parents’ death.

Work with No Pants was a grassroots Alternate Reality Game produced by Queen Spade Creative that played from June to September of 2012. According to ARGNet, Work with No Pants “embraced the absurdist aesthetic to great effect.”

Over the course of the Alternate Reality Game, players who signed up as International Representatives of Work With No Pants competed to earn their wages (which may or may not have monetary value as the fine print revealed) by completing a series of creative tasks: products to be featured in the company “store.” The tasks included:

• • • PUT A COG ON IT: The reps were asked to steampunk a tissue paper for the “man that had everything.”
    • GOURMET ICE CUBES: The reps were asked to post their recipes and concoctions for gourmet ice cubes with the caveat being the liquid had to be water. Player created gourmet ice cubes prototypes included: gold flaked, toy prize inside, and branded enternatiment ice cubes.
    • SMART PHONE DRINK CUP: Jud got tired of spilling his drink while trying to text, so he asked the reps to rapid prototype a smart phone drink cup, with hilarious results.
    • PAPER HELICOPTER: Jud was frustrated that there are only paper airplanes but no paper helicopters. The International Representatives put their minds to work to bring forth silly paper creations.
    • FORTUNE COOKIE MESSAGES EVERYWHERE: Jud wanted to take the fortune cookie messages into new markets for new opportunities. Players put fortune messages in bananas, grilled cheese sandwiches and even hot dogs.

For a project walk through, please visit the guide created and posted on Wonder Weasels.