We Become What We Behold Guide: What to Photograph in Each Act

We Become What We Behold says "playing time: 5 minutes" on its title card, and it means it. But plenty of players get stuck in the middle, taking photo after photo of peeps while the TV keeps saying nothing much happened. This guide covers how the camera works, what each act wants from you and what to look for, without spoiling the ending.

The camera and the TV

You never control a character. You are the camera: a square viewfinder follows your mouse around the park, and a click takes a photo. A flash, a shutter sound, and the picture flies into the TV standing in the middle of the grass. A red chyron slides in under it with a headline written from what the photo shows, and the peeps who are near the TV turn to watch.

That audience is the point. Whatever they watch changes how they act. Everything else in the game follows from that one rule.

Act I: hats and lovers

The park starts calm: about twenty peeps, circles and squares, wandering around. The first "story" is a gentleman in a black bowler hat and monocle. Get him inside the frame and click. The chyron says OOH NICE HAT, and within seconds every peep who saw it is wearing a bowler too, with a happy face.

Next come the lovers: a circle and a square walking side by side with red hearts over their heads. Broadcast them and the headline is GROSS, GO GET A ROOM. Try other things too. Point the camera at the TV itself and you get a picture of a TV on a TV, and the chyron gets excited about it. Photograph empty grass and you get WOWWEE, IT'S NOTHING in rainbow letters.

Act II: the escalation

Then a new peep arrives: a square with wild spiky hair who runs up to others and screams at them. This is where most players get stuck, because the game gets picky. A photo of the square just standing there gets "(ya gotta catch 'em doing *something* interesting...)". A photo of the scream without the victim gets "(ya gotta catch who's screaming at 'em)". You have to catch the scream and the one being screamed at, both inside the frame.

From there, each broadcast pushes the crowd one step further. Headlines like CRAZED SQUARE ATTACKS, CIRCLE FEARS SQUARES and SQUARES SNUB CIRCLES each need you to catch the right moment between the right two peeps. The trick is patience: follow the action with the frame and click when both sides are close together.

Act III

The last act turns dark, and the game warned you it would. Hats are no longer cool, the chyrons get angrier, and the TV starts to preach. After that the game plays itself for a while. Watch it. Then comes the credits, and after them a quiet scene most people nearly miss. Do not close the tab when the names start to roll.

Small things worth knowing

• Clicking away pauses it. If you click outside the game, it stops and says "paused"; click anywhere on it to carry on.
• There is no fail state. A bad photo only costs a few seconds. Take as many as you like.
• Sound helps. The shutter, the news jingle and the music tell you when a broadcast worked.
• One sitting. There are no saves. At five minutes, you will not need them.

When you are done, our guide to Nicky Case's other games explains where to go next.