There have been some unique throwback games over the years, but SpreadCheat looks like it’s going to be in a category all of its own. Games People Play and Rubarb are developing the upcoming puzzle title, which invites the player to use an Excel-like program to commit a little financial fraud in the name of hitting your company’s fiscal targets.
Although Games People Play describes SpreadCheat as capturing “a retro Windows 3.11 setting,” the actual character models and backgrounds look like mid-’80s computer graphics. The player’s character is a recently hired employee who has to cook the books, so to speak. Essentially, players have to create and manipulate spreadsheet data so it looks like the company is hitting its financial goals. In the real world, this would all be wildly illegal. But in the context of the game, it’s played for laughs. One thing we’re not clear about is whether the player can be caught and punished for their financial malfeasance by the authorities.
The pseudo-Excel program used in the game features its own version of Microsoft’s Clippy, the annoying virtual Office assistant that would pop up whenever users would forget to turn it off. Perhaps the fake Clippy in this game will actually be useful, which would be a nice change.