This game lets you explore a Fallout-like world, but on Microsoft Excel

Excel sheets have garnered a rather infamous reputation over the years and are viewed only as means for mere (and rather monotonous) number crunching at work. However, a gamer recently proved otherwise, by creating an RPG game based on the popular Fallout series. Yes, you read that right! You can now play Fallout on Excel.

Fallout but in Excel: How it works

The Fallout-inspired adventure game is based in the fictional setting of Mercer. Set in a post-apocalyptic nuclear wasteland (Developer Dynamic Pear refers to a bomb, which changed life in Mercer forever), it has two key components – mapping and questing, and battling.

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The ‘Map’ tab is the central part of the game, wherein you and your companions navigate the land and strive to protect Mercer from new threats. You are represented by a red dot, towns, shelters and quests are marked in purple, plains are marked light green, and farmlands in dark green. Water is marked blue. You can move around the map using the arrow buttons, between cells AZ2-BB6.

The other part of the game, Battle Mode, sees players take on anywhere between one and five enemies which spawn as the gameplay progresses. This mode uses a simplified version of Dungeons and Dragons mechanics and has four main features.

The world of Mercer uses turn-based battle mechanics. In essence, each creature takes its turns to move and attack. The order for the same is decided by a dice roll, wherein the player with the highest roll gets to go first. This order is set in the first round of combat in the game and stays consistent throughout a battle.

Secondly, each creature has its own range of movement which it can achieve, as well as different ranges of attack. Therefore, you can only attack a creature if you are within range.

Once in range, the next step is to attack the enemy and, see if your attack hits them or not. This hit is based on the creature’s armour class, as well as a random probability. Your attack will miss if it falls below the enemy armour class.

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Lastly, if at any point you find yourself outnumbered in Battle Mode, you can start a new campaign with “Disable Battle” mode switched to “Yes.” This will disable battles altogether and you can explore Mercer and finish quests at your own leisure.

Where does Fallout but in Excel draw inspiration from?

The inspiration behind the creation is the Fallout series of games. These games, set in a post-apocalyptic world after a nuclear war, were first released in 1997. The series itself, draws population from an even older game called Wasteland, first released in 1988.

Since then, there have been four sequels and several spinoffs of the games, and we even recently saw it being turned into a web series, available to watch on Prime Video.

The concept, while quite quirky, is super fun. Add to it that the fact that all it requires is Microsoft Excel on your laptops and desktops, and that one doesn’t require a high-end gaming set up for it per se, and we may just have the ultimate productivity killer.