Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Microsoft Excel is already jam-packed with exciting applications. Bar charts! Pie charts! Er, 3D pie charts! What more do you want?
But if you do spend your day job staring into an abyss of visual basic, or VAT payments or building invoices it’s likely that the last thing you’d ever want to do would be to go home, turn on the PC, pour yourself a nice glass of Chablis and open up the spreadsheet programme.
But that’s what Canadian chartered accountant Cary Walkin has been doing in the moments of downtime while studying for his MBA in Toronto.
Walkin has managed to create a video game using Excel – a feat of spreadsheet wizardry that ought to remind those of us who think a spreadsheet cell is a prison euphemism of our meagre little place in the world.
Walkin’s game is called Arena.Xlsm and is a turn-based fantasy game with four different endings, eight bosses and 31 spells. It looks like a fancypants sudoku challenge that can also do your tax return.
Hardened gamers may well stick with the likes of BioShock Infinite but even they would applaud the audacity of building an entire fantasy world using accountancy software.
The last time that was done so effectively, the entire banking system collapsed.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments