Haven’t done a gaming post in ages, but I have to tell you about the idle game I’m playing on breaks these days.
The Office: Somehow We Manage is an iOs idle clicker about everyone’s favorite dysfunctional paper company. Send the employees to their desks, where they work hard until you automate them (this saves having to tap the stacks of cash that appear beside their desks every so often), spend the money starting more desks and upgrading and getting more money to spend on upgrades for more money to spend on… Ok, you get it, it’s another idle clicker, just set the show world.
The humor comes from little scenes from the show and little show references. In the beginning of the game, it’s fun to see how each actor was drawn for the game. Then each worker has personal items on their desks, and it’s fun to see the little references from the show.
Now, I should probably mention that this isn’t a particularly well-done game. First, The Office frequently resets chapters, and while it’s always annoying to replay a level after a technical glitch, it’s particularly annoying in an idle that’s literally all about time spent in game. And it’s constantly asking me to wait while it downloads the next chapter. I have no idea why it needs so many updates, because the app is a 2D cartoon picture of our favorite Scranton paper company, with the same working and automated animations for each character in each chapter. Each chapter does have a couple screens of text bubbles from the TV show, but seriously, the frequency of downloading updates and how long it takes just does not seem in line with the game assets at all.
And this isn’t the only place where internal text is accidentally shared with players as flavortext, it’s just the one where I took a screenie.
Ok, so now that you all know this isn’t a terribly high-quality game, let’s talk about how freaking charming it is. Seeing the Dunder-Mifflin friends doing their repetitive work tasks makes a fun little break from my repetitive work tasks. And since it’s a pay-to-win style idle clicker, the huge stacks of cash become kinda meaningless and it’s the other, special currencies, like coffee, ShruteBucks and ScottCoins that are actually valuable. The cash quickly maxes out thousands or billions or actual numbers, and becomes aa, ab, ac, etc. There’s something ridiculous about the workers getting billions of billions of dollars but actually needing, say, 27 coffees to complete the next objective, and then after getting all the objectives, getting the 15 ScottCoins for completing the chapter. It makes a really delightful break when doing the kinda pointless and repetitive tasks that so many workplaces seem to require.
There are also special events, which are EXACTLY the same game, only at the end of the event, players instantly lose all money and other currencies, and get a very, very low-value tiered reward. This is hilarious because what’s more Dunder-Mufflin-y than the workers getting nothing? And also if you look at the ranking in the events, the top players are massive The Office fans so all their usernames are silly show references. There’s no chat, but I’m pretty sure they’re all trying to overlook the glitches for show jokes, too.
Anyway, this is objectively not a unique or innovative or high-quality game, there’s no character development or exciting mechanics, but if I’m in a meeting waiting for someone to figure out how to share their screen or unmute or whatever, I’m probably checking on my friends at mini Dunder-Mifflin.
