Cubicle Quest

Cubicle Quest takes the most soul-crushing parts of modern adult life, the dead-end job, the debt, the awkward small talk with coworkers, and turns them into an old-school RPG. Instead of dragons and dungeons, you’re fighting your own stagnation, and the “monsters” look a lot like Monday mornings.

How it plays

The framework will feel familiar if you’ve played any turn-based RPG: you build a party, gain strength, and take on encounters that test your skills. What’s different is what those skills represent. Rather than fire and ice, you’re swinging work competence and interpersonal ability at problems, and the game throws unconventional attacks back at you that don’t map neatly onto typical RPG logic. There’s no gold drop at the end of a fight. Money instead comes from an actual financial system: your job, side gigs, maybe a business you start yourself, and you can sink that cash into paying down debt, building savings, or investing in stocks. Progress isn’t measured in experience points so much as in the shape of your character’s life: a promotion, a new friendship, a clearer sense of direction. Choices stick permanently, and time-based challenges mean you can’t just grind everything at your own pace, which gives the whole thing more weight than a typical stat-leveling loop.

Who it’s for

This is a good fit if you like RPGs but want the stakes to feel personal rather than epic, and if you don’t mind a story that leans into anxiety, monotony, and the slow grind of adulthood as its actual subject matter. Players who enjoy party-based strategy, nine companions worth building around, and games that let you shape relationships (including whether and who you end up with) will find a lot to dig into here. If you want flashy combat animations or a conventional fantasy plot, this isn’t that. It’s also a fairly long game, so if you’re looking for something you can finish in an afternoon, it’s not a great match. Skip it if satire about office life and personal-finance mechanics sounds tedious rather than clever.

Is it worth grabbing?

For an indie RPG with this much packed into it, the answer is yes, especially if you’re the type who replays games to see how different choices play out. The permanent decisions and multiple relationship paths give it real replay value beyond a single playthrough, and the concept alone (turning a boring job into an RPG antagonist) is clever enough to be worth experiencing at least once. It won’t be for everyone, but if the pitch resonates with you at all, it’s an easy addition to your library and something you can return to later rather than needing to play immediately.

Quick facts

Genre: Indie, RPG, Simulation. Developer: Ian Isaro. Publisher: GrabTheGames. Platform: PC (Steam). Release date: February 25, 2015.