S0lly's Cellivization – Civ 1 Clone in Excel
This sort of thing is why I consider Excel a programming environment for non-programmers, likely the best ever created.   Of course most users will never use it to it's full potential (which might well be boundless..) but it nevertheless is simultaneously powerful and user friendly in a way that lets people who are <i>ostensibly</i> non-programmers perform novel computations that the creators of Excel never anticipated.   Many consumer applications, particularly modern ones, keep their users on rails.   Predefined UX paths that execute pre-defined algorithms on data provided by the user.  The user is typically hopeless to solve any problem not explicitly anticipated by the creators.  They can't extend the functionality of the program simply by interacting with it.   Conversely a program like Excel blurs the demarcation line between user and the developer by empowering the user with a novel graphical programming language (and tricking people who think of themselves as non-programmers into learning how to use it.)<p>Sometimes I wonder if spreadsheets had not been invented until today, could you convince the gatekeeping UX experts employed by major tech companies to let you bring such a product to market?