Here's a little social deduction game about figuring out who's slacking off at work
One of those games where you do what you did at work again, but this time for fun.
An indie social game called Dale & Dawson Stationery Supplies is getting a bit of buzz on Steam this past week, casting players as managers and specialists in an office trying get their work done while rooting out perfidious slackers, who'll ensure that productivity is in the toilet and the company goes bust.
It seems straightforward, but it clearly has some sauce: With 1,292 Steam user reviews since it released on August 30, 95% of them are positive.
During each round the manager has the simplest job: Ensure that specialists are doing their jobs while rooting out any slackers and dealing with office disasters that come up—like wastebasket fires. The specialists meanwhile are supposed to keep the office running and narc on any slackers they see not working—the trick is that theyre mostly assigned work tasks but even a productive worker sometimes has to take a coffee break or use the bathroom.
Which is where the slackers come in. They've got nothing but unproductive tasks on their to-do list, and their day is to do nothing but play minesweeper, doodle in paint, take coffee breaks, poop, smoke, set things on fire, etc. The slackers win by causing the majority of work to be slack and not getting voted out during meetings.
Dale and Dawsome just updated yesterday with a fourth office map to play on, as well as ultrawide support. The developers are promising regular post-launch updates into the future "to keep the game fresh and exciting."
You can find Dale & Dawson Stationery Supplies on Steam for $8.
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Jon Bolding is a games writer and critic with an extensive background in strategy games. When he's not on his PC, he can be found playing every tabletop game under the sun.