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Worming from Home Is Out, and Corporate Finance Is Harder Without Arms
Worming from Home has an extremely efficient design problem: the employee has a finance job, a keyboard and absolutely no hands. The solution is to throw the employee at the keyboard. Repeatedly.
By Kader Worming from Home 
Worming from Home launched on September 4 for Windows and macOS. Developed by Zach Northrop and Mason Sabharwal, it casts the player as a junior financial analyst working remotely while secretly being an earthworm.
The corporation still expects results.
Typing is the main traversal mechanic
The joke becomes a game because the worm's body is governed by ragdoll physics. Filling a spreadsheet is not handled through a conventional interaction prompt. Players fling the character across the desk and try to land on the required keys.
That physical clumsiness extends to other objects. The computer, phone and surrounding workspace all become oversized pieces of level geometry when the employee is only a few inches long.
It is an important distinction. The worm is not simply an amusing avatar pasted onto an ordinary job simulator; being physically incapable of performing office work normally is the central mechanical constraint.
The career ladder is surprisingly literal
Players still have the responsibilities of a financial analyst. Messages need answers, spreadsheets need suspiciously optimistic numbers and money can be thrown into the stock market.
The developers also allow the worm to exploit insider information for personal investments. It is not presented as an ethics-training simulator.
Cash feeds back into upgrades and other purchases, while skills and work performance contribute toward the larger objective of earning a promotion.
Clocking out does not end the simulation
Free time opens up additional activities around the home. The worm can exercise, read finance and self-improvement books, shop, communicate with other characters and explore a desk that looks considerably larger from three inches above the floor.
The demo had already expanded that side of the game before launch. Its June update introduced the Wormhole, an alternate-dimension platforming challenge, as well as a smartphone and additional cosmetic progression.
There is also an impressive commitment to hats.
The joke survived long enough to ship
Northrop and Sabharwal described the project at launch as a silly idea that gradually became a much larger game. A public demo had been available since January, giving the physics system several months in front of players before the full release.
The finished game supports Windows and macOS, with French interface text and subtitles among its seven listed languages. Steam is running a 25% introductory discount through September 18.
Some office simulators ask whether you can succeed in corporate life. Worming from Home first asks whether you can reach the Enter key.