Developer builds XCOM clone -- in Microsoft Excel

This week Reddit user Crruzi is getting a fair bit of press attention for EXLCOM, an XCOM clone the self-professed programmer and economics student is building in Microsoft Excel to hone his Visual Basic for Applications skills.

It's a neat project, the latest in a litany of attempts to recreate popular games in Microsoft's multi-purpose office toolset (2013's Excelda, for example) that validate Excel's secret life as a game engine. 

"I feel like Excel is a great (but also often times infuriating) environment to learn to create simple programs in, because you can use it quite easily for a wide range of real-world issues," Crruzi (whose real name is Constantin) wrote on Reddit this week. "It is often more powerful than one might expect."

EXLCOM is currently playable in a very early state -- it's pretty much just a tactical combat engine right now -- and Constantin intends to flesh it out with more XCOM-like elements as he continues to practice programming while working in the financial industry and going to school.