Mostly Grants Play Overhead
Live · beta 0.10

Overhead

An idle game about indirect costs. You are a university administrator. The number that must go up is administration. Research and teaching are what it is made from.

  • Free
  • No account
  • Saves in your browser
  • About an hour to an ending
  • Desktop

Opens full-window. Best on a computer with a keyboard: R replies, A approves, Space approves everything.

Overhead needs a computer. Phones have not been approved for administration. Send yourself the link and play at your desk, where administration belongs.

Overhead's desktop: an Overlook inbox, an Excess ledger, the Staff Self-Service Portal and a program installing

You will never have to decide anything

Every answer is correct, every option has the same effect, and every signature is the same scrawl on a larger document. What the system records is the click.

The first morning: an inbox, and Attaché the paperclip offering help with a travel claim
The first morning. Attaché, the paperclip in the corner, would like to help.
Later: the org chart, signatures piling up, an AI Working Group meeting and a federation of shared services
Later. The Org Chart, SignHere, and the AI Working Group's inaugural meeting.
One of the endings: a stop-error screen announcing that the universe has been shut down to protect the procedure
One of the endings. The travel claim is still pending.

How it plays

Reply to the email. Approve the form. Hire someone to reply to the email. Form a committee to approve the hiring. Overhead, in the taskbar, is administration's share of everything in scope. It starts at the campus. It does not stop at the campus.

Every lane has a line. Go over it and something happens: the inbox costs satisfaction, the review pile brings chasers, the signature pile freezes requisitions. None of it is a decision. All of it is recorded.

Official training simulator of the Admin Olympiad. Before you compete, understand the opponent.

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