I really like this. As a kid I would make "flatgames" that were just Word docs that linked to each other, which in some sense inspired me to learn to code to make "real" games.
I did this but with folders! Then I learned about HTML maps (which seem very similar to Downpour) from Neopets, which is where things get real cool.
Neopets has a lot to answer for in our generation :P
I was lucky to get extra projects at school which were self directed flat games using PowerPoint, and a few other tools on the school computers. definitely some of my favourite projects as a young kid
Same, but with PowerPoint! It's amazing how versatile the Microsoft Office suite is for purposes other than productivity...
I built Tictactoe in Excel by creating every possible board state and then hyperlinking between them. I fixed the window size to 3x3 so the window would scroll to each state. Later learned AppleScript to automate parts of this process and eventually got in to HTML.
I feel obligated to note here that PowerPoint is Turing complete. It's pretty radical.
Same here! I had a basic game where an enemy moved across the screen towards the character and you had to shoot it. Clicking the enemy would hyperlink to a slide where you shoot the enemy, the enemies animation finishing (when it touches the character) would link to a slide where you died. Working out how to do conditional logic in PowerPoint at 11 opened up a lot of exciting ideas for PowerPoint games for me. Though it lead to a lot of slides…