Other coding games you can recommend?

[JohnvanTuyn]

I absolutely love this game. I have not found a game with more programming in it yet.

I’ve completed all but one node now though, so I want to ask what other games you can recommend that have actual coding in them. I know it’s a pretty niche genre, but so much fun though.

I’ll start you off with the only game that I’ve come across with actual coding in it:

stationeers . A survival / base building early access game, where you can automate your base using scripts in assembly. Coding is just one aspect of the gameplay here, but it’s full fledged coding that makes a massive impact on the gameplay.

I’ve also played puzzle games like exapunks , but these involve mostly math and coding tricks and don’t allow you to freely code. What personally annoyed me with these games is that they severely limit script size: so commenting your code gets punished. And the harder levels require you to write almost illegible (but compact) code to beat them. Essentially teaching you the worst of the bad coding habits.

Are there any other gems out there that you can recommend?

[Nedrith]

https://store.steampowered.com/app/464350/Screeps_World/

Open source. Public MMO style server requires a subscription to not have a low CPU limit. Private servers however don't have a limit and are great for learning how to play. It's all about coding your creeps to constantly respawn, gather resources, take over land and attack your opponents(both real people and AI).

[Rystar]

Just about everything from Zachtronics, amazing stuff.

[JohnvanTuyn]

Originally posted by Nedrith:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/464350/Screeps_World/

Open source. Public MMO style server requires a subscription to not have a low CPU limit. Private servers however don't have a limit and are great for learning how to play. It's all about coding your creeps to constantly respawn, gather resources, take over land and attack your opponents(both real people and AI).

I think I never gave this a fair chance because of the paid online aspect and just how slow everything runs in the demo. It just gave me a really bad first impression.

It certainly is a true programming game though and there is not a wealth of programming games out there, so I'll give this a try. Thanks for the tip.

[Joe Malik]

If you like asm check out TIS-100 or Core War.

[BlueAuran]

HackMud is for sure one you should look for, when it goes on sale soon you may want to pick it up!

[gamename]

Originally posted by Bob Star:

Just about everything from Zachtronics, amazing stuff.

Originally posted by Joe Malik:

If you like asm check out TIS-100 or Core War.

FYI, There's a $10 Humble Bundle going now (ending soon), with TIS-100, and some other programming/puzzle/Zachtronics games.

[Zac Starfire]

There is quite a few out there and I'm allways finding new ones.

Ones I own:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/365450/Hacknet/ - Owned but not played yet

https://store.steampowered.com/app/504210/SHENZHEN_IO/ - its kinda cool


Some of the ones on my wishlist:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/370360/TIS100/

https://store.steampowered.com/app/777150/Adventure_Land__The_Code_MMORPG/

https://store.steampowered.com/app/708190/Code_World/

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1397290/Comet_64/

https://store.steampowered.com/app/863460/Cyber_Ops/

https://store.steampowered.com/app/716490/EXAPUNKS/

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1264390/Dreamjob_Programmer_Simulator__Learn_Programming_Games/

https://store.steampowered.com/app/605230/Grey_Hack/

https://store.steampowered.com/app/622770/Hacktag/

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1162700/Midnight_Protocol/

https://store.steampowered.com/app/544390/NITE_Team_4__Military_Hacking_Division/

And even more I didn't list...

[gamename]

Good list!

I thought I remembered a longer thread with more suggestions re: similar/related games, but didn't see it when I posted a few hours ago. Might be a good idea to pin one of these threads. Although, BB pulls off a really neat balance - there's other 'related' games, but not many that pull off quite what BB does (as OP said).

TIS has been on my wishlist for a little bit (maybe from recommendation in this forum). I think I must have picked up some Zachtronics games in previous bundles, although I don't remember if I've actually played any, yet.

FWIW, the aforementioned bundle (still 4 hours left) has:
Learning Factory
EXAPUNKS
while True: learn()
7 Billion Humans
Human Resource Machine
SHENZHEN I/O
TIS-100

https://www.humblebundle.com/games/level-up-and-learn-programming-games

[Zac Starfire]

Thx, like a said, there even more - I just got tired of copy pasting everything from my wishlist. Just look for games with the hacking or programming tags.

[gamename]

Indeed.
Clicked through on one of your links and saw that there's a 'Programmer's Day' Steam sale through the 19th. Hadn't heard of it, maybe that's why this bundle is on now, too.

[Zac Starfire]

Thx, I didn't notice the sale until you mentioned it. There are actually a few on my wishlist that aren't on sale. I'm going to try to jump on that sale !!!

Wow, I'm finding a bunch on the sale that I didn't see before!!

[gamename]

Saw your post before you edited it, tried to re-trace my steps, couldn't - in case anyone finds it useful:
https://store.steampowered.com/curator/42589128-Hello-World-Programmer%2527s-Day-Event/sale/programmersdaysale

(You're going to jump on the sale to get your wishlisted games that *aren't* on sale? :P )

[Zac Starfire]

Ya, I was typing too fast and my keyboard is worn out - I need a new one soon.

[gamename]

;P
Not sure I'll get many now, but good browsing for wishlist, at least. (I did get the Bundle, and have plenty left to do in BB, if I'm going to make the time for it, so not in a huge rush to get more.) Nice to see that many of these seem to have Linux versions.

One of the things that I like about BB is that it's FOSS, and can be played without Steam.

Edit - Also, that it's real programming. If some of these are more constrained in what we can do, or use a 'fake' language .. well, maybe, if the game is good enough. But several of these in the Steam sale (and yeah, I guess I did browse the 'programming' tag before) seem to use 'visual programming' .. eh, no thanks.
Also, wary of games in EA.

Edit: Looks like most of these that have Linux versions are Zachtronics games

[Zac Starfire]

I've only played SHENZHEN I/O and only got so far before I got stuck, couldn't find a solution at the time and stopped playing. I really liked the crisp, clean gx in that one with the circuitry, it's definitely one to get. The language used in SHENZHEN I/O is very close to real machine language and its much like the Programmable Logic Arrays I used to use in EEE classes I had back in the 1980s. I noticed someone published a guide for all the solutions recently so maybe now I can get farther in the game now.

Ya, Zachtronics makes some good programming games.

I'm going have to try Hacknet next since I've have it. I also want to get TIS-100 and Comet 64 since I had a Tandy TRS-80 (Trash-80) and Commodore64 when I was a teenager. Also the gx in EXAPUNKS looks good too.