unsure if this game is for me

[Mysterio]

I have no real experience with programming and no particular desire to learn. That said, I like logic and puzzles and I have enjoyed other Zachtronics games. Is the gameplay fun enough to be worth learning about the computer science for?

[Setun-70]

Originally posted by Gary Mysterio:

I have no real experience with programming and no particular desire to learn. That said, I like logic and puzzles and I have enjoyed other Zachtronics games. Is the gameplay fun enough to be worth learning about the computer science for?

Which other Zachtronics games have you enjoyed?

You don't need to study computer science or anything. Relative to other Zachtronics games, TIS-100 is less flashy and has a steeper difficulty curve, imo, so depending on your milage through other puzzle games your milage here may vary.

[Mysterio]

I like opus magnum and infinifactory. I played spacechem too but I never really got into it... might come back to it some other time. I get the sense that infinifactory and opus magnum are probably on the easier side of these games. But I think this one and shenzhen i/o look pretty cool, I just find the concept of a programming game somewhat intimidating

[Mysterio]

♥♥♥♥ it it's only 8 bucks I may as well try it

[Sinn.y]

You don't need to have any knowledge of programming or computer science. All you need to know is in the manual. Enjoy :)

[Rhythm Raph]

As someone mentioned above, the difficulty curve is pretty steep. You also have to read a 27-pages manual before being able to play the game, which is a lot of preparation compared to other Zachtronics games.

In the same genre, I'd say Shenzhen I/O is much more gentle. It's waaaay less intimidating, the difficulty increases at a slower pace, and so on. I see you already bought TIS-100, so you can try for yourself obviously, but if you're put off by the experience (or some aspects of it), I'd still say to try out Shenzhen I/O.

[Setun-70]

Originally posted by Rhythm Raph:

As someone mentioned above, the difficulty curve is pretty steep. You also have to read a 27-pages manual before being able to play the game, which is a lot of preparation compared to other Zachtronics games.

In the same genre, I'd say Shenzhen I/O is much more gentle. It's waaaay less intimidating, the difficulty increases at a slower pace, and so on. I see you already bought TIS-100, so you can try for yourself obviously, but if you're put off by the experience (or some aspects of it), I'd still say to try out Shenzhen I/O.

I honestly thought Shenzhen I/O was much more tedious, and it felt less rewarding to me. When I was new to Zachtronics, and still now, I really preferred the simplicity of TIS-100's instruction set. Also I think TIS-100's manual is much more approachable than Shenzhen's. Even though it's a few pages, it's very spaced out and logically laid out.

Just my experience though. YMMV.

[Mysterio]

update: I think I'm bad at this game. Getting better though. finished 8 levels

[ible]

If you finished 8 puzzles you're doing very well actually.
Usually people will bounce off at some point in the first three puzzles.

[Lyra]

Originally posted by Rhythm Raph:

As someone mentioned above, the difficulty curve is pretty steep. You also have to read a 27-pages manual before being able to play the game, which is a lot of preparation compared to other Zachtronics games.

In the same genre, I'd say Shenzhen I/O is much more gentle. It's waaaay less intimidating, the difficulty increases at a slower pace, and so on. I see you already bought TIS-100, so you can try for yourself obviously, but if you're put off by the experience (or some aspects of it), I'd still say to try out Shenzhen I/O.

...27 pages? But it's 14?

[B O M B A ™]

Originally posted by Gary Mysterio:

update: I think I'm bad at this game. Getting better though. finished 8 levels

months have passed - how was your gaming experience?

somehow i find the concept of these programing-games very intriguing...but i dont havy any experience in programing, nor heavy puzzle solving.

so, how was the game for you?

greetz

[[SK] Kaldaien]

Originally posted by Rhythm Raph:

As someone mentioned above, the difficulty curve is pretty steep. You also have to read a 27-pages manual before being able to play the game, which is a lot of preparation compared to other Zachtronics games.

RTFM'ing is cheating. Just type a butt-load of opcodes and register names until you figure out the instruction set, syntax and cross-node timing :)

As for this game being for you... honestly, you get a lot more value out of the whole experience if you have a Steam friends list full of programmers. The leaderboard stuff is endlessly entertaining, having to one-up everyone in your friends list will keep you busy for years.

[Eighty-Six]

It's neat but it's sort of broken because it's a puzzle game with instructions; yet solving the puzzle doesn't require you to follow instructions and so the user may create a program that produces the expected outputs, however does not solve the overlying problem.

Example on the Differential Converter: Employing use of NEG when the instructions clearly state to "subtract" inputs, however still obtaining expected output

[Setun-70]

Originally posted by Eighty-Six:

It's neat but it's sort of broken because it's a puzzle game with instructions; yet solving the puzzle doesn't require you to follow instructions and so the user may create a program that produces the expected outputs, however does not solve the overlying problem.

Example on the Differential Converter: Employing use of NEG when the instructions clearly state to "subtract" inputs, however still obtaining expected output

There are not many opportunities to take advantage of this, generally.

[[SK] Kaldaien]

Originally posted by Eighty-Six:

It's neat but it's sort of broken because it's a puzzle game with instructions; yet solving the puzzle doesn't require you to follow instructions and so the user may create a program that produces the expected outputs, however does not solve the overlying problem.

Example on the Differential Converter: Employing use of NEG when the instructions clearly state to "subtract" inputs, however still obtaining expected output

That's wrong how exactly? There are multiple ways to implement subtraction, including lookup tables if the input data set permits :)

This is why each program has 3 different leaderboards. You're not going to write one program that makes it to the top of all 3. To even rank at the top of one of those leaderboards requires being really clever and designing a program that produces the expected output, but not necessarily using the described methods.

[Lyra]

Originally posted by Eighty-Six:

It's neat but it's sort of broken because it's a puzzle game with instructions; yet solving the puzzle doesn't require you to follow instructions and so the user may create a program that produces the expected outputs, however does not solve the overlying problem.

Example on the Differential Converter: Employing use of NEG when the instructions clearly state to "subtract" inputs, however still obtaining expected output

yea, i'm sorry mate? you're saying because there's wiggle room for you to be clever about something and solve a problem the way you'd like to, it's bad?