The best programming games

Programming games are a genre of video games in which players use sequences of instructions inspired by computer languages in order to control various resources. In the case of puzzle games, the goal of a level is usually to match a specific output from the available instructions. Programming can also be used in more open-ended environments to automate the carrying out of various tasks by robot assistants.

Programming games are often based on common programming constructs such as loops, conditionals and variables, but the game languages themselves come in various shapes. Players may have to type code inside an in-game editor, and the language may resemble anything between a simplified version of a software language (Replicube) and a deviously made-up esoteric language (SIC-1). Other games rely on visual programming instead, enabling players to drag and drop blocks of code (7 Billion Humans) or command icons (ABI-DOS). Games with block-based programming in particular bear interesting educational values for computer science newcomers.

Most programming games are engineering games in which there can be many solutions to the same problem. Some games are designed to have a unique solution to each puzzle though, like Star Stuff. Since code is written first and run second, programming games are naturally drawn to setup-and-play design. They are also closely related to automation games.

The games listed below are the most favorited programming games in the Thinky Games database.