Thinky Games

The latest programming games for Xbox Series X|S

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 follow games are the most recently released programming games for Xbox Series X|S in the Thinky Games database.

  • Autonauts
    Windows
    Nintendo Switch
    PlayStation 4
    PlayStation 5
    Xbox Series X|S
    Xbox One
    Automate a village colony by teaching robots with an accessible programming language.
  • while True: learn()
    Windows
    Linux
    MacOS
    Nintendo Switch
    PlayStation 4
    Xbox Series X|S
    Xbox One
    iPad
    iPhone
    Android
    Create a cat-to-human translation system with machine learning structures and visual programming.

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