Aprogramming game is avideo game that incorporates elements ofcomputer programming, enabling the player to direct otherwise autonomous units within the game to follow commands in adomain-specific programming language, often represented as avisual language to simplify the programming metaphor. Programming games broadly fall into two areas: single-player games where the programming elements either make up part of or the whole of apuzzle video game, and multiplayer games where the player's automated program is pitted against other players' programs.
Early games in the genre includeSystem 15000 andHacker, released in 1984 and 1985 respectively.
Programming games have been used as part of puzzle games, challenging the player to achieve a specific result once the program starts operating. An example of such a game isSpaceChem, where the player must use its visual language to manipulate twowaldos as to disassemble and reassemble chemical molecules. In such games, players are able to test and debug their program as often as necessary until they find a solution that works. Many of these games encourage the player to find the most efficient program, measured by the number of timesteps needed or number of commands required. Other similar games includeHuman Resource Machine,[1]Infinifactory, andTIS-100.Zachtronics is a video game development company known for its programming-centricpuzzle games.[2]
Other games incorporate the elements of programming as portions of puzzles in the larger game. For example,Hack 'n' Slash include a metaphor of being able to access the internal programs and variables of objects represented in the game world, pausing the rest of the game as the player engages this programming interface, and modify the object's program as to progress further; this might be changing the state of an object from being indestructible to destructible. Other similar games with this type of programming approach includeTransistor,else Heart.Break(),Glitchspace, andPony Island.[3]
Another approach used in some graphical games with programming elements is to present the player with acommand line interface to issue orders via a domain-specific language to direct objects within the game, allowing the player to reissue commands as the situation changes rather than crafting a pre-made program. Games likeQuadrilateral Cowboy andDuskers have the user command several small robotic creatures in tandem through the language of code to reach a certain goal.[3]Hackmud presents the player with a simulated mainframe interface through which they issue commands to progress forward.[4]
Many programming games involve controlling entities such asrobots,tanks orbacteria which seek to destroy each other. Such games can be considered environments ofdigital organisms, related toartificial life simulations. An early example isCore War (1984), where programs written in a standardized assembly-like language battle for space in a finite memory (virtualmagneticcores). Players are given tools to develop and test out their programs within the game's domain-specific language before submitting the program to a central server. The server then executes the program against others and reports the results to the player, from which they can make changes or improvements to the program.
There are differenttournaments and leagues for the programming games where the characters can compete with each other. Usually a script is optimized for a special strategy. Similar approaches are used for more traditional games; theWorld Computer Chess Championship consists of matches between programs written for theabstract strategy game ofchess.
The competitive programming game has also found its way to variousboard games such asRoboRally orRobot Turtles, typically where a program becomes a premade deck of playing cards played one by one to execute that code.[5]
Researchers presentedRoboCode as a "problem-based learning" substrate for teaching programming.[6]
Open world games that feature the ability for players to construct environments from an array of building blocks have often been used by more advanced players to construct logic circuits and more advanced programs from the fundamental blocks.Minecraft is one such example, as while the game provides a limited set of blocks that mimic switches and electric circuits, users have been able to create basic functional computers within the virtual world, and at least onemodification is aimed to teach children how to program on the virtual computer in a simplistic language.[7]
Several sites, such asCodecademy, help to teach real-world programming languages throughgamification, where video game principles are used to motivate the user.[8]
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