Best programming games?

A bit to check out: Shenzen I/O, while True: learn(), TIS-100, Human Resource Machine, 7 Billion Humans, Bitburner. Those I played and liked (though still didn't finish most of them yet). When you look for programming game, it pretty much depends on your skills and what you want to do in those games. Some are more puzzle games than programming, some allow you more freedom.

It is not on sale, but I really like this one:

Move Code Lines: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1300310/Move_Code_Lines/

Some of the puzzles are really hard. Have to write a program to solve those.

As a girl, I like Autonauts. They are cute, kawaii and they are interesting to program 😄

View attached image.

I've enjoyed this hacking-sim game: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1812820/Bitburner/

it's free and open-source and you can play it directly in your browser too: https://danielyxie.github.io/bitburner/

it's an idler game, you can play it manually like other incremental games, or you can automate things by writing NS/JS scripts using the APIs provided:

https://bitburner.readthedocs.io/en/latest/

my husband liked playing bitburner
its free on steam
it has a cyberpunk / matrix kinda feel
you can write scripts to optimate your income and improve your skills

lol i didnt see ormax3 commented the same game as i had the page open for quite some time but only now came to it

Check this list out: https://github.com/readyready15728/awesome-programming-games

SpaceChem is really good. ^_^
I've heard good things about Zachtronics' other programming games too though I haven't personally played them yet.

The Zachtronics games already mentioned are good programming puzzle games. They can get really challenging, though. I have yet to actually finish one since I always reach a tough puzzle and refuse to look up a solution. 🤔

I liked Hacknet which is a hack sim type puzzle game. Its not quite programming, you use a command line interface to find ways around security and do fun stuff like modify a company website or steal private info.

Take a look at Colobot. It's free, but not on Steam.

The campaign consists of going on other planets in an attempt to colonise them. You build a small base, harvest resources, fight aliens, etc. The twist is that you can (and should) program a variety of robots to do everything automatically. So instead of manually controlling a bot to mine some iron, you write a code for it to be able to find an iron node, go and pick it up, find a refinery, and so on. Same goes for combat or exploration.

It has its own programming language, a mix between C++ and Java. It can get pretty complex if you want it to, or you can keep it simple with some more manual labour. There are also challenges that function like the more typical puzzle games. You're given a task to accomplish, a robot, and must write code for it.