Summary

• Programming games on Steam are a great way to learn new skills and fundamentals in a fun and beginner-friendly way.
• These games offer a variety of programming puzzles and challenges that will test your problem-solving skills.
• From learning Python to exploring complex concepts, these games provide an engaging and educational experience.

If you’re a gamer who loves a good logic puzzle, happy to trial and error your way to a satisfying solution, programming games are for you. This niche genre of video games has found a home within Steam’s expansive library, and playing them is a great way to learn new skills and fundamentals, especially if you’re looking for more☂ exciting ways to practice coding.

While some programming games emphasize that no prior coding experience is needed, others are more challenging than they appear. Whether you’re interested in leveling up your problem-solving skills, refreshing fundamentals, or exploring the world of programming for the first time, these gam🥃es guarantee a beginner-friendly, fun experience that will have you thinking like a programmer in no time.

Updated January 10, 2024 by Jack Pierik: Computer science, programming, coding, whatever you want to call it, this is a skill that has been pushed in society by politicians, educators, and the tech industry for well over a decade. Whether you feel like learning to code is a good future career path, or you want to dabble in it as a hobby, you have to admit, 'gamifying' the learning process sounds a lot better than frying your brain in a classroom, or endlessly problem-solving on Leetcode. Instead, why not give some of these beginner-friendly coding games on Steam a try? We added a few more in this update for you to look at.

12 Robospital 🐻 🐬

• Check out on Steam

Robospital essentially puts you in the role of a doctor or physician, but instead of aiding actual people, it's up to you to look at robots, diagnose their problems, and fix them. Not only is the idea somewhat cute and novel, it's a wonderful game if you're trying to learn Python.

Not on🉐ly will you be solving a variety of programming puzzles along the way, the best part about Robospital is that it provides a helpful, easily accessible index of the most common, to moderately advanced Python syntax and concepts, completely wit🐎hin the game.

11 ꦅ 🐭 Retro Gadgets

• Check out on Steam

While Retro Gadgets is a bit more sandbox oriented, and has you doing more than just coding, since you'll be piecing together electronics and PCB components by soldering and connecting wires together, the programming itself does involve actual LUA Scripting.

Despite the added functionalities and mechanics, this game can really grow on you, especially if you enjoy free-form tinkering. From your own, digital retro handhelds, to weather machines, drum sequencers, and a bunch of other gadgets, you can create to your heart's content while learning at the same time.

10 Human Resource Machine ꦬ 𝔉

• Check out on Steam

If Human Resource Machine's visual style seems somewhat familiar, it's probably because the folks behind this game, Tomorrow Corporation, also created World of Goo and Little Inferno. But, that's beside the point; you're here to shift your brain into a logic and object-oriented mindset, right?

While you won't be coding in an actual programming language, it's an incredibly beginner-friendly way to introduce you to similar problems and puzzles you'd have to solve with any regular language, like Java, C#, or whatever you end up going for first.

9 ꧑ 7 Billion Humans

• Check out on Steam

7 Billion Humans is a funny puzzle game and a great intr🌠oduction to programming logic for any curious gamer. The game is set in a world where robots have ensured that humans never need to work, which sounds great, but humans still demand good-paying jobs. Of course, the robots happily oblige with an office building teeming with puzzles and datacubes to keep everyone busy.

The game teaches you to code line by line, giving you a variety of commands to use when writing your program. You'll be assigning actions for multiple humans in the same room, tasking them to shred datacubes or organizing them in the right order. Don't worry if you need to debug your code or ask for hints from your floor manager. Asking for help is all part of the learning process!

8 Silicon Zeroes ☂

• Check out on Steam

Silicon Zeroes lets you travel back to the beginning of modern computer design, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:taking place in the '60s inside Silicon Valley’s very first startup. If you’re interested in learning about computer h༒ardware design and solving logic problems, this game is definitely for you and by the end, you’ll certainly know how to build a fully functioning 🎐CPU.

While Silicon Zeroes introduces some pretty complicated concepts, you don’t have to be a computer enthusiast to have a fun time. The beginning slowly introduces you to components and basic concepts, prepping you to solve more complex puzzles later on. It’s always satis𝓡fying to reach those “aha!” moments, but you’re never forced to stick out a puzzle if you’re particularly stuck; puzzles will save your progress, so you can go work on a different one until you’re ready to come back to it with fresh eyes.

7 Autonauts

• Check out on Steam

Don’t let the adorable low-poly graphics fool you; Autonauts is an automation progr🃏amming game with tons of depth that combines elements from farming sims and resource management titles. The premise involves building your colony using robots called workerbots to build, craft, f⭕ish, and more to keep your colonists happy.

Automation involves using a visual programming language similar to Scratch. Rather than writing lines of codeꦇ, you can program your bots by teaching them what to do. For instance, you can show your bot how to chop down a tree and the game populates a script specifically made for that very thing. It’s as simple as it sounds. You also have the freedom to edit your scripts and add parameters that will take your code to the next level.

6 ൩ 𝄹 While True: Learn

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Parents, teachers, and beginner programmers who are looking for a fun, easy intro to logical thinking and coding concepts will love While True: Learn, a puzzle simulation game all about building a cat-to-human speech recognition system. You play as a machine learning specialist whose cat is very talented at coding, perhaps even better than you, but you can’t work together if 'meows' are your only form of communication.

No coding experience is needed to enjoy this cute, charming title as the puzzles are designed to be educational. It’s a fun way to get꧑ comfortable with the building blocks of machine lea♔rning, and you’ll enjoy simulating life as a freelance data scientist as you accept contracts, make money, and upgrade your hardware. Even better, you get to buy fancy outfits for your cat!

5 Robo Instructus 🅺

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Write, debug, and test your own code to help your robot navigate the frozen planet of Bright in Robo Instructus, a programming puzzle game inspired by real-life programming languag🌄es. It’s a great title for people who have never tried programming, and it also provides enjoyable challenges that will test your problem-solving skills.

Like most beginner-friendly programming games, you'll start with the basics, navigating the world with simple movement commands, and as you complete levels, you’ll learn more complex ways to write your code. Plus, there are multiple ways to solve each puzzle, giving you countless opportunities to experiment and optimize.

4 Code Romantic 𒉰

• Check out on Steam

Oftentimes programming games favor puzzles over stories, which can occasionally feel more like work than play. Well, Code Romantic is a 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:visual novel that strikes an amazing balance by blending post-apocalyptic storytelling, educational coding mechanics, and a 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:watercolor art style to create 🤪a charming and unique approach to learning C# code.

You’ll play as Mina Lovelace, who joins humanity’s last-ditch effort to hack the robot army threatening the world. But the biggest threat to Mina is her heart as she tries not to embarrass herself in fr𒐪ont of her childhood crush and coding partner, Leon. You get to experience their love story across 14 chapters while also solving puzzles using real code and concepts, which the developers designed to be the equivalent of an entry-level computer science course.

3 One Dreamer 🥀

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Game development is undoubtedly a labor of love, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:with develop♛ers often dedicating years to creating something fun, and burnout is a common roadblock along the journey. One Dreamer is a story-rich adventure that follows the life of a game developer named Frank, who is deep in debt and nowhere close to finishing his dream game. Struggling through creative burnout, he needs help rediscove🌼ring his love for video games.

Reprogram objects, fix bugs, and solve coding puzzles along your quest to help Frank fulfill his dream. The game’s programming language is a simplified version of C#. You just click on the commands to add them to your script, which is great practice for getting comfortable with fundamentals. Perhaps the best part is exploring and editing code for nearly all interactable objects you come across in One Dreamer’s 2.5D pixel-art world. From turning on a coffee machine to unlocking a door, you'll find many fun ways to use your new coding skills.