Programming game
You solve challenges by writing instructions, in real code or visual blocks, that your characters, robots or machines then carry out. The challenge is thinking like a programmer: breaking the problem down, testing and debugging the solution.
Also known as: coding game, zachlike
This is a basic entry: it has the definition and the classification. Full entries add history, games and a demo.
History
- 1961Origin
Darwin (1961), created at Bell Labs on an IBM 7090, was the first programming game.
Darwin (video game) (Wikipedia) - 1984
Core War pits programs written in an assembly-like language against each other.
Programming game (Wikipedia) - 2011
Zachtronics' SpaceChem has you program manipulator arms in a visual language to produce molecules.
SpaceChem (Wikipedia)
Reference games
2015
Flexbox Froggy
You write CSS flexbox properties to move the frogs onto their lily pads; the code you type is the only way to play. It is free, open source and translated into Spanish.
2017
Coding for Carrots (Google Doodle)
A Google Doodle celebrating 50 years of programming languages for children. Over six levels you snap together Scratch-style code blocks so that a character collects carrots.