I never understood the point of games that emulate the programming experience. Whenever I play them I feel like I'm wasting my time and I could be making something real.
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Ask HN: Which programming games helped you become a better programmer?
51–60 of 90 posts
Re: Ask HN: Which programming games helped you become a better programmer?
#52The very best suggestions, such as Core War and the Zachtronics games, are already in this thread. One fun little gem that hasn't been mentioned: https://www.unixgame.io/unix50
Re: Ask HN: Which programming games helped you become a better programmer?
#53I highly enjoyed TIS-100 and Shenzhen-IO, though I'm not even close to completing either. They wouldn't make you better at a specific language (even assembly, since they use a pseudo-assembly) but I think they'd be useful to get better at problem solving and breaking down algorithms into their most basic parts.
Re: Ask HN: Which programming games helped you become a better programmer?
#54The inverse worked for me: I wrote a game to become a better programmer.
I recommend most beginners to start with a simple solitaire card game, make a polished card game, complete with tutorial, pausing, win/lose conditions. The reason is the graphics and flow of the game are already a common thing, so planning it is minimal and the focus is on the coding.
Re: Ask HN: Which programming games helped you become a better programmer?
#55It doesn’t seem to exactly fit your description but Python Challenge ( http://www.pythonchallenge.com/ ) has been incredibly fun and rewarding for me back in the day. It’s a series of riddles that are meant to be solved using the python language. It’s really old now but I’m hoping that some library specific riddles are still relevant. Apart from those few, most of them should be language agnostic as well. I’ve always…
Okay, I've been nerd-sniped, there goes my Sunday night.
Counter-snipe: https://challenge.synacor.com
Re: Ask HN: Which programming games helped you become a better programmer?
#56I’ve developed Recursive [0], a programming puzzles game that helps understand and master recursion, which is, I think, a topic that many developers have difficulty with. I’ll be glad to send an AppStore promo code for those who’d like to play it for free (email in website [1]). Also, I don’t use any analytics tools. So your direct feedback is welcome and highly appreciated. [0] https://apps.apple.com/app/recursive/i…
On a similar note is recursed, a puzzle platformer that isn't about programming, but it is absolutely about programming.
Re: Ask HN: Which programming games helped you become a better programmer?
#57Let us also remember that before programming:
The NAND Game, nandgame.com
is "obligatory".
Re: Ask HN: Which programming games helped you become a better programmer?
#58It doesn’t seem to exactly fit your description but Python Challenge ( http://www.pythonchallenge.com/ ) has been incredibly fun and rewarding for me back in the day. It’s a series of riddles that are meant to be solved using the python language. It’s really old now but I’m hoping that some library specific riddles are still relevant. Apart from those few, most of them should be language agnostic as well. I’ve always…
Okay, I've been nerd-sniped, there goes my Sunday night. Counter-snipe: https://challenge.synacor.com
I can second the Synacor challenge. After writing the VM and completing the challenge, I ended up writing my own assembler and small compiler for it. Very fun.
Re: Ask HN: Which programming games helped you become a better programmer?
#59I never understood the point of games that emulate the programming experience. Whenever I play them I feel like I'm wasting my time and I could be making something real.
That's why I've asked the question - about games that make you feel not wasting your time. Because this will be a breakthrough.
Re: Ask HN: Which programming games helped you become a better programmer?
#60To the list of Zachtronics games, I'll add Opus Magnum, which is the one that I found most rewarding.
Opus Magnum is the Zachtronics game that resonated most with me. It's visual, like SpaceChem, but I also like the setting and find the solutions to be very satisfying.