Warp Factory
Really good Zachlike - it’s basically 2D infinifactory with portals.
It’s less optimisation focused than most of Zach’s games, and doesn’t have leaderboards/histograms to compare yourself to other players. Instead, there’s challenge variants on some maps, such as complete in under 250 cycles, or complete without using sensors and conveyors. To me, these are better than just having histograms because they’re chosen to match the level, and optimising every single level for size/time does tend to get a bit samey. (it also means I’m not constantly reminded how inferior my solutions are!)
– Real player with 91.6 hrs in game
Read More: Best Automation Building Games.
Fantastic little automation game. Plenty of puzzles and infinite ways to solve them. Most tasks can be completed with no (or minimal) portal usage, but once you get more comfortable with them you can make some very elegant contraptions. If you’re like me and your brain gets tickled by building and optimizing machines, then this will scratch the itch perfectly. The only thing it’s missing is the ability to record your best scores for parts/size/speed. In Zachtronics games, these scores let you compete against yourself and other people online to make better machines, which makes the game even more fun. If you’re more competitive, the absence of this may be a turn off, but if you have the drive to optimize things yourself or if the act of solving a puzzle is enough to satiate you then it’s fine. Some puzzles also have specific optional limitations that make things more interesting, like asking you to beat a level in a small area or without using sensors. All in all, a great game that stands alongside others like Infinifactory and is absolutely worth your time. I hope it finds the success it deserves.
– Real player with 82.3 hrs in game
CHR$(143)
I started writing this review but got distracted and kept playing it.
Its pretty challenging but learning and overcoming a level gives a good level of satisfaction, but do be prepared to end up sitting on a level for an hour or so trying to learn whats going on slowly revealing all the intricate parts especially on the fog of war levels.
If you enjoy logic puzzles and perhaps a lil logic coding CHR143 is more than worth the asking price.
– Real player with 101.4 hrs in game
Read More: Best Automation Building Games.
CHR$(143) is an absolutely mystifying game. Behind its retro drapery in the style of the Amstrad CPC (a computer both slightly before my time and popular on the wrong continent altogether) is a construct that tears apart the modern rubric for successful games.
The result is something that is equally wondrous and maddening. The sense of discovery experienced here is something unlike anything I have experienced since the original Portal. New gameplay elements will be introduced that will come totally out of left field - once you’re out of those tutorial levels, how will they work, how will they behave, especially in a strange and quirky physics implementation? It will be on you to find out - this game demands you to experiment!
– Real player with 50.4 hrs in game
Cyborg Earthworm
Cyborg Earthworm is a “Snake” automation game. The worm follows the rules of the famous Snake game, and you can program it. Develop a strategy and let the worm follow it without your involvement.
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Solve and optimize 20+ areas, each of which contains a virtually unlimited number of procedurally generated levels.
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Watch the worm dominate the levels automatically without having to pilot it.
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Reach the maximum possible length, filling all free space.
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Use a variety of tools like paint spray for leaving marks in the soil and internal worm memory for tracking things.
Read More: Best Automation Education Games.
Monster Logic
One of the best programming games I’ve played. Lots of levels and a variety of interesting ways to solve each one.. Competitive leaderboards, the top score in some of these puzzle are already pretty crazy. You are going to have to be super creative in order to match them. There are three categories for the leaderboards and your best score in each category for the puzzle is automatically saved. (Zachtrnoics take note please)
I have played almost every programming game on steam and this is probably my second favorite. With my favorite being EXAPUNKS
– Real player with 86.9 hrs in game
First off, I was a beta tester and received the game for free.
It might be scary for those who are not particularly into programming to look at the store page and see stuff like “Based on esoteric programming languages Befunge and Trefunge”. It could make you think this game is “too niche” and not for you.
Now, I don’t know whether you’ll actually like it or not, but let me tell you this: I had never even heard of Befunge or Trefunge before playing this, and I’m not a programming enthusiast or anything. I just looked at it as a fun puzzle game with cute monsters and animations and tried to solve the levels as best I could using good old logic.
– Real player with 54.5 hrs in game
Lowsy
so! this game is one dollar. this is a truly unfair price - i think it could go fine at eight, to be honest. but what exactly is it?
with the grid and tick system and variety of parts, you might initially think it’s a zachlike, but it isn’t quite. there are 13 levels, and they don’t build off of each other or progress smoothly - they showcase entirely different conundrums. I’ve only beaten the easiest few, but i’ve had to carefully map out a maze of hands, do speed changes on two perpendicular lines of eyes to avoid collision, and stall out eyes in a box until the level ends automatically. every level is a completely separate puzzle, and they’re all very fun! it’s like a game made of only special challenge levels
– Real player with 0.2 hrs in game
Block Machine
Block Machine is a difficult yet poorly explained programming puzzle that combines the joy of doing homework for computer science class with the eerie satisfaction of toying around with Redstone in Minecraft.
In Block Machine, you build machines from blocks (who would have guessed!) to solve a variety of programming tasks. Block Machine’s programming model is unique: Blocks are both code and data, and all computation happens in parallel. Von Neumann would have loved this.
15+ Different Block Types to Explore
How many different ways can you find to use the basic arrow blocks? Or maybe you fancy the charged battery blocks? Wrap your head around the different capabilities and use them to build the smallest and fastest Block Machine.
25+ Challenging levels, ranging from HARD to REALLY HARD
Solve difficult programming puzzles in this Turing tarpit. Can you beat the global highscore in any of the three categories?
A Sandbox mode to mess around to your heart’s content
Build that 1000 block machine your dreamt about last night. Or don’t. It’s a sandbox!