History Main / ProgrammingGame

A game where the player does not directly control any characters. Instead, one gives a series of instructions to a character, and the character executes them, with the goal being to successfully complete some task. The task may involve battling or fighting, or just getting from one side of the room to the other.

* The dojo missions in ''WarioWare DIY''.

* Every game by [http://www.zachtronicsindustries.com/ Zachtronics Industries] (former tagline “games for engineers”). Most notably:

* The ''DoctorBrain'' series is quite fond of these. All three games have a programming puzzle in them.

** In ''The Time Warp Of Dr Brain'' there's a bunch of cars which need to get to the appropriate parking spaces. In this version color-coded instructions are placed at the intersections, and cars will follow any appropriately-colored instructions they come across. Harder difficulties add obstacle vehicles which follow predetermined paths and multiple cars of the same color, and even though same-colored cars have interchangeable cars each parking spot can only hold one car.

** In ''The Time Warp Of Doctor Brain'' there's a bunch of cars which need to get to the appropriate color-coded parking spaces. In this version color-coded instructions are placed at the intersections, and cars will follow any appropriately-colored instructions they come across. Harder difficulties add obstacle vehicles which follow predetermined paths and multiple cars of the same color.

* ''[[http://www.kongregate.com/games/krispykrem/the-codex-of-alchemical-engineering?referrer=Dariush Codex of Alchemical Engineering]]''. Quoting the description, 'As an Alchemical Engineer, you must build machines out of mechanical arms and magical glyphs that transform and combine atoms in order to create the compounds required for each level.'

* [[{{ptitle9vda7xey}} SpaceChem]]. Each 'reactor' is effectively a [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finite-state_machine finite-state machine.]]

* Subverted very much with the flash game [[http://www.mausland.de/460.maus Programming God]]. [[spoiler: It's a ButtonMashing game]].

A style of game where the player does not directly control any characters. Instead, one gives a series of instructions to a character, and the character executes them, with the goal being to successfully complete some task. The task may involve battling or fighting, or just getting from one side of the room to the other.

Not to be confused with InteractiveFiction.

* How has noone mentioned [[http://www.brothersoft.com/games/mindrover.html MindRover: The Europa Project]] yet!? It's a vehicle-based 3rd-person shooter where you preprogram the vehicles to fight each other using a visual programming interface. (There are also race and 'sumo' modes). The premise is also pretty entertaining: basically there are a bunch of scientists working on Jupiter's moon Europa and they're boooooored. Programming the miniature vehicles called 'Rovers' to fight each other is just their way of killing time...

* TheIncredibleMachine is so completely immersed in this trope it's a travesty it's this low on the list.

* ''The Lost Mind of Dr. Brain'': In one of the games therein, the player had a limited number of moves to use to get all the items, and had to program them: "move forward, turn right, move forward", etc.
** ''The Castle of Dr. Brain'' has a similar puzzle. The catch? You program three robot heads, and they don't always obey orders exactly.
** Actually, so did the second game in the series, ''The Island of Dr. Brain''. They love this kind of stuff.

* ''Globulation 2'' is a partial example. It's freeware game which doesn't let you directly control your units; instead, you give various "orders" to all of your units of a certain type, and the game's AI takes over. For example, instead of leading your soldiers directly into an enemy base, you drop an "invasion flag," which attracts soldiers to come and knock stuff over. Workers are controlled by clicking on the building you want staffed and assigning more workers to it. And units will automatically check out any new upgrade building you make. This concept wouldn't work if it weren't for the game's utter, ''utter'' aversion of ArtificialStupidity.

* [[http://galaxyhack.sourceforge.net/screenshots.php Galaxy Hack]] sets entire fleets of spaceships against each other, each armed only with the AI they are assigned. Oh, and their weapons. :) This is a Free, Open Source game.