History Main / ProgrammingGame

** ''VideoGame/{{EXAPUNKS}}'' Is the latest entry, themed around 90's style Hollywood hacking. You are tasked with programming [=EXAs=], autonomous programs that move around whatever host you are trying to subvert.

Programming games can make good {{Edutainment Game}}s for introducing computer science and programming to children.

* ''VideoGame/Autonauts'' has the player buildings robots to help them colonize an unknown planet by giving them simple instructions to follow. The robots will observe your actions and plan accordingly.

* ''Autonauts'' has the player buildings robots to help them colonize an unknown planet by giving them simple instructions to follow. The robots will observe your actions and plan accordingly.

Not to be confused with InteractiveFiction, GameMaker, or GameEngine. Other genres of game can have elements of this through GameplayAutomation.

* ''VideoGame/Roboforge'': The (now open-source) robot fighting game, where you build a robot, code it, then send it to fight until it's defeated.

* ''VideoGame/RobotOdysseyEscapefromRobotropolis'' was a game created by Creator/TheLearningCompany using the engine from ''Adventure'', the famous Atari game where you had to program and coordinate the efforts of a handful of robots to complete specific goals to escape the titular city. The method used for programming? [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logic_gate Logic gates]]. There's a reason that the game was at one time considered a good tutorial for Digital Logic college courses.

Not to be confused with InteractiveFiction. Other genres of game can have elements of this through GameplayAutomation.

* ''VideoGame/BabaIsYou'' is a mix of a BlockPuzzle game and a programming game, where the main rules are physical items within the game's screen, as three-words long, basic sentences (Such as "[[PlayerCharacter Baba is You]]", "Flag is Win" and "Wall is Stop"). You can push these words to mix-and-match them together. For example, making "Flag is You" will allow the player to control the flag, while removing the "Stop" from "Wall is Stop" will make the walls traversable. As the game progresses, you're given the opportunity to make longer and more elaborate sentences to change the level rules in increasingly complex ways, culminating in [[spoiler:the ability to change rules on ''the world map itself'' to reach hidden areas]].

* ''VideoGame/BabaIsYou'' is a mix of a BlockPuzzle game and a programming game, where the main rules are physical items within the game's screen, as three-words long, basic sentences (Such as "[[PlayerCharacter Baba is You]]", "Flag is Win" and "Wall is Stop"). You can push these words to mix-and-match them together. For example, making "Flag is You" will allow the player to control the flag, while removing the "Stop" from "Wall is Stop" will make the walls traversable.

* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXII'' has you set up conditions that the AI-controlled characters use to fight -- unless, of course, you want to control all of them yourself, which is an entirely valid option.

* ''VideoGame/BabaIsYou'' is a mix of a BlockPuzzle game and a programming game, where the main rules are physical items within the game's screen, as three-words long, basic sentences (Such as "Baba is You", "Flag is Win" and "Wall is Stop"). You can push these words to mix-and-match them together. For example, making "Flag is You" will allow the player to control the flag, while removing the "Stop" from "Wall is Stop" will make the walls traversable.

* ''VideoGame/{{Zork2}}'' has a robot that follows the same sort of English commands you use to control your own character.

%% http://galaxyhack.sourceforge.net/screenshots.php
* ''VideoGame/GalaxyHack'' sets entire fleets of spaceships against each other, helpless except for the AI you write and assign them. Oh, and their weapons.
%%* The (now open-source) robot fighting game ''Roboforge'' is built around this.

* As a partial example, [[VideoGame/ArmoredCore Armored Core Verdict Day]] has this in the form of [=UNACs=] (Short for [=UNmanned=] [=ACs=]). Not only you get to determine their loadouts, you get to create their own AI via an full-blown in-game logic programming system [[note]]The same programming which has been evolved by FROM Software themselves as ''the'' AI programming for every enemy behavior since the very first Armored Core game in 1997, according to WordOfGod [[/note]].

** It's sequel, ''[[VideoGame/SevenBillionHumans 7 Billion Humans]]'' has you control multiple workers to complete tasks - moving into multithreading.

* ''Franchise/ProfessorLayton'' loves these. Frequently, they are given as toys for young Luke to play with -- such as car and train tracks, where you have to set up a route for the car and train to take. This is also employed for the designated pets of each game -- a hamster in ''Diabolical Box'', a parrot in ''Unwound Future'', and a goldfish in ''Spectre's Call'', setting up routes for each pet to take on their respective tasks. The latter of the series also has a couple puzzles like this where someone is attempting to bounce an item (a watermelon, an apple, and a ''bomb'' in the OldSaveBonus puzzles) across to their friend.

** ''VideoGame/{{EXAPUNKS}}'' Is the latest entry, themed around 90's style Hollywood hacking. You are tasked with programming EXAs, autonomous programs that move around whatever host you are trying to subvert.

** ''VideoGame/{{EXAPUNKS}}'' Is the latest entry, themed around 90's style Hollywood hacking. You are tasked with programming "EXAs"; autonomous programs that move around whatever host you are trying to subvert.

** ''VideoGame/EXAPUNKS'' Is the latest entry, themed around 90's style Hollywood hacking. You are tasked with programming "EXAs"; autonomous programs that move around whatever host you are trying to subvert.

%% ZeroContextExample entries are not allowed on wiki pages. All such entries have been commented out. Add context to the entries before uncommenting them.

* Creator/{{Origin}} (of ''Ultima'' and ''Syndicate'' fame) published a game called ''VideoGame/{{Omega}}'' where you programmed robotic tanks using a structured form of BASIC, then set them battling each other.

* ''VideoGame/FireProWrestlingG'' had an Edit Ranking mode, where you design the AI for a Create-A-Wrestler and pit him against a ladder of opponents, the objective being to design a character who can make it all the way through. ''Fire Pro Wrestling D'' goes one better, allowing you to have the AI play through the game's season mode, essentially turning the whole game into a Programming Game.

* ''VideoGame/{{Colobot}}'' is a mixture of this and a RealTimeStrategy game, where you are you given various robots at your disposal that you can program yourself, with your task being finding a new planet for humanity to colonize. The language they use, [=CBot=], is based on real programming languages like C++ and Java, and it offers you quite a lot of freedom in setting up the tasks for the robots. With the right coding, you are able to order robots to do things like automatically collecting ore, bringing it to the nearest ore refinery and then placing the resulting titanium somewhere aside, or having the shooter robots become turrets that automatically turn towards targets and shoot at them when they get close enough.

* ''{{VideoGame/Colobot}}'' allows you to write your very own AI for the titular bots.