A game that allows players to experience software development can be an excellent way to teach programming concepts and coding concepts, such as loops and conditional statement. Games that accomplish this include Zachtronics’ Shenzhen I/O, which puts players in the shoes of disaffected engineers working for a drab chip company and must design computer chips by hand. The circuits they’re asked to create become more complicated beginning with making the lights flash in a certain pattern.
The interface in the game is very similar to web browser’s developer tools and also teaches scripting. Another great example is Screeps which incorporates JavaScript coding with massively multiplayer online games to build self-sustaining colonies. Both games do a wonderful job of teaching the basics while gradually introduce new ones.
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