Games Like 异常 | Exception

Robo Instructus is a puzzle game in which players manoeuvre a robot by issuing instructions via a simple programming language. As players progress through the game they unlock new functions to overcome new puzzles, each of which can be solved in multiple ways.

Why similar: Programming 72.1% ★, Robots 23.6%, Indie 4.3%

Why You'll Like It: It shares the core focus of using programming logic to control robotic units in a puzzle-driven environment.

Assemble your robot squad, construct their AI and send them in the battle arena to see your strategy play out. Iterate, improve and repeat until you outsmart all your opponents and friends online.

Why similar: Programming 42.6% ★, Strategy 41.6%, Robots 13.2%, Indie 2.7%

Why You'll Like It: This game mirrors the indirect control style of Exception by requiring you to program AI behaviors for robots before they enter combat.

You’re a machine learning specialist who makes neural networks but your cat seems to be better at it. Now you must solve puzzles to build a cat-to-human translation system (who knows what else this cat is capable of!). Earn a fortune, buy kickass cat outfits, learn how machine learning really works!

Why similar: Programming 96% ★, Indie 4%

Why You'll Like It: It uses visual flowcharts to teach machine learning concepts, capturing the same 'programming as gameplay' spirit found in Exception.

Program little office workers to solve puzzles. Be a good employee! The machines are coming... for your job. From the creators of World of Goo and Little Inferno.

Why similar: Programming 93.7% ★, Indie 6.3%

Why You'll Like It: It provides a foundational experience in visual programming and logic puzzles that feels conceptually similar to the coding tasks in Exception.

BUILD CIRCUITS. WRITE CODE. RTFM.

Why similar: Programming 96.7% ★, Indie 3.3%

Why You'll Like It: It focuses on hardware-level programming and logic, providing a satisfyingly complex engineering puzzle experience.

TIS-100 is an open-ended programming game by Zachtronics, the creators of SpaceChem and Infinifactory, in which you rewrite corrupted code segments to repair the TIS-100 and unlock its secrets. It’s the assembly language programming game you never asked for!

Why similar: Programming 96.4% ★, Indie 3.6%

Why You'll Like It: This game offers a deep, assembly-style programming challenge that appeals to players who enjoy the technical side of Exception.

In Autonauts you must build, create, and automate. Start by establishing a colony, crafting bots and teaching them via Scratch-style programming to build an ever evolving autonomous paradise of agriculture, industry and enlightenment.

Why similar: Programming 78.8% ★, Robots 8.2%, Indie 6.9%, Strategy 6.2%

Why You'll Like It: This game excels at teaching automation through a visual programming language, allowing you to build a robotic workforce.

Automate swarms of office workers to solve puzzles inside your very own parallel computer made of people. A thrilling followup to the award winning Human Resource Machine. Now with more humans!

Why similar: Programming 94.2% ★, Indie 5.8%

Why You'll Like It: As a sequel to Human Resource Machine, it expands on the logic-based automation mechanics with more complex multi-unit coordination.

Design, build and wire up your own unique robot to complete challenging logic puzzles. LogicBots is a puzzle game where robots are used to complete the various levels.

Why similar: Programming 65.7% ★, Robots 27.2%, Indie 7.1%

Why You'll Like It: It allows players to build and program their own robots to solve puzzles, directly aligning with the robotic theme of the seed game.

You land on a frozen planet in a tiny rocket with a robot inside. Harvest and combine materials to discover new ones. Use visual programming to make the robot do the tiresome work for you. Slowly build a gang of self-sustaining robot workers and watch them terraform the planet.

Why similar: Programming 61.4% ★, Robots 23.5%, Strategy 11.5%, Indie 3.5%

Why You'll Like It: It focuses on using visual programming to automate survival and crafting tasks, making it a great follow-up for automation fans.

Algo Bot is puzzle game that takes place deep inside the Europa, a pan-galactic colonisation ship, where a recycling mission goes horribly wrong. Use your algorithm special skills to command Algo Bot, a service droid, and help PAL, a cantankerous line manager, to contain the crisis.

Why similar: Programming 74.5% ★, Robots 16.8%, Indie 8.7%

Why You'll Like It: It features a charming robot protagonist and requires players to use a sequence of commands to navigate levels, mirroring Exception's core loop.

Screeps: World is an open source MMO strategy sandbox game for programming enthusiasts. You control your colony by writing JavaScript code that operates 24/7 in the huge persistent online open world.

Why similar: Programming 80.9% ★, Strategy 19.1%

Why You'll Like It: This MMO strategy game is entirely driven by real JavaScript code, offering the ultimate challenge for programming-focused gamers.

Bitburner is a programming-based incremental game. Write scripts in JavaScript to automate gameplay, learn skills, play minigames, solve puzzles, and more in this cyberpunk text-based incremental RPG.

Why similar: Programming 94.2% ★, Strategy 5.1%, Indie 0.6%

Why You'll Like It: This text-based hacking simulator requires actual scripting to automate tasks, perfect for players who want to dive deeper into programming mechanics.

Screeps: Arena is an online asynchronous PvP strategy game for programming enthusiasts. You write real JavaScript to control your units, and they fight autonomously against other players in a 1v1 match-based arena environment.

Why similar: Programming 77.8% ★, Strategy 22.2%

Why You'll Like It: This competitive version of Screeps focuses on short-form programming battles, perfect for players who enjoy the combat aspect of Exception.

Use real Python code to automate machines, robots, drones and more: Program self-driving vehicles; crack passwords; apply machine learning; automate logistics; use image processing to guide missiles. Gain real coding skills and solve exciting bite-sized programming challenges.

Why similar: Programming 66% ★, Robots 27.8%, Strategy 6.2%

Why You'll Like It: This simulator focuses on the practical application of code to solve logical problems, mirroring the educational feel of Exception.

FATAL ERROR is a real-time strategy game on the digital battlefields of a computer world under attack. With your TAC-AID and advanced programming, you must eliminate all threats to the Mainframe and take the fight to the viruses. Discover an abstract world of limitless potential…and lurking dangers.

Why similar: Strategy 42.2%, Robots 41.4%, Indie 16.4%

Why You'll Like It: This RTS features a digital, virtual-world aesthetic and strategy elements that resonate with the setting of Exception.

When you have a top-of-the-line hacking deck armed with a 56.6k modem and a staggering 256k RAM, it means just one thing: you answer only to the highest bidder.

Why similar: Programming 94% ★, Indie 6%

Why You'll Like It: It blends a retro-futuristic aesthetic with hacking and programming puzzles that feel like a more narrative-driven version of Exception.

Create, automate and defend an impenetrable base. Assemble and command a Bot army to combat an entire Piratebot invasion. Build, program and battle your way through five different zones.

Why similar: Programming 57.3% ★, Strategy 23.4%, Robots 19.4%

Why You'll Like It: It adds a combat and defense layer to the automation mechanics of the original Autonauts, bringing it closer to Exception's action-strategy hybrid.

Hacknet is an immersive, terminal-based hacking simulator for PC. Dive down a rabbit hoIe as you follow the instructions of a recently deceased hacker, whose death may not have been the accident the media reports.

Why similar: Programming 93.2% ★, Indie 6.8%

Why You'll Like It: This terminal-based hacking game provides an immersive experience in command-line logic and system manipulation.

A roguelike where you automate combat. Combine skills and conditions to find your own optimal solution! No complicated controls at all!! Sit back with a coffee and watch the beautiful battles you've crafted unfold! Utilize a variety of skills, conditions, and relics to craft the ultimate build!

Why similar: Programming 77.7% ★, Strategy 15%, Indie 7.3%

Why You'll Like It: It integrates programming and automation into a roguelike structure, providing a unique twist on the genre.

A game about friendship, love and technology in a place where bits have replaced atoms.

Why similar: Programming 92.3% ★, Indie 7.7%

Why You'll Like It: It features a world where you can rewrite the code of objects to change their behavior, emphasizing the power of programming in a virtual space.

Squally is a 2D puzzle RPG programming game that teaches you how to hack. Control the world by rewriting it in x86/x64 assembly language!

Why similar: Programming 60.8% ★, Strategy 39.2%

Why You'll Like It: It is an RPG that teaches you how to code through its mechanics, offering a narrative-driven approach to learning programming.

MHRD is a hardware design game, in which you design various hardware circuits in a hardware description language. The hardware circuits you design get more complex as you go until you create a fully functional CPU design.

Why similar: Programming 88.9% ★, Indie 11.1%

Why You'll Like It: This hardware-design game forces you to build a computer from logic gates, appealing to the deep technical curiosity of Exception players.

Icaria is a robot colony builder where everything can be programmed. Build factories, design logistic networks, terraform the landscape, and explore an unknown alien world.

Why similar: Programming 68.6% ★, Robots 22.3%, Strategy 9.1%

Why You'll Like It: This game combines base-building with programming-based automation, offering a modern take on the genre.

CODE OR DIE! Hack enemy systems & survive the security response by engineering lethal bullet-heaven algorithms. Your brain power determines your firepower across 190+ programming nodes. Debug your failures. Optimize your code. Complete the heist. HACK THE PLANET!

Why similar: Programming 81.8% ★, Strategy 18.2%

Why You'll Like It: It emphasizes fast-paced coding challenges that test your ability to write logic under pressure.

The year is 1997. You used to be a hacker, but now you have the phage. You made a deal: one hack, one dose. There’s nothing left to lose… except your life.

Why similar: Programming 94.9% ★, Indie 5.1%

Why You'll Like It: It offers a gritty, hacking-focused programming experience that rewards creative problem-solving within strict technical constraints.

OCTOPTICOM is an open-ended puzzle programming game about designing and optimizing optical computing devices. Use lasers, mirrors, filters and other components to read, transform and write sequences of colored squares.

Why similar: Programming 86.6% ★, Indie 13.4%

Why You'll Like It: It is a logic-heavy puzzle game that requires careful planning and programming to optimize complex systems.

Bioweaver is an RPG game with the main content of treasure hunting and character building. You can use basic programming logic to deeply customize your skill sets, and you can also create organs with different attributes and functions with the special crafting system.

Why similar: Programming 94.6% ★, Indie 5.4%

Why You'll Like It: It uses a unique programming interface to control tactical units, blending RPG elements with code-based strategy.

Escape Machines is an addictive Science Fiction single/multi-player/co-op adventure shooter in the near future! Artificial intellect and robots fight against their creators. You must take control of the robots and save people.

Why similar: Strategy 43.5%, Robots 38.4%, Indie 18.1%

Why You'll Like It: It provides a blend of action and strategy that captures the feeling of managing robotic units in a hostile environment.

Program and optimize a drone to automate a farm and watch it do the work for you. Collect resources to unlock better technology and become the most efficient farmer in the world. Improve your problem solving and coding skills.

Why similar: Programming 91% ★, Strategy 7.4%, Indie 1.6%

Unusual and NOT Safe Experiments is an action-puzzle game where you control a robot trying to escape from an abandoned complex, overcoming traps and solving puzzles.

Why similar: Robots 100%

《一个人工智能的诞生》（The Birth of an Artificial Intelligence）是一个有关机器学习的交互视频项目，它将从最简单的原理入手，通过清晰直观的可视化，让你彻底理解它的工作原理。你可以亲自动手操作，调整参数，改变视角，实时演示，甚至可以搭建一个人工智能。

Why similar: Programming 72.7% ★, Strategy 27.3%

Why You'll Like It: It focuses on the logic and exploration of AI development, aligning well with the thematic goals of Exception.

When an old woman's computer system is taken over by a virus bent on total annihilation, you assume control of an ordinary software program transformed into an elite combat machine. Retake the system and build your character into a formidable instrument of retribution.

Why similar: Indie 100%

An ultra-precise 2D platformer where you give robots instructions instead of directly controlling them. Master the campaign levels or create and share your own. “It’s Mario Maker with coding” - Lewis Brindley, Yogscast.

Why similar: Programming 80.7% ★, Robots 19.3%

A strategic fusion of automation game and tower defense

Why similar: Robots 51.1%, Strategy 41.2%, Indie 7.8%

Battle with robots on dynamic, randomly generated battlegrounds, as you attempt to take on the world in this unique turn-based strategy game.

Why similar: Strategy 50.8%, Robots 35.3%, Indie 13.9%

Robo Do It is a funny game to learn logic programming without writing code by building scripts to program robots in each level. The goal is to find the best solution to create an algorithm that takes these robots into victory capsules.

Why similar: Strategy 72.5%, Indie 27.5%

In a world where a robot revolution failed, the last humans search for a way to survive and escape. Beacon of Neyda is a side-scrolling action-strategy game where you must survive waves of enemies while creating and upgrading your base as you explore a world in ruins.

Why similar: Robots 48.8%, Strategy 36.9%, Indie 14.3%

Create and command your own customizable squads of fighting robots in this turn-based, arena tactics game.

Why similar: Strategy 72.3%, Indie 27.7%

It's a retro-style strategy game, you can choose the Northsky Fleet or the Pirates, lead your commanders, controll many kinds of warships and robots, and fight a war with the enemy's fleet and alien horde on the galactic chessboard!

Why similar: Robots 52.5%, Strategy 36%, Indie 11.5%

Build the mech to fight against robotic Vactics in tactical chess-like combat. The war is already over and the heroes of the city have fallen. Take on a new randomly generated challenge every time you play and join with the citizens to fight for a better future.

Why similar: Robots 66.7%, Strategy 33.3%

Replicube is an open-ended programming puzzle game/toy about writing code to replicate 3D voxel-based objects. Solve puzzles, pursue leaderboard glory, or just make art to share with the in-game community.

Why similar: Programming 100% ★

Protolife is an unique tower-based strategy game which gives you a direct control over the builder robot in a struggle against the hungry proto-life organism.

Why similar: Strategy 74%, Indie 26%

Clockwork cleanup is a auto-battler game where your actions are dictated by tiles of various shapes placed in a grid. Defeat waves of enemies to save the factory!

Why similar: Robots 47.5%, Strategy 42.8%, Indie 9.6%

Chip is an isometric puzzle game with robots, electricity and fancy dress! The player must help recharge Chip - a plucky little red robot - who has been imprisoned by the nefarious villain, Rust.

Why similar: Strategy 37.9%, Robots 36.8%, Indie 25.3%

Players play one of the heroes in the late Eastern Han Dynasty, conquer other forces and unify the world

Why similar: Strategy 88.3%, Indie 11.7%

Control powerful mechs from the future to defeat an alien threat. Each attempt to save the world presents a new randomly generated challenge in this turn-based strategy game.

Why similar: Strategy 76.4%, Indie 23.6%

A dark sci-fi mech assembling manager with semi-auto battles against mutating, alien bio-weapon.

Why similar: Strategy 73.9%, Indie 26.1%

Mechanica is a multiplayer open-world survival game involving building and programming. Create your own bases, defenses, manufacturing systems and more. Explore the map and expand the scope and complexity of your creations.

Why similar: Programming 73.9% ★, Robots 18.8%, Indie 7.2%

Design your defenses, build your module board, and manage your wires. Combine signals and create synergies to empower your weapons and survive in this base-defense roguelike auto-battler.

Why similar: Programming 75.1% ★, Strategy 20.6%, Indie 4.3%

A sandbox battle simulator game where you can build your own shape-shifting warbots, program their AI, and watch them smash each other up on the battlefield! Join the battles yourself by taking control of the warbots! Use Steam Workshop to check out warbots created by players from around the world!

Why similar: Programming 67.8% ★, Robots 32.2%

Build the most advanced operating system ever created! Can you master the fictional simulation language of this mind-bending machine? Design circuits, automate UBITS (coloured mobile data blocks), and optimize your system. The Admin is always watching, and he’s not what he seems.

Why similar: Programming 80% ★, Strategy 16.3%, Indie 3.7%

Artificial Defense is a one man made, real time strategy game combining orbital shooter and tower defense components within an electrifying, virtual reality setting. You are the machine, a mighty computer-system defending its servers against swarms of intruding creeps.

Why similar: Strategy 70.6%, Indie 29.4%

SOKOBOT is an open-ended puzzle game where you place down cute robots, give them commands, and create infinitely-looping assembly lines that combine shapes together!

Why similar: Programming 84.4% ★, Indie 7.9%, Strategy 7.7%

Turn the tide of the war with nuanced strategies in One-inch Tactics, introducing players to a unique turn-based strategy experience.

Why similar: Strategy 50.9%, Robots 49.1%

AI Spellcraft is a battle game where you create original spells using kanji, and an AI evaluates their damage and effects. Use your word sense to craft the ultimate spell!

Mech Fortress is a sci-fi tower defense game where each turret has unique mechanics. You can freely place them on a 5×5 grid, and your goal is to eliminate all enemies!

Why similar: Strategy 100%

A terminal-based game for learning and practicing how to program in Python.

Why similar: Programming 96.1% ★, Indie 3.9%

Executive Assault is an indie real-time strategy/first-person shooter where you can not only build your base and create armies, but also take control of your units and fight as one of them.

Why similar: Strategy 50.7%, Robots 41.5%, Indie 7.8%

Learn CPU architecture with puzzles

Why similar: Programming 100% ★