Games Like JOY OF PROGRAMMING - Software Engineering Simulator

Learn CPU architecture with puzzles

Why similar: Programming 40.8% ★, Education 15.7%, Logic 13.5%, Hacking 9.8% ★, Automation 9.8%

Why You'll Like It: This game offers a deep dive into computer architecture, letting you build a functional computer from basic logic gates.

BUILD CIRCUITS. WRITE CODE. RTFM.

Why similar: Programming 48.5% ★, Automation 20.4%, Logic 9.9%, Education 7.2%, Puzzle 4.8%

Why You'll Like It: A quintessential Zachtronics title that tasks you with building circuits and writing assembly code to solve complex engineering problems.

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 57.4% ★, Hacking 12.7% ★, Logic 6.4%, Puzzle 5.9%, Automation 5.4%

Why You'll Like It: Focuses on low-level assembly programming and optimizing code to repair a corrupted computer system.

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 56.7% ★, Education 14%, Automation 11.4%, Puzzle 7.8%, Logic 4.8%

Why You'll Like It: A clever puzzle game that teaches the fundamentals of assembly-style programming through office-themed tasks.

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 50.3% ★, Education 20.6%, Science 14.3%, Puzzle 6.2%, Simulation 5.1%

Why You'll Like It: Explores the concepts of machine learning and data processing through accessible, logic-based puzzles.

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 41.5% ★, Hacking 22.4% ★, Automation 16.8%, Logic 8.2%, Puzzle 5.5%

Why You'll Like It: Allows you to write scripts for hacking robots and systems in a gritty, cyberpunk-themed puzzle environment.

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 60.5% ★, Education 11.3%, Logic 8.5%, Puzzle 7.8%, Automation 7.7%

Why You'll Like It: The sequel to Human Resource Machine, introducing parallel processing and more complex logic challenges.

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 47.2% ★, Hacking 22.4% ★, Automation 19.8%, Education 5.1%, Puzzle 2.4%

Why You'll Like It: A unique game where you write actual JavaScript to automate hacking and manage resources in a persistent world.

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 44% ★, Automation 21.7%, Education 14.7%, Logic 10.4%, Puzzle 4.4%

Why You'll Like It: A minimalist game that uses Python-like syntax to automate farming and optimize production cycles.

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 44.3% ★, Robots 16.7%, Strategy 11.1%, Logic 10.5%, Automation 7.6%

Why You'll Like It: Features a visual programming interface to design the AI logic for robots that fight autonomously in an arena.

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 50.9% ★, Automation 35.1%, Simulation 6.5%, Robots 6.5%, Strategy 1%

Why You'll Like It: Uses a flowchart-based programming language to teach robots how to automate tasks and build a thriving colony.

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 33.4% ★, Automation 22.8%, Education 18.2%, Robots 15.6%, Puzzle 5.6%

Why You'll Like It: Combines survival elements with visual programming to automate the terraforming of a frozen planet.

Invent a new computer! Logic World is a first-person sandbox simulation game that's all about digital logic. Play alone or with friends, design unique machines, build up layers of complexity, and experience the joy of circuits!

Why similar: Programming 22.1% ★, Hacking 14.1% ★, Automation 13.2%, Science 12.4%, Education 11%

Why You'll Like It: A sandbox game that allows for the creation of complex digital logic circuits in a 3D environment.

You’re the designer, engineer and architect if you can imagine it you can create it! Construct robots of any shape or size from eight-legged spider bots to eerie UFO contraptions.

Why similar: Programming 23.7% ★, Automation 15.9%, Science 15.7%, Robots 12.6%, Logic 9.3%

Why You'll Like It: Focuses on building custom robots and using a visual programming system to control their movement and behavior.

Powerful Realtime 3D Electronic Circuit Simulator

Why similar: Programming 38.9% ★, Education 20.3%, Logic 12.8%, Simulation 8.5%, Immersive Sim 8.2%

Why You'll Like It: Offers a realistic approach to electronics and circuit design, perfect for those interested in the hardware side of programming.

Hard Chip is a 3D simulation/puzzle game about building processors focusing on realism. Explore the world of semiconductor chip design and delve into the intricacies of CPU logic, floor planning, and propagation delay.

Why similar: Programming 23.2% ★, Hacking 15.7% ★, Science 13.6%, Automation 12.7%, Education 11.2%

Why You'll Like It: A challenging simulation that focuses on logic design and hardware programming in a minimalist aesthetic.

Virtual Circuit Board is the sandbox drawing-based logic simulator where you can build, program, decorate, and simulate anything from simple monochrome circuits to complex and colorful computers. Play with digital logic in this sandbox-only experience.

Why similar: Programming 27.2% ★, Science 15.1%, Hacking 14.2% ★, Automation 14.2%, Education 13.1%

Why You'll Like It: Provides a sandbox environment for building and testing complex electronic circuits without the constraints of traditional levels.

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 31.8% ★, Automation 20.2%, Hacking 17.3% ★, Education 12.2%, Logic 8%

Why You'll Like It: A complex automation and programming puzzle game that requires precise logic to manage data streams.

Bring to life anything you can imagine from rockets and airplanes to cars and more. Automate them with a visual programming language. Explore 3D planets and make your own. Share your creations online. Complete contracts, conquer milestones, and unlock technology in the newly added Career Mode.

Why similar: Programming 25.2% ★, Science 17.7%, Automation 14.4%, Education 12.3%, Moddable 12.1% ★

Why You'll Like It: Features a powerful flight computer and programming system for controlling complex aerospace vehicles.

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 39.5% ★, Robots 15.7%, Logic 13.8%, Education 13.5%, Difficult 8%

Why You'll Like It: Requires players to write code to navigate robots through increasingly difficult puzzle environments.

⚡️Fix electronics 📈manage firm 💻challenge the hacker... ServiceIT is a simulation game where you run a full-service IT company to engage in tasks like diagnosing, repairing equipment, network infiltration, programming, server management while an Anonymous hacker keeps sabotaging it all.

Why similar: Programming 34.2% ★, Hacking 25.2% ★, Education 18.2%, Immersive Sim 7.9%, Simulation 4.9%

Why You'll Like It: Simulates the life of an IT professional, incorporating hacking and system maintenance tasks.

Logicats is a beginner-friendly programming game. Learn programming concepts through reading code in a fun and effective way. Perfect for classrooms or at home. Start your programming journey today!

Why similar: Programming 41.3% ★, Science 24.9%, Logic 17.2%, Puzzle 8%, Education 5%

Why You'll Like It: A charming, accessible puzzle game that introduces programming concepts through cat-themed logic challenges.

Build hardware. Solve puzzles. From the creator of Manufactoria, a new open-ended puzzle game set in Silicon Valley's first startup.

Why similar: Programming 43.6% ★, Hacking 20.6% ★, Education 13.3%, Simulation 9.1%, Puzzle 6.7%

Why You'll Like It: A puzzle game focused on designing computer architecture and logic gates to solve computational tasks.

Factorio is a game about building and creating automated factories to produce items of increasing complexity, within an infinite 2D world. Use your imagination to design your factory, combine simple elements into ingenious structures, and finally protect it from the creatures who don't really like you.

Why similar: Automation 76%, Moddable 17.1% ★, Simulation 3.7%, Strategy 3.2%

Why You'll Like It: The definitive automation game that requires complex logistics and circuit network management to succeed.

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 57.9% ★, Education 19.8%, Simulation 10%, Puzzle 7.3%, Difficult 5%

Why You'll Like It: A hardware design simulation that tasks you with building a CPU from the ground up using a hardware description language.

shapez is an easy-going, minimalistic factory building game about the automation of shapes through extraction and satisfying production lines. Adapt to increasingly complex shapes and grow your factory across an infinitely expanding map. Your only limitation is your creativity!

Why similar: Automation 56.2%, Moddable 18.1% ★, Logic 11.8%, Puzzle 6.3%, Simulation 4.1%

Why You'll Like It: Focuses on the logic of automation and logistics, requiring players to build efficient factories to process geometric shapes.

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

Why similar: Programming 51.8% ★, Education 21.2%, Science 13.8%, Logic 13.2%

Why You'll Like It: A straightforward educational tool designed to teach Python syntax through bite-sized, text-based challenges.

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 34% ★, Science 19.5%, Education 14.3%, Logic 12.2%, Simulation 7.1%

Why You'll Like It: A logic-heavy puzzle game that requires optimizing data flow and signal processing.

Design, optimize, and reverse-engineer real quantum algorithms in an open-ended Zachlike puzzle game. Solve 500+ optimization challenges, hack player creations, and master quantum logic without coding.

Why similar: Programming 21.1% ★, Hacking 15.2% ★, Automation 14%, Science 13.8%, Education 10.6%

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: Hacking 73.4% ★, Programming 12.9% ★, Education 5.3%, Logic 4.2%, Difficult 2.3%

Why You'll Like It: A terminal-based hacking simulator that uses real-world command-line logic to progress through the story.

Dive into SirKwitz: a beginner-friendly edutainment game that makes learning programming easy & fun! Explore 28 puzzles across four topics to master the very core concepts behind programming and develop your problem-solving skills. Ideal for those that think coding & programming are scary words!

Why similar: Programming 30.7% ★, Education 19.2%, Automation 14.4%, Robots 13.8%, Logic 11.6%

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

Why similar: Programming 63.2% ★, Hacking 36.8% ★

Why You'll Like It: An open-world adventure where you can modify the game's source code to change the behavior of objects and the environment.

Step into the world of IT! Diagnose network issues, manage servers, and repair devices while handling tasks under strict SLAs. Choose your career path, from HelpDesk to IT Project Manager. Develop real IT knowledge and climb the ranks in this realistic IT simulation!

Why similar: Programming 29.4% ★, Education 15.9%, Hacking 15.3% ★, Moddable 11.8% ★, Immersive Sim 8%

World of Contraptions is a physics-based building game in which you build the most varied contraptions to solve the most diverse types of puzzles. Win dozens of levels with different types of obstacles. Design the best contraption for each challenge using a giant collection of blocks.

Why similar: Programming 19.1% ★, Science 14.9%, Automation 13.6%, Robots 12.9%, Education 9.8%

Retro Gadgets is a sandbox where you build, code, and customize gadgets inspired by old-school electronics.

Why similar: Automation 24.7%, Programming 23.9% ★, Education 19.1%, Hacking 14% ★, Logic 8%

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 47.3% ★, Robots 23.8%, Education 12.3%, Simulation 9.3%, Puzzle 7.2%

Set in a post-apocalyptic future, The Signal State puts your logic skills to the test with complex puzzles inspired by modular synthesizers. Repair machines, rebuild an abandoned farm, and be part of a revolution that will change the fate of agriculture once and for all.

Why similar: Programming 25.3% ★, Automation 18%, Logic 11.7%, Moddable 11.7% ★, Hacking 11% ★

Zachtronics is back with an ambitious new design-based puzzle game. Take on the role of a Reactor Engineer working for SpaceChem, the leading chemical synthesizer for frontier colonies. Construct elaborate factories to transform raw materials into valuable chemical products!

Why similar: Programming 41.9% ★, Automation 13.7%, Puzzle 12.4%, Logic 11.6%, Difficult 9.7%

Move Code Lines is a game where you fix programs and make them print needed output. But the only way you can achieve that is to change the order of lines in those programs, and set custom input.

Why similar: Programming 29.4% ★, Hacking 19.7% ★, Automation 18.6%, Education 13.1%, Logic 8.2%

Opus Magnum is the latest open-ended puzzle game from Zachtronics, the creators of SpaceChem, Infinifactory, and SHENZHEN I/O. Design and build machines that assemble potions, poisons, and more using the alchemical engineer’s most advanced tool: the transmutation engine!

Why similar: Programming 44.2% ★, Automation 28.5%, Logic 10.9%, Puzzle 10.2%, Simulation 4%

A sci-fi management game where you build and optimize your computer's system from the ground up. Connect and configure interconnected nodes to efficiently download, process, and upload files. Manage your setup, solve system challenges, and become the ultimate system architect

Why similar: Programming 31.4% ★, Automation 30.9%, Hacking 14.9% ★, Logic 9.9%, Simulation 6.5%

Enter the most advanced challenge laboratory of today's games, where electronics and logic merge into challenges that will captivate your mind and awaken the engineer within you!

Why similar: Education 27.7%, Automation 22.6%, Logic 11.9%, Puzzle 9.1%, Simulation 7.6%

A game about building emulators! Implement your own NEEES core in JavaScript, get instant feedback with unit/video tests, build the graphics unit in real time, learn 6502 assembly, debug test ROMs, and have fun with the included homebrew games!

Why similar: Programming 41% ★, Hacking 16.4% ★, Education 16.3%, Logic 13.7%, Puzzle 5.1%

A rich and challenging physics-based puzzle /logic /construction /programming game! Master ballistics, fluid mechanics, thermodynamics, chemical and nuclear reactions, use automation bricks, build structures, machines, vehicles, produce power, solve puzzles, pierce the fog and defeat CHR$!

Why similar: Programming 34.5% ★, Automation 31%, Logic 11.4%, Physics 10%, Puzzle 6.4%

Design increasingly complex computation units powered by high pressure steam. From switches to steam based computers, all in a world of analogue pressure devices. Use previous designs to solve further challenges, unravel the mystery of the missing steam and discover a new field of science.

Why similar: Programming 29.8% ★, Automation 21%, Science 17.4%, Education 13.7%, Physics 6.2%

Kaizen is an open-ended puzzle automation game from the original Zachtronics team, set in 1980s Japan. Design, build, and optimize production lines to create iconic products, like calculators, camcorders, and arcade machines.

Why similar: Programming 36.2% ★, Automation 20.7%, Education 13.4%, Logic 12.1%, Difficult 6.2%

Crack simulated safe locks using real techniques!

Why similar: Education 31.9%, Hacking 21.3% ★, Simulation 13.7%, Puzzle 11.6%, Physics 9.3%

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 71.6% ★, Puzzle 10.7%, Level Editor 9.1%, Simulation 8.6%

Build and grow your very own computer repair enterprise as you learn to diagnose, fix and build PCs. With real-world licensed components and comprehensive hardware and software simulation, you can plan and bring your ultimate PC to life.

Why similar: Education 47.1%, Immersive Sim 21.9%, Simulation 13.1%, Realistic 7.1%, Puzzle 6.7%

Unleash your brainpower in Linkito and ignite the insurgency! Link, build, solve, defuse, and decode by using your logic. Craft your own challenges in the level editor or tackle community creations.

Why similar: Programming 26.8% ★, Automation 18.1%, Moddable 18.1% ★, Logic 12.1%, Level Editor 8.6%

Use the MOLEK-SYNTEZ to create small molecules with various pharmacological effects from the comfort of your small Romanian apartment.

Why similar: Programming 38.8% ★, Science 20.6%, Automation 20.3%, Puzzle 8.5%, Simulation 7.9%

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: Level Editor 34.1%, Simulation 28.8%, Puzzle 21.7%, Strategy 15.3%

Design computational circuits which defy restrictions of our universe in this open-ended puzzle. Your completed creations become components to solve future challenges. As you design a circuit and can place your design within it, where there is a smaller you doing the same, and so on to infinity.

Why similar: Programming 35.3% ★, Science 17.2%, Education 15.2%, Logic 13.7%, Puzzle 5.9%

Copy Editor is an intricate puzzle game that teaches you Regular Expressions (RegEx), commonly used in computer science and language theory. Build complex rules that process and revise famous texts for your wacky and demanding publisher!

Why similar: Programming 40.8% ★, Hacking 19.9% ★, Education 17.1%, Puzzle 8%, Level Editor 6.6%

An interactive text-based game for learning and practicing how to program in Python.

Why similar: Programming 53.6% ★, Education 27.3%, Science 19%

Manufactoria 2022 is a constructive puzzle game about pushing robots around. (It's okay, they don't complain.) Use simple parts to engineer solutions to open-ended problems, then rebuild 'em better! Take a company from your backyard to the soaring heights of success! How hard could it be?

Why similar: Programming 33.7% ★, Automation 24.5%, Robots 16.9%, Logic 13.8%, Puzzle 6.6%

Build intricate supply chains to meet your feline customers' needs. Discover underground and air transport layers, a vast research tree, procedural worlds, machine learning, and endless automation in this relaxing, enemyless game.

Why similar: Programming 30.1% ★, Automation 23.5%, Science 21.7%, Education 18.8%, Simulation 3.9%

In a future where food is the ultimate symbol of status, you are a recipe programming technician for a ruthless aristocracy. Create, test and optimize your culinary machines in this deliciously dark zach-like!

Why similar: Programming 33.8% ★, Automation 25.9%, Robots 18.3%, Logic 12.2%, Puzzle 5.2%

Grey Hack is a massively multiplayer hacking simulator game. You're a hacker with full freedom to act as you wish on a vast network of procedurally generated computers.

Why similar: Hacking 41.1% ★, Programming 37.2% ★, Education 6.2%, Simulation 5.3%, Logic 4.8%

Take on the electrician role and learn the profession's basics! Install sockets, repair worn-out equipment, assemble broken appliances, replace light bulbs, and lay wires at your customers' homes. Be sure to check everything twice, with electricity there are no jokes!

Why similar: Education 32.9%, Immersive Sim 16.8%, Logic 13%, Difficult 11.2%, Simulation 8.8%