TIS-100

Zachtronics produces fantastic programming-flavored games, and this one is no different.

The setup is that, much like real development, you get a language manual, some test input and test output, and have to make your code pass the tests. This isn’t just any code though—you’re writing very low-level stuff. The extra twist is that instead of running on one core, you’re writing code for many processors at once, and also have to manage how data is piped between them.

The puzzle difficulty ramps up pretty fast, but the unique setup makes it a fun hypothetical computer to mess with, and I think writing such low-level code is kind of fun anyways.

Play it if

You like programming, hard puzzles, want to learn a weird flavor of assembly, or are just a super-nerd