This is one of my all time favorite games. It and Shenzhen I/O do a wonderful job of capturing the essence of what makes programming fun and put them into a game.

My biggest surprise from playing EXAPUNKS is how futile it is to try and pre-optimize a solution. I had to remind myself time and again to solve the puzzle first, then try and try and optimize it.

While the games are fun on their own, I recommend playing them at the same time as a friend. Trash-talking about finding more optimal solutions really added to the overall fun of playing the games.

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enneff 2 hours ago | parent | next [-]

I had a great evening with a friend playing through TIS-100 together. We plugged in two keyboards and mice so we didn't have to pass them back and forth.

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fragmede 8 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

> capturing the essence of what makes programming fun and put them into a game.

They definitely straddle there line between "those is a fun video game" and "it looks too much like my job" for people in the industry, but there's a whole genre of workplace simulators for doing other people's jobs vicariously. A semi truck driver would see playing a semi truck simulator in the same way, but American Truck Simulator is quite popular. Anyway, play Zachatronics games if you find them fun, but if you don't, then, uh, don't feel bad about not playing them.

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wishfish an hour ago | parent | next [-]

There's a portion of American / European Truck Simulator's playerbase who are truckers. I've even seen a few streams from guys playing ATS/ETS in their sleeper cabs. Some of them have said the game is a way of processing the stresses in their jobs. I found that very interesting.

It's an interesting contrast to programmers and programming games. For me personally, the best way to process is to do just about anything else. Programming games are most fun when I haven't had to do much coding recently. Though sometimes, if I'm already in the flow, it's fun to play one of them and ace it since I'm already in the right mindset.

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yoyohello13 7 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Too true. I used to absolutely love Zachtronics games. Then I became a professional programmer and I just can’t play the programming themed ones anymore. Kind of a shame because TIS-100 is what made me want to be a programmer in the first place.

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unsnap_biceps 3 hours ago | parent | next [-]

As an older engineer, I love the Zachtronic games because they're pure development and I don't have to drive consensus or herd cats.

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lostdog 2 hours ago | parent [-]

I should set up a LARP where 30 people solve TIS-100 together

	▲	avanai 39 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		Make sure you get those JIRAs filed and pointed. Standup is at 10:30.

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Thanemate 6 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I used to feel the same but, with the LLM mandates made me have more fun playing Shenzhen I/O than actually programming at work. I'm one of "those people".

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dysoco 5 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

I have a strong feeling that with the advent of AI these kind of games are going to come back in style. Many programmers myself included aren't doing that much "coding" in the workplace anymore.

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barbs 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

There's a good vice article about that very topic.

https://www.vice.com/en/article/why-do-we-play-video-games-t...