I agree, i would prefer to learn real programming and create something so all those "programming games" have no appeal to me.

Yeah. I caught myself too playing the solitaire game more often than the actual game. xD

For those wondering about this game or TIS-100 for that matter, they are basically niche logic puzzle games designed for computer programmers/engineers and other technically minded individuals or those who might be interested in becoming such. Definitely not designed to appeal to the wider market of all gamers.

Why play this when you can just write computer programs in a real computer language? Because it is an enjoyable puzzle game and the point of it is to enjoy solving puzzles not to write your own software. It's not going to be everyone's cup of tea and that's a given. I doubt anyone who is not a computer programmer of some sort would be interested in it, or be able to play it to any degree of success without having programming experience of some sort, or at least interest/intrigue about it. A game like this might also cause such an intrigued person to get involved in computer programming.

It's kind of like asking someone what the appeal of incredible machines is if you can just buy gears and build your own real world machine on your kitchen table. Or why anyone would want to play a racing game if they could just race a real car instead. The purpose isn't to compete with the real world things, it is to make a fun game that people can enjoy who enjoy that sort of thing.

Haven't played TIS100 and this will also be put on my whislist D:

Hope someday I'll get around and try both titles.

Seems that you can do much more than just solve puzzles. In sandbox mode a guy on YouTube programmed a playable first person 3D maze game. You can say: He created a game in a game.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=geT2uP7MYGc

looks complicated, might be interesting

Nice release, this simulator looks like a difficult videogame. Definitely, it's not for everyone. ^_^

Unfortunately, I held out for a few months while GOG dragged their feet on releasing this, and I got it from their competitors.

Now watch them use lower sales as an excuse to drag their feet even longer in the future. >:(

That being said: If you enjoy this Dev and were pulled in by TIS-100, I suspect you'll love this one too. :)

This looks really well done. It's almost too real, and it looks more like work than a game.

I wonder how long it will be before a "game" like this shows up where the problems the players are solving are real-world challenges that were provided to the programmers by companies that make industrial control systems. The players unknowingly end up paying to design code/circuits for some megacorp instead of them hiring people to do it.

Even if I never finish the game - don't know TIS-100, and didn't get halfway with Spacechem - I suppose I might still enjoy playing this game. I've done some programming in many languages, including the assembly languages of three distinct processor models, so I should not be *completely* hopeless. :)

Tetris programmed in SHEZHEN I/O:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2tlW3S4V29Y

I would also add, for me anyway, the fact you are given a goal and a strict set of possible commands etc. (I don't know about this game, but that's true in both TIS, Spacechem and Human Resource Machine which is similar) means you can often learn new ways to do things that you may not have thought of.
I'm constantly amazed at how much you can actually so with just an add, subtract, increment and decrement command and some spaces to save data temporarily.
It may not be so interesting and useful to trained programmers, but for a hobbyist like me it really gets me thinking.

I wouldn't particularly say you have to be a programmer as I think they can be quite a good intro to programming (Human Resource Machine more so as it's a little easier), but I would say you have to be interested in maths or problem solving as with out those kind of drives you will probably struggle or find it very boring.

Really looking forward to picking this one up now...

Thank you Zachtronics! Thank you GOG!
I've been waiting for this GOG release and now it's finally here. Instabuy!

Ouch... My eyes... what have you done to my eyes!?!
Also, sauerkraut...