Robo Instructus Reviews

I like this game a lot, but I think the most important thing to know about this game is that as opposed to most other games of the genre (at least ones I encountered) this feels much more like a programming game for *programmers*. So I would recommend it to only one of two possible audiences: 1. Experienced programmers who are looking for fun and engaging challenges 2. Beginners who are *highly* motivated and are looking to learn what real programming can be like, with many of its (essential) nuts and bolts You'll have a more fun and engaging experience the closer you are to being in one of the above two categories. Otherwise you will likely find this frustrating and perhaps even say to yourself at some point "This feels like homework! Not a game". The reason is that this game is very open ended, as opposed to, for example, Zachtronics games (which are great in their own way), the main challenge doesn't come from artificial limitations of space, lines of code, etc. that the game imposes on you to give you that fun puzzle experience albeit within very well defined borders for the solution space. Apart from some API limitation that the game imposes on you from time to time (e.g. "Some function X is not available in this level") most of the challenge here comes from your own ability to concoct the right algorithm and express it in code (the syntax is highly reminiscent of Python), that can be of any length, to solve the given challenges. This game is unique and I like it a lot, precisely because it is well suited to a small audience that I happen to be a part of. Thank you for making it, and I hope you keep maintaining it and taking it forward.

The game kinda reminds me of the "codingame". Cool game. Relaxing to play. The scoring systems makes it interesting, fun and kinda pushes you to try-hard. Great game overall. 10/10

Very nice programing game. Programing is done in a python-like language, and even with a decent editor as a tool. The aim is to develop algorithms that guide a robot to an exit, but (unlike some games) it's not simply programing a specific path, as the algorithm has to work for several playing fields. So the algorithm must solve a generic problem that changes with each level depending on board elements common to all playing fields in a level. Elements of the programing language i've encountered so far: loops, conditions, variables, lists, mathematical and logical expressions and even some support for debugging. Also there are commands to move your robot and interact in different ways with the playing field. Also the programing is not hampered by artificial space constraints (at least i haven't encountered them yet), but you see your solution compared to others, so you can strive to optimize some aspects and see how you compete. I really like the game and happily give it a thumbs up (and i even paid full price).

This is a hard game, on par with TIS-100, Human Resources Machine 2, and Shenzhen I/O. However, it is hard in a [i]different[/i] way from those other games: it poses difficult problems that demand clever algorithms rather than limiting the number of instructions that you can use (TIS-100 and Shenzhen I/O) or having to deal with parallel processing (all three). So you may like this game even if you found the other three frustrating. On the other hand, if you found those games to be at the right level of difficulty, you may find this game too easy. As always, your mileage may vary. Unusual for programming games, this game provides a reasonably robust high level language -- something much closer to C / Pascal / Visual Basic than the assembly language used by most programming games. You have an unlimited number of instructions for your solution, you can declare functions and arrays, and there are no limits on the number of variables that you can declare. It doesn't have (or, at least, I haven't unlocked) more complex structures (C STRUCT or C# / Java classes), but you can't have everything... :) This is where I gave up on the game -- by personal inclination, I ended up designing a very robust framework of functions, global variables, and the like that could be shared between levels. However, this resulted in [i]very[/i] long programs (22 k in utility functions, 694 lines) and the built-in editor simply lacks the required functionality to make such large programs usable. Examples:[olist] [*]The built-in debugger allows you to single step execution and see what the current values of variables are -- but if the line where the variable was declared is visible. If that is 200 lines away from where the code is that uses that variable... [*]And each time you step the program, it automatically scrolls back to the instruction that was just executed. ... [*]When you abort execution of a running program, and you currently have line 200 visible, the scrolling "jumps" by a few lines -- only 2 or 3 lines, but enough to cause you to lose track of what you were about to edit. [*]Finally, in the last chapter, the editing space available is reduced by one half (you have to write [i]two[/i] programs, each controlling a different character).[/olist] The combination of all of the above pushed the frustration quotient over the fun quotient for me, so I've stopped playing. On the other hand, I enjoyed it for 40 hours before that, so I certainly got my money's worth, and based on the histograms that show at the end of the levels, the vast majority of players [i]don't[/i] write massive toolkits to solve the levels, so I don't think my experience is representative of the typical player. TL;DR A good, if flawed under extreme cases, programming game. Well worth your money.

This is a fantastic and challenging programming game that remains sadly underrated. Based on figures from the author and achievement percentages, about 80 of us on got to use the probe and about 45 beat the game. Only about 20 beat Robo Pinball (I haven't yet, it's *hard*). Can you get your salvage bot down to the bottom? Few have. Robo Instructus combines robot navigation puzzles with a very realistic scripting language in novel, interesting ways. Moving on triangles puts an interesting spin on the old step and turn system. Using sensors to detect surroundings and programmatic minesweeper-esque logic forces you to write real logic functions to get through. The probe later in the game adds parallelism and communication between two unique bots. It's lovely, the learning curve is certainly high, but you are really programming for realzies. Finally, if you are still reading, then perhaps you care that it's an incredibly stable cross-platform game written in Rust by a solo developer. I did, and I'm glad I did or I might have missed this game like many others seem to have.

I like this game, but there are certain design decisions that make it so I can't recommend it. [list] [*]I have played many programming games (Human Resource Machine, TIS-100, Exapunks, Etc.) and have been programming in my free time and professionally for the past 8 years. I found the difficulty curve in this game to be very steep. By itself this isn't [i]too[/i] big of an issue, and is certainly preferable to all the games I've played that were easy the whole way through, but it turns into a problem when coupled with the next point. [*]With the exception of sometimes having a set of 2 available at the same time, there is no ability to skip levels if you're stuck (and if you do have multiple available, you have to beat all of them before any new ones unlock). So what happens when you get to a level you can't figure out? Well you either look up a solution online or... you just stop playing. I chose to quit last time I played this many months ago and I just came back to it to give it another shot now, but hey I actually beat those 2 levels I was stuck on before! Only to get stuck again after beating a third level... [*]The launch pads. If there are launch pads in the level, every portion of your code [i]has[/i] to be mindful of their existence, because they will automatically launch your robot (potentially to its death) if it lingers on them for more than a few lines of code (not exaggerating). This really sucks, and it feels like it was put in specifically to make it so you have to accommodate for edge cases in every part of your code to make sure the robot doesn't get killed while it's in the middle of performing some other routine. My solution would be to make the launch pads activate with the robo_use() function, so they can be treated like normal tiles if you just need to walk over them. [/list] Like I said, I like this game, but seeing as how I just got stuck again (dealing with an annoying launch pad level to make things worse), I guess it's going right back onto the shelf to collect some more dust.

Relaxing coding puzzle game. Nice UI, graphics, and music. The difficulty curve seems to be well-tested so far. :)

Its fun for the first hour or so. Gets way too complicated too early on and not enough example code or functions to help you with it. I'm a dev with 10 years of experience too and was looking for fun coding challenges. I don't recommend this.

Enjoyable. Challenging. Frustrating. The game quickly ramps up in difficulty, faster than the hand-holding helps you with. it's just lucky that the full programming language is available, some puzzles would be beyond painful without functions to eliminate duplication. The in-game code editor is painful to use as an IDE, desperately needing breakpoints and the ability to watch variables without having to scroll up and down your code continuously. Oh that reminds me, the running line of code isn't kept in view, so you have to go chasing after it on a regular basis. It feels rough, but despite that, I'm enjoying it for the most part. I just hope the rougher parts get some love, as I'm not sure my patience will hold up much more. 6/10

I have tried many programming games on steam, for some reason I have never liked them as much as I would expect. Robo Instructus has changed that and I am not exactly sure why. But it does not get repetitive, it looks very slick and even though it looks deceivingly simple, it has some depth to it. It begins extremely simple, adding more and more functions for the player to use. Some other games throw a huge manual at you, but in Robo Instructus you will always know how to start. Which is why I think this game is also suited for people who have never programmed before. 9/10!