Sometimes I want to learn stuff, but also want my dopamine OPTIMIZED. This is when I turn to games! Some games teach CS concepts so well that it doesn’t feel like learning at all. And other games cough factorio cough, are a literal time machine the way they absorb hours of my life.

In short: these are my picks for games that I think contributed to my learning journey. Some of these directly teach cs skills, some programming, some design, others are just good for critical thinking.

Note: I am too lazy to link these, but the quickest of google searches and you can find them.

Nerd Shit

Teaches you CPU design in a gamified way. If you want a foundational introduction this game is fantastic.

Turing Complete starts with basic logic gates and has you build everything: adders, memory, ALUs, eventually a complete working computer. By the end, you’re writing assembly and understanding why your professor kept going on about von Neumann architecture.

Teaches: Digital logic, boolean algebra, computer architecture, assembly. Why your CPU isn’t magic rocks we tricked into thinking.

Difficulty: High, but satisfying. Mental workout that makes you feel accomplished rather than defeated.

Incremental hacking game that teaches you JavaScript while you play. You start with basic scripts and build up to complex automation networks, hacking fictional corporations in a cyberpunk world.

It’s great because your scripts are actual JavaScript. Not pseudocode. Real JS with access to a proper API. You’ll find yourself reading docs, optimizing algorithms, implementing data structures just to get more in-game money faster.

Teaches: JavaScript, algorithms, optimization, async programming. The addiction of watching numbers go up when your code works.

Difficulty: Scales with ambition. You can brute-force early game, but optimization becomes irresistible.

At first: cute farming game. Five minutes in: implementing pathfinding algorithms and resource optimization.

The game sneaks CS concepts through farming automation. Start with simple “plant seed, harvest crop” operations. Soon you’re writing loops, conditionals, multi-step algorithms. By the end, you’ve likely go a good understanding of common a lot of fundamental development concepts.

Teaches: Algorithmic thinking, optimization, state machines.

Difficulty: Comfortable. With cute hats.

Puzzle game throwing you into quantum computing. You build quantum circuits to solve increasingly complex problems, dealing with superposition, entanglement, measurement.

Finish a puzzle and think “did I just understand quantum computing, or get lucky?” (In my case it was lucky)

Teaches: Quantum gates, quantum circuits, superposition, entanglement. Healthy respect (aka fear) for quantum physicists.

Difficulty: Yes

Other stuff

The factory must grow. More importantly, it must be efficient.

Building increasingly complex production pipelines means constantly dealing with throughput, bottlenecks, resource management, parallel processing. You naturally implement load balancing, modularity, scalability—while fighting alien bugs.

The community is legendarily obsessed with optimization. People build calculators, computers, neural networks in Factorio. Simultaneously the best and worst thing I can recommend. (rip social life)

Teaches: Systems thinking, optimization, parallelization, dependency management. Why distributed systems are harder than they seem.

Difficulty: Easy to learn, hard to master.

Stripped-down roguelike where you command drones through derelict spaceships using a command-line interface. No mouse. No graphics of your drones. Just you, a terminal, and the growing dread that something’s in the vents.

The interface is deliberately minimal—you type commands like navigate d1 r3, motion d2, remote d3. Forces you to think procedurally and understand command syntax while managing limited information and resources.

Teaches: Command-line comfort, procedural thinking, working with limited information. The particular anxiety of typing commands while something hunts your drones.

Pain level: High tension, medium cognitive load. The fear is real.

Pain level: Traditional roguelike difficulty—prepare to die and learn.

Games I Haven’t Tried

Everyone says these are great:

• Zachtronics Games (TIS-100, Shenzhen I/O, Exapunks) - Final boss of programming puzzle games. Assembly programming disguised as games.
• Human Resource Machine / 7 Billion Humans - Visual programming puzzles teaching basic CS through office automation.
• Baba Is You - Logic and rule manipulation. Frequently compared to formal logic systems.
• Opus Magnum - Zachtronics game about optimization and parallel processing through alchemy.
• Hacknet - Realistic terminal-based hacking. More Linux commands and networking than programming.
• while True: learn() - Machine learning puzzles where you train a cat AI.
• Screeps - MMO where you program your units in JavaScript to gather resources and fight other players’ code.

Final Thoughts

Do these replace actual CS education? No. Do they make subtly give you realistic practice of cs specific and adjacent skills? Yes!

Bonus: i’ve personally had a tonne of fun playing these. You’re not grinding practice problems—you’re building factories, hacking servers, commanding drones through space. The learning is almost accidental.