colobot VS awesome-engineering-games

While I never had this, there are a series of games that my brother and I, (and later my school) used to learn similar concepts! https://colobot.info/

Not a Steam game, but an amazing programming puzzle game that I keep looking for a modern version of.

Year: 2001

Title: Colobot

Link: https://colobot.info/

My description: Use code to direct wheeled, hover and flying bots to construct, combat and explore.

Description: Colobot (Colonize with Bots) is an educational, post apocalyptic real-time strategy video game featuring 3D graphics, created by Swiss developer Epsitec SA. The objective of the game is to find a planet for colonization by the human race by establishing a basic infrastructure on the surface and eliminating any alien life forms endangering the expedition. The game takes place on the Earth, Moon, and seven fictional planets. The main feature of the game, which makes it educational, is the possibility for players to program their robots using a programming language similar to C++ or Java.

I remember reading about this game back when they opened the source code. Looks like it moved here, but latest commit was almost 2 years ago. r/Colobot haven't seen much activity either.

Oh if you look for programming, try Colobot , it is now 20 years old...

CoLoBot (Gold Edition)?

Well, you program it in java like language with proper syntax. https://colobot.info/

Did you get Colobot Gold Edition? Available here : https://colobot.info/

a very different take on programmable rts is https://colobot.info/

this is a very old game that has seen an open source release (including free assets) somewhat recently.

the original game is fully playable on modern platforms; lately some multiplayer features were added that look quite a bit of fun.

this is an early-noughties 3d rts, with the twist that all units (including the enemy, though this is obscured during normal gameplay) run user-editable code that can be changed in-game.

the rts campaign is supplemented by exercises designed to introduce complete beginners to programming (e.g. write a maze solver or a waypoint-driver flight controller).

the genius is, in my opinion, in that the affordances and fidelity of the simulation is such that controlling e.g. a flying flighter is fun and accessible.

do give this a go -- perhaps with your kids.

This is a list that a lot of HNers contributed to a few weeks ago: https://github.com/arcataroger/awesome-engineering-games#hac...

Some of the games in the hacking section might be kid friendly? 7 Billion Humans comes to mind, especially.

> Arithmetic teaches systematic manipulation of abstract ideas which is the foundation for programming.

I know this is the conventional wisdom, that math is the underlying foundation for programming, etc. And I think that's true in the strictest sense: there is certainly a lot of math underlying all our software and hardware.

But for learning basic programming? Honestly, I don't think it matters at all.

I was first exposed to programming via Logo (as in the turtle mover), and while there's math there, I never really got beyond "bigger numbers move the turtle further / rotate it more".

What really taught me logic & programming was the visual Warcraft 3 map editor, basically an early version of Scratch where you would compose logic out of nodes and make things happen in the game. Having that instant visual feedback of seeing units follow your automated commands was much more effective than sitting in a classroom doing math problems. These days there are a bunch more games like that (shameless plug: https://github.com/arcataroger/awesome-engineering-games)

> Would people use post algebra math more if they knew it? I use calculus regularly when I'm building things for my kids. But I've noticed most people have stopped building things by hand anyway and instead rely on mass manufacture

Maybe people stopped building things because we focus too much on the theoretical in-classroom parts, as opposed to the hands-on stuff? I bet kids would be much happier, and learn a lot more, if they could swap out math hours for time in the woodshop, on the potter's wheel, or making maps for Roblox or Fortnite or whatever -- none of which require a heavy investment in math at first. (Reminds me of this place: https://www.blueoxmill.com/blue-ox-school.htm, a continuation school for high schoolers who don't do well in the classroom. Instead, they learn woodworking, smithing, print-setting, etc. alongside the basic curricula).

Then you could ease them into the math by showing them how can it help them make different shapes, then show them how real-world CAD and Unity/Unreal work, etc. Work backwards from instant gratification to ancient theory, and only cover the details if they really care. But otherwise just let them know that somebody else did the hard work (much appreciated) so they can move shapes around on a screen. It's not that different from graphics designers making art without ever having to know how a Bezier curve is calculated.

The list currently only has Steam games, but this is up for debate: https://github.com/arcataroger/awesome-engineering-games/dis...

If these older games don't get added there, it might be worth creating a sibling list that this one can link to?