4 Games for Software Engineers
Tags: gamedev, learning, programming, beginners
Published: 2023-11-26 11:53:58


## Intro
So like many people I always seen gaming as the oasis to avoid learning. Completely unaware that I was learning anyway. I'll give you an example. Most games teach management skills (Cities: Skylines)/sorting skills(Divinity 2). Some go into more granular detail and deal with logistics (Factorio).

If you haven't played any of the games I have mentioned, it doesn't matter. Whether you were aware or not, games have been helping us learn over the years. But most of these skills can be difficult to transfer to real world jobs (for the most part). None of these games helped me with my embedded software engineering career. However, I have found a few which are useful especially for software dev and electronics.

## The Games
This isn't a review of each game, this is just to bring your attention to some games which I have played (all of which I got on steam) and enjoyed.

So here are 4 games with transferable skills for all the big nerds within each of us.

### Hacknet
In this game you play as a hacker (shock, I know) and people contact you looking for help with jobs. The essence of this game is getting familiar with the terminal, it's great for beginners who aren't familiar with the terminal and you use unix commands to progress through the game. It's well worth checking out if you haven't done so. Great beginner game.

![Hacknet logo](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/i3xfwo1ia45bocv8w3kr.jpg)

### SHENZHEN I/O
So moving onto something a little more challenging (and by a little I mean A LOT!). In this game you work for a company and your job is to design modules and pass the verification process. This game is actually brilliant in its simplicity. You will need to read the documentation to play this (yea). You program the modules using a version of assembly (it's very basic) but the major skill this game helps develop is logical thinking (essential for software engineering).

![SHENZHEN I/O logo](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/m5e72winbzgvl4zpkf07.jpg)

### Bitburner
This game describes itself as a "programming-based incremental game". In bit burner you are a hacker. This one is different from hacknet in the sense that instead of the terminal you try automate the hacking process using actual JavaScript syntax. Also, this one is free so it's worth trying! Also it has RPG elements to it allowing you to improve your character with skill points.

![Bitburner logo](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/sbkoz413vzgqam32467a.jpg)

### Virtual Circuit Board
Okay this one is my favourite (for now). I am an electronic engineer at heart and this game allows me to return to my first love, logic gates. Virtual Circuit Board is just that, a circuit simulator. It calls itself a "sandbox drawing-based logic simulator". You can build a 32 bit computer and program it (using assembly) from the ground up. Nuff said!

![VCB logo](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/r1d1skhh1txtkug3h5h5.jpg)

## Conclusion
These are just 4 games I have played, there are others such as Turing complete and TIS-100, these games are highly rated on steam but I haven't played them. If you have let me know how they are in the comments! Also if there are games you have played that you think fall into this category then let me know below!

Thanks for reading!