Games Like while True: learn(), Sorted by How Much Code
What should you play after while True: learn()?
Updated October 2026.
Play Human Resource Machine next: it is the gentlest step from wiring blocks on a board to writing a real program, and it assumes you have never coded. If you want no code at all, Silicon Zeroes is the closest match. If you want to type something that looks like Python, The Farmer Was Replaced is the one. If it was the machine learning you liked, Luden.io’s own follow-up, Learning Factory, is in our list of games like Upload Labs.
while True: learn() (Luden.io, January 17, 2019) is a puzzle game about machine learning: you play a coder whose cat is better at it than you are, and the puzzles add up to a cat-to-human translator. You drag ready-made blocks onto a board (expert systems, decision trees, perceptrons, neural networks), wire them up and sort a stream of data by shape and colour within limits on accuracy, speed and cost. The techniques arrive in the order they appeared in history, and between puzzles you take freelance jobs and upgrade your rig. Its Steam page is direct about one thing: “No coding experience required, and no code is written in the game.” It is $12.99 regular with 8,250 Steam reviews, 91% of them positive (as of October 2026).
That line is why I sorted this list the way I did. All eight games below have you build programs, and the real difference between them is how much code each one asks you to write, from none at all to a language you can edit in VS Code. Six of them are programming puzzle games with set levels. Autonauts and The Farmer Was Replaced are the open-ended exceptions, with no level list to clear.
A programming puzzle game is a game where each puzzle is an engineering problem you solve by building a program or a circuit, then running it and fixing it until the output matches what the puzzle asked for.
How much code each game asks for
The table runs from the least code to the most.
| Game | Code you write | What you build | Pick it if |
|---|---|---|---|
| Silicon Zeroes | None: you place and wire parts | Electronics from adders, latches and multiplexers, up to working CPUs | You liked wiring blocks on a board and want to keep doing only that |
| Autonauts | Visual, Scratch-style blocks | A colony of worker bots that repeat what you teach them | You liked teaching a machine more than solving set puzzles |
| Human Resource Machine | Drag-and-drop commands based on assembly | Programs for one office worker shuttling items from an inbox to an outbox | You want the gentlest first step into programming logic |
| 7 Billion Humans | A new command language that many workers run at once | Programs for a whole office floor of workers | You finished Human Resource Machine and want parallel programs |
| Turing Complete | Logic gates first, then assembly for a CPU you designed | A computer, starting from NAND gates | You want to see what is under the code |
| TIS-100 | Typed assembly | Repairs to a corrupted parallel computer, node by node | You want short, hard assembly puzzles and a manual to read |
| SHENZHEN I/O | Typed assembly plus circuit layout | Gadgets for an electronics firm in Shenzhen | You want circuits and code in the same puzzle |
| The Farmer Was Replaced | A Python-like language saved as .py files | A script that runs a farming drone | You want code that reads like what you would write at work |
Prices are the regular Steam price in US dollars; several of these were discounted when I checked. Review counts and the positive share come from Steam’s own review totals.
| Game | Regular Steam price (as of October 2026) | Steam reviews (as of October 2026) | Positive (as of October 2026) | On Steam since | Mac |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Silicon Zeroes | $14.99 | 284 | 87% | 2017 | Yes |
| Autonauts | $19.99 | 4,972 | 89% | 2019 | No |
| Human Resource Machine | $14.99 | 4,705 | 94% | 2015 | Yes |
| 7 Billion Humans | $14.99 | 2,146 | 93% | 2018 | Yes |
| Turing Complete | $19.99 | 5,823 | 96% | 2021 | Yes |
| TIS-100 | $6.99 | 4,119 | 97% | 2015 | Yes |
| SHENZHEN I/O | $14.99 | 4,535 | 95% | 2016 | Yes |
| The Farmer Was Replaced | $9.99 | 9,658 | 96% | 2023 | Yes |
“On Steam since” counts Early Access. The Farmer Was Replaced went on sale in Early Access in 2023 and reached its full release in October 2025, and Turing Complete is still in Early Access.
Which games like while True: learn() need no code at all?
Silicon Zeroes is the closest match to while True: learn(), because, as there, you wire parts on a board, run the result and tune it without typing a line. PleasingFungus Games, who made Manufactoria, set it in the 1960s at Silicon Valley’s first startup, and the Steam page promises more than seventy puzzles, from introductions up to building fully functional CPUs. Your parts are adders, latches and multiplexers instead of decision trees and neural networks. Its 284 Steam reviews (as of October 2026) are a small sample, so I would weigh its 87% with that in mind.
Autonauts is the pick if teaching the machine was the part you liked. Denki built it as an open colony game: you craft worker bots, and the store page says you “teach and shape their artificial intelligence” with a visual programming language it compares to Scratch, then let them farm, build and cook while you move on. There is no level list to clear, only a colony to grow, which makes it the most relaxed game here. It is the only game on this list with no Mac version (as of October 2026).
Which ones teach real programming with blocks?
Human Resource Machine is where the blocks turn into actual programming. Tomorrow Corporation, the studio behind World of Goo, gives you one office worker and a list of commands; you drag them into order so the worker carries items from an inbox to an outbox the way your boss asked. The store page tells beginners “programming is just puzzle solving”, and the sequel’s page says the language underneath is based on assembly, so you pick up loops and jumps without being told. It sits at $14.99 regular with 4,705 Steam reviews (as of October 2026). Its joke about automation taking your job is covered in our list of games that satirize big tech.
7 Billion Humans is the sequel to play once the first one clicks. It swaps the single worker for a crowd: the store page describes an all new language that lots of workers execute at the same time, which turns every level into a small lesson in parallel programs. It has more than 60 levels, plus hint and skip systems for when you stall.
Which one shows you the machine under the code?
Turing Complete is the best game here for understanding what a computer actually is. You begin with a single component, the NAND gate, and the puzzles walk you through arithmetic and memory up to a full CPU architecture. Then you design an assembly language for the computer you just built and program it. The store page’s promise is that by the end you will understand how if statements, loops and functions work in assembly and hardware. Steam still lists it as Early Access (as of October 2026); it has been in Early Access since October 2, 2021 and holds 5,823 reviews, 96% positive (as of October 2026).
Which ones make you write assembly?
TIS-100 and SHENZHEN I/O are both from Zachtronics, and both ship with a manual you are expected to read. SHENZHEN I/O’s store tagline ends in “RTFM”.
TIS-100 is the purest code game on this list: no circuits, only short assembly programs spread across the nodes of a broken parallel computer. Zachtronics calls it “the assembly language programming game you never asked for”, and the Steam page lists more than 45 puzzles, scored on cycles, instructions and nodes used. At $6.99 regular (as of October 2026) it is also the cheapest game here.
SHENZHEN I/O is the one to pick if you want hardware and code in the same puzzle. You lay out microcontrollers, memory and screens on a board, then write the code each microcontroller runs in a compact assembly language. The included manual runs to more than 30 pages of datasheets and reference guides, and there is a solitaire game for when you need a break from both.
Which one is closest to real code?
The Farmer Was Replaced asks for the code closest to what programmers write every day, and it has the most Steam reviews on this list: 9,658, 96% positive (as of October 2026). You program a drone in a simple language similar to Python. Code is stored in .py files, and the store page says you can edit them in an outside editor like VS Code while the game watches for changes. It also breaks the usual shape of the genre. There are no separate levels; farming earns resources that unlock new technology, and Steam players tag it Idler, so it grows more like an incremental game than a puzzle set. The store page warns that it will not hold your hand, and that the tasks can be very challenging if you have never programmed before.
What did I leave off, and why?
EXAPUNKS, the Zachtronics game set in 1997 where you take one hack after another, is about breaking into networks, so I left it to our list of games like Bitburner, which covers hacking games where you write code. That list is the next stop if you want your code to break into systems.
Learning Factory is Luden.io’s other machine learning game, and it is a factory builder: you automate production and route goods to stores for very picky cat customers. I kept it off because it has no programming puzzles. It appears in our games like Upload Labs list, which covers games where you build the machine that does the work.
If the machine learning theme is what kept you playing, our list of games where you play as the AI puts you on the other side of the model.
Where our game fits
Our own game, Sam, We Talked About This, is not on this list. It shares the theme (its Steam page says “Train your models”), but it is an idle incremental game about scale with no logic puzzle to solve and no blocks to wire. An incremental game is a game built around numbers that grow faster than you can spend them: you buy something that makes more of the resource, which buys more of that thing, until the scale changes and new systems appear. In Sam you scrape whatever the internet has, train text, image and video models on it, rack the models to win subscribers, and turn the subscribers into cash for more disks, bigger machines and a bigger crew. It is unreleased, due on Steam in Q1 2027 for Windows and macOS, so there is nothing to point at yet beyond its Steam page.
Quick answers
Do you need to know how to code to play these? No, not for most of them. Silicon Zeroes and Autonauts never ask you to type code, and Human Resource Machine is written for people who have never programmed. The Farmer Was Replaced is the one that gets hard without some coding background.
Will these games teach me to code? Yes, the basics, though none of them is a course. The Farmer Was Replaced introduces programming concepts one at a time and its store page says it will improve “your problem solving and coding skills”. Turing Complete’s short description is “Learn CPU architecture with puzzles”. while True: learn() itself calls the game a first map of machine learning rather than a course.
Did Luden.io make another game like while True: learn()? Yes. Learning Factory (January 27, 2025) is a factory builder for cat customers in which, per its store page, you experiment with real machine learning models that analyze store sales data. It is about running production, with no code puzzles.
Do these games run on a Mac? Seven of the eight do, as does while True: learn() itself. Autonauts is Windows only (as of October 2026).
Key takeaways
- Human Resource Machine is the best next game after while True: learn(); Silicon Zeroes is the closest match if you want no code at all.
- The list runs from no code (Silicon Zeroes, Autonauts) through blocks (Human Resource Machine, 7 Billion Humans) and hardware (Turing Complete) to typed assembly (TIS-100, SHENZHEN I/O) and a Python-like language (The Farmer Was Replaced).
- TIS-100 is the cheapest game here at regular price, and The Farmer Was Replaced has the most Steam reviews (both as of October 2026).
- Hacking games with code live in our games like Bitburner list.
