My alternatives for developing coding skills were limited when I first started learning to code. My sources were numerous books, a few basic online tutorials, some coding problems, and a lot of experimenting.
Today, a lot has changed. Now, there are many free coding games, in addition to interactive courses and tutorials, to help a learner to enhance their coding skills and take their programming level further.
It is fair enough to believe there’s no need for a computer science degree. Anyone may learn coding skills by playing coding games, which cover a wide range of computer languages.
They’ll enhance their problem-solving skills, gain a better understanding of programming topics, and have fun while learning.
While coding games by themself are unlikely to teach anyone everything about coding, these coding games can be a fantastic way for users to put their new skills to the test.
They can be very addictive and learners would realize that subconsciously, they have been practicing Python, JavaScript, and other coding languages for many hours without being aware of it.
I have done extensive research on the most fun and effective coding games on the internet. As you start your journey into coding, Check out my list of the best games for learning to code, and your coding skills will be boosted to elite programmer rank in the shortest possible time.
Best Coding Games: Our Top Pick👌👌
1. CodinGame
The CodinGame website (Visit Here) makes use of a turn-based game to help its users to improve their problem-solving skills and learn coding concepts.
Players can learn, practice, and compete in coding tournaments on this website. The platform supports more than 25 programming languages including Ruby, JavaScript, and PHP. One of the highlights of using CodinGames is the feature that enables you to play with colleagues or family.
2. CodeMonkey: Coding For Kids
It is a prominent instructional game-based environment and millions of users on this platform would be able to code using real programming languages.
The platform provides a fun and engaging curriculum for after-school groups, schools, camps, and also self-paced online coding courses.
CodeMonkey teaches its users how to code using CoffeeScript and they would be able to create their own HTML5 games.
CodeMonkey is especially useful for teaching teenagers and kids, but would also be lots of fun for adults. There are also CodeMonkey apps for iOS and Android. Hence why it makes our list for coding games.
3. Flexbox Froggy
Flexbox Froggy is a game that will help students learn to code in CSS by positioning the frogs on the suitable lilypads in Flexbox Froggy. At the end of the game, after reaching level 24, users will be able to use Flexbox in their next project.
The Flexbox challenges are described in each task, and the difficulty level increases as you go through the stages of gameplay, a good way to build expertise when using coding games.
4. Flexbox Defense
Just like Flexbox Froggy, Flexbox Defense is a good recommendation for coding games. The name must have given it away. This is another coding game on the same platform as Flexbox Froggy.
Unlike Flexbox Froggy, this is a tower defense game that will help the players to improve their CSS knowledge. Players aim to use CSS Flexbox to position the towers and keep the enemy out.
The definitions of the various Flexbox attributes are given during the challenges. After players have finished writing their code, they will hit the Start Wave button to see if they were able to halt their adversary.
5. CSS Diner – Where we feast on CSS Selectors!
CSS Diner is a game that allows the players to learn CSS fundamentals as they complete a set of missions. This method of coding helps a player get familiar with programming, and have fun at the same time.
The initial challenges are brief and concentrate on using ids and classes. First, of Type Selector, Pseudo-selectors, the Universal Selector, and Last of Type Selector will be introduced as players move through the different levels. It is an easy pick in my list of coding games.
6. Ruby Warrior
Ruby Warrior is a highly recommended game for you if you want to learn Ruby. To accommodate different ability levels, the game offers beginning and intermediate tracks. The teachings begin simply and progress from there. To save user progress, players will need to sign in with Facebook.
7. CodeCombat – Learn to Code Through the Power of Play
CodeCombat makes our list for coding games. It is a video game that teaches computer programming languages and fundamentals.
This game is made especially for kids between the ages of 9 and 16. Users of this platform Stude learn to type in languages such as Python, JavaScript, CoffeeScript, and HTML.
Two web development units, 3 game development units, and 6 computer science units make up CodeCombat’s 11 units. All students and teachers are welcome to take the 1st unit, Computer Science 1.
The College Board named CodeCombat as an accredited provider of AP Computer Science Principles curriculum and professional development in 2019.
CodeCombat is special in the sense that it works directly with schools and districts, as well as providing a monthly paid subscription for self-paced learners to have access to extra game content.
In this game, layers are expected to prove their competence by creating code in order to progress through the game’s levels. It is appropriate for 4th through 12th graders and features multiplayer and single-player components.
8. Tynker – Coding Made Easy
Tynker is an instructional coding platform for kids between the ages of 5 and 18. It teaches them how to increase their coding abilities.
This instructional tool will teach youngsters how to code using animation, web design, games, and robotics. It has more than 60 courses, including Minecraft game design, Minecraft modding, Python, creative coding, CSS, and more.
Tynker is built on Javascript and HTML5 and would work on a browser, as well as on smartphones and tablets, without the need for plugins.
Tynker provides interactive material, including hours of information including videos, and it teaches all of the basic text and blocks codings.
Tynker has a very elaborate STEM and programming, which includes more than 3,700 coding exercises and 600+ hours of Common Core and NGSS-aligned lessons that take students from coding fundamentals to sophisticated programming.
9. Untrusted
Untrusted is a good recommendation for coding games. It is a meta-JavaScript game, in which players must change the game’s code to solve puzzles.
It was created by Greg Shuflin and Alexnis Nevich. In this game, the player’s character must navigate a maze on the right. The code that built the maze is on the left. Players will have to change it to alter the puzzle’s outcome.
This game puts a player’s JavaScript problem-solving skills to the test. It’s a free, enjoyable game for honing more advanced JavaScript abilities.
10. Scratch
Scratch is another good recommendation for coding games. It is a sophisticated block-based website and programming language targeted especially at youngsters aged between 8 and 16 as a programming instructional aid.
Scratchers, the site’s users, may use a block-like interface to construct online projects. External tools may be used to export projects to Android applications, HTML5, and EXE files.
The MIT Media Lab created the service, which has been translated into more than 70 languages and is utilized in almost every country on the planet. Scratch is taught and utilized in schools, after-school programs, public libraries, and universities.
According to community statistics on its official website as of July 2021, there were over 82 million projects shared by over 74 million members, with over 73 million monthly website visitors.
Scratch is named after a disk jockey technique known as “scratching,” in which vinyl records would be clipped together on a turntable to generate various sound effects.
The website, similar to scratching, allows users to create and remix projects like video games, animations, and simulations by combining diverse material (including sound, graphics, and other applications) in unique ways.
11. Code Hunt
This is another good recommendation for coding games. Code Hunt is a game platform for coding competitions and skill practice. Code Hunt uses Pex, a white box execution engine.
Code Hunt is unique in that each problem is given with only test cases and no specifications. Players must first figure out the pattern before coding the solution.
As of August 2016, approximately 350,000 gamers had utilized Code Hunt. Data from recent tournaments have been made available to the educational community for examination.
A complicated talent like programming takes a long time to master. Code Hunt, a game that allows individuals to code against the computer with hints supplied as unit tests, was created to motivate students to put in long hours of practice.
The game has grown in popularity to the point that it now hosts international competitions in which students compete against one another to answer a series of problems in a given amount of time.
12. Grid Garden
Grid Garden is comprised of 28 stages and helps players learn CSS Grid. A rudimentary knowledge of CSS Grid is advantageous but not absolutely necessary to get started with this game.
Each challenge is loaded with descriptions for the CSS Grid attributes. The initial tasks are simple, but as players move up in gameplay, they become increasingly difficult.
13. Robocode
This is another good recommendation for coding games. Robocode is a coding game in which the aim is to create a robot to battle in a war arena against many other robots.
The player is the robot’s programmer, although he or she will not have any direct control over the game. Instead, the user must program the robot’s AI, instructing it on how to operate and respond to events in the fight field.
The game is intended to assist players in learning Java while having fun. The Robocode game is capable of running on every OS that supports the Java Platform, which includes all common operating systems such as macOS, Windows, Linux, and so on.
The fights in Robocode take place on a battlefield, where little automated robots on 6 wheels battle it out till the last robot standing.
Please note that Robocode does not contain any blood, gore, politics, or humans. The conflicts are merely for the thrill of competition, which we like. However, there are explosions, which may be shut off if they are bothersome.
14. SQL Murder Mystery
SQL Murder Mystery is a fun game for both new and expert SQL programmers. Players will try to hunt out the killer in this murder mystery to hone their SQL and problem-solving abilities.
Before players begin the game, they must first learn how to use SQLite and become familiar with the database structure.
15. Lightbot: Programming Puzzles
Danny Yaroslavski created Lightbot, an instructional video game for learning software programming fundamentals.
Lightbot has received a high rating on iTunes and Google Play, with over 7 million downloads. Users will be able to access Lightbot as an online Flash game, or in form of a mobile app for iOS and Android. Lightbot was created using Flash and OpenFL.
Lightbot’s objective is to direct a little robot through a labyrinth and turn on lights. To order the robot players would be required to arrange onscreen symbols.
Some robot orders could include walk, turn, leap, turn on a light, and so on. As the lessons continue, the maze and symbol list get increasingly difficult.
Players will learn programming concepts such as functions, loops, and more by utilizing such instructions without having to enter script in a particular programming language. This is why it finds its way into our list of Coding Games.
Download App on Google Play Store
Download App on Apple App Store
16. Infinifactory: sandbox puzzle game
Infinifactory is a puzzle-based video game created and by Zachtronics that was first released on June 30, 2015, for OS X, Microsoft Windows, and Linux.
In December 2015, the game was published for PlayStation 4. In the game, the player assumes the character of a human who has been kidnapped by aliens and is compelled to build assembly lines in order to produce specific things for ostensibly evil reasons.
The manufacturing lines are created from blocks in a 3D world, similar to Zachtronics’ earlier SpaceChem and Infiniminer games.
The game is comprised of 6 realms, each having a particular set of puzzles. Completing a set number of problems on a world allows the player to go on to the next one while also progressing the plot.
By clearing all of the riddles, the player’s avatar is rescued from aliens and taken to a secret base on the extraterrestrial homeworld, where he or she joins forces with the fellow abductees to discover a means to leave the planet.
17. Rocky’s Boots
Leslie Grimm and Warren Robinett’s instructional logic puzzle game Rocky’s Boots was published in 1982. It was followed by Robot Odyssey, a more challenging sequel.
Parent’s Choice magazine, Learning Magazine, and Infoworld magazine all named it Software of the Year, and the Software Publishers Association gave it the Gold Award.
Rocky’s Boots was about the first piece of educational applications for PCs to make use of an interactive graphical simulation for learning.
The goal of the first section of Rocky’s Boots is to knock a succession of things off a conveyor belt with a mechanical boot; each object will earn a certain number of points, perhaps negative. The player must attach a set of logic gates to the boot to guarantee that it only kicks positive items.
The player controls an orange square that picks up gadgets by moving it over them and pressing the joystick button.
Later, the player discovers that he may create his own logic circuits and “games” using all of the game’s components, including OR gates, NOT gates, AND gates, and flip-flops, in an open-ended space.
This is why many people think of it as a visual design engine rather than a game. The binary logic states of 0 and 1 were represented by the colors white and orange.
The signals are slowly seen to spread through the circuits while the circuits functioned as if the electricity were liquid orange fire pouring through transparent pipes.
18. ToonTalk – Making programming child’s play
ToonTalk is a computer coding system designed for children to use. The term “toon” refers to a cartoon. The system is presented through animated characters, which include robots that may be taught by example.
It’s one of the only effective implementations of the simultaneous constraint logic programming model outside of academia.
Kenneth M. Kahn designed it in 1995, and it was included in the ToonTalk integrated development environment, a software package that was distributed globally during 1996 and 2009. Its specification has been scholarly published since 2009, and its implementation is publicly accessible.
It works with any current web browser and varies from ToonTalk on the desktop in a few ways. ToonTalk programs may operate on any DOM element and have access to a variety of browser features (video, audio, speech IO, style sheets, and browser events).
Google Drive and other web services are incorporated. ToonTalk Reborn is a completely free and open-source application.
19. Src:Card
Src:Card is a one or two-player card game in which players seek to destroy an opponent’s combat robot’s robotic core through code.
Based on academic research done at the University of Auckland and Otago, the game is built around the Src:Card language, which encompasses much of procedural programming.
Loops, conditional flow, and other control structures, including fundamental algorithmic logic, are all replicated in the game’s language.
While the game has many of the characteristics of a Turing complete imperative language, it would need a bigger function set to qualify as such.
Src:Card is now available for download for free. Src:Card may be printed and played, and open assets can be used to alter the game.
20. Crobots
Crobots is a programming game created by Tom Poindexter and released as Shareware in December 1985. A program developed in a minimal version of C controls the robots.
The objective of the robot is to find and kill other robots that are all running different programming. The robots may be programmed to move around the battleground, examine the area for adversaries, and fire a cannon at them.
Crobots is based on the premise of RobotWar, a game that ran on the first Apple II computer. Robots were created in a proprietary interpreted programming language that featured a real-time perspective of the game as it was being played.
Crobots’ source code was provided under the GPLv2 free software license by Poindexter in October of 2013.
21. Darwin (programming game)
Robert Morris Sr., Victor A. Vyssotsky, and M. Douglas McIlroy created Darwin, a programming game, in August 1961. The game was created at Bell Labs and was first played on an IBM 7090 mainframe.
The game was played just for a few weeks until Morris created an “ultimate” program that ended the game since no one was able to beat it.
The game was made up of two parts: an umpire software and an arena portion of the computer’s memory, into which two or more tiny programs created by the participants were inserted.
Written in 7090 machine code, the games could use the umpire’s functions to explore other areas of the arena, destroy rival programs, and claim empty memory for duplicates of themselves.
22. Core War
Core War is a programming game built-in 1986 in which two or more combat programs struggle for control of a virtual computer, developed by A. K. Dewdney, and D. G. Jones. These combat programs are written in Redcode, which is an abstract assembly language.
Each combat program is put into memory at a random position at the start of a game, following which each program performs one instruction in turn.
The objective of the game is to force competing programs’ processes to terminate (which occurs when they execute an incorrect command), putting the winning program in total control of the computer.
23. Blockly Games
Blockly Games is a free platform that uses a diverse collection of games to teach JS coding. Each game is aimed at utilizing code blocks that players arrange in a proper sequence.
This is one of the smartest ways of teaching kids JavaScript because when the blocks are arranged correctly, a popup window opens that displays the script so they can understand how the code is written.
24. Code.org
Code.org is rated as a very reputable programming learning platform, enabling both young and elderly to sign up for a free account and begin studying the fundamentals of software development.
You may work on a range of projects, including applications, computer animations, and games.
The projects and courses are divided into levels based on your coding ability, making it ideal for users who have never worked with code before. Hence why it gets into our list of Coding Games.
25. Code Monster
Players will learn JavaScript programming by following the Code Monster’s directions. This platform is ideal for people of all ages since it makes learning to program simple.
The interface is simple, with just two squares and the animated Code Monster. The first square is for entering code and the other for seeing the outcomes of the written code in real-time.
26. Elevator Saga
Elevator Saga is a JavaScript game in which players must complete a series of tasks in order to transfer passengers in elevators as quickly as possible within the time limit.
After you’ve made your changes to the code, click the start button in the upper right corner to see how effective your solution is. Users may check the data to see whether they succeeded or failed the challenge while the application is running.
27. CheckiO
CheckiO is a tactical game in which users get to study TypeScript or Python by completing tasks. They’ll begin with the beginning tasks and work their way up to the advanced ones after creating a free account.
If players need assistance, the game will provide them with tips and solutions from other players. They’ll complete each of the tasks in the online editor before moving on to the next assignment. This is why it finds its way into our list of Coding Games.
28. Code Wars
Code Wars is a game that helps users develop their abilities by putting them in challenges with other people.
Swift, JavaScript, Ruby, PHP, Python, and Haskell are among the programming languages that it offers. Users need to demonstrate their abilities by taking a basic comprehension test of the language they wish to master.
Final thoughts on Coding Games
This list covers platforms that allow users to study some of today’s most popular programming languages.
Python, PHP, Ruby on Rails, HTML, JS, and CSS are everything you’ll need to develop into a software engineer and create your own apps, games, and websites.
Gamification makes learning easier and more enjoyable, so take advantage of the benefits of gamified coding courses.
I would like to know what other coding games you have used in the past. Please let me know in the comment section.
Disclaimer: This list is in no particular order, and depending on individuals, one could be as useful as the other in your programming education.
