SpaceChem is Now Free For Schools

SpaceChem, the indi puzzle game of combining elements to make molecules, is now Free For Schools. I think this is cool because in the advanced levels, you need to use the game's periodic table to make the target compound. SpaceChem comes with a level editor, so educators can create class specific levels to accomplish learning objective.



I find this exciting because it is this kind of thing that will be part of the future of education.

Windosill

Windowsill is a very simple puzzle game come toy. It would be nice if it was longer, but it is a very well designed flash game.

[Jay Is Games]

Programmer Puzzle Games

There is a subset of puzzle games which for the purposes of this post I am calling programming puzzle games. The basic idea is that there is a level and you have a guy that you can control to complete whatever the objective is in the level to progress, but you can only control him by giving him a set of rules to follow by programming him (empowering him with a rule based AI). I love these things, but only independent developers seem to be doing anything with them.

Currently the best set of these games is made by Epsitec Games with their CeeBot series. In the case of CeeBot there is a programming language for the player to learn. This sounds hard, but it is aimed at a 5+ age range audience so everything is explained gradually with each level building on the lesson of the last and you can only progress once you have understood the concept the level is teaching. The game even comes with a better debugging tool than what most Java and C++ developers use today, so when your programs start to get large the game emergent teaches about logic errors without ever explicitly covering them.

Anyway today I played Spuds another Programmer Puzzle game that uses pictures to do the programming with. It was made by two brothers and apart from being a little overpriced ($19.95) and forcing the player to sit through a long tutorial, it's very interesting.



Again these games might sound boring, but I suffer from timeloss whenever I play them.

Samorost That Artsy Flash Puzzle Game

There is an artsy flash puzzle game that you might have played called Samorost where a small guy has to stop a floating thing from crashing into his home. This has spawned a few poor imitators like Haluz where you have to rescue a satellite dish from a bird, but now Samorost 2 is out.

It is much like the first only the guy's dog is stolen by some aliens. After completing the first level you will be asked to purchase the full version. I have and I can tell you that by that time, you have already played through the best of the game so it probably isn't worth the purchase, but as a whole Samorost 2 is everything the original was. The only good thing about buying the full game is that the audio is much better.
3/5