What if I told you could play a game where you got to write small functions, like you would in a programming language? You’d probably tell me something like: “We already have that Mazen, it’s called a programming language.” I would then give you a stern look for ruining my pitch and continue by saying: “What if it was a game where you had to write programs by moving a robot through various tiles with commands on them and carrying out arithmetic functions in creative ways?” I imagine at this point you’d look at the floor and shuffle your feet awkwardly. But we’d get past it when you started playing Robot Unlock.

I came across Robot Unlock as part of the recent 99 percent bundle. Most of the offerings are pretty small games, so I got through them quickly, but I stayed on this one longer than the others. This was actually due to a small error on my part. I hit the ‘instructions’ button to get an idea of the gameplay but I didn’t see the arrow for scrolling and so I thought the game wanted me to sort this stuff out. I assumed they took this as far as telling you absolutely nothing about the functions, as part of some elaborate indie logic. I was really interested though, so I ended up learning the game’s mechanics anyway. Eventually I realized that it’s a very clever puzzler that’ll give your brain a run for its money.

Anyway I should probably explain how it works. In Robot Unlock, you have four numbers that you need to modify in some way. You get instructions in each level, ranging from basic stuff like incrementing them each by 1, to medium stuff like getting the remainder of division of several of the digits, to harder stuff like returning the minimum of the maximums of two sets of the numbers. You accomplish this by sending out a robot that moves over tiles to execute arithmetic functions. You have two sliders that move between the two digits that are represented by two colors and you can carry out operations between the two numbers by choosing tiles of either color. You can’t control the robot’s movement after you set it loose, but you can slow it down and you can have it turn or even split in two. Additionally, you can have it turn based on the value of the number in your colored slider, making it possible to write conditional functions.

While you are essentially programming in the game, this doesn’t resemble most languages you would normally encounter. Not reassuringly, it appears to be similar to a programming language called Brainf***. How appropriate.

I loved tackling the problems in each level and trying to find the best implementation. In some cases it’s not a personal goal because the level is very much restricted in size. The game description does point out that it has a rather soothing ambient soundtrack, which helps sooth you as you try to pull of formulas with a set of colored tiles and you are reminded of your brain’s inferiority. The game is a regular treat for programmers by the way, and it even reignited my interest to the point where I started reading up on Java again.

If you’re looking to test the wiring upstairs and then some, give this a run.

[Robot Unlock]

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