SmithAndCherryApps

ALAN-13 is a grid based isometric puzzle game. First and foremost it's a form of entertainment for those who like exercising their brains. Secondly it's a light introduction to the basic concepts of programming.

As of now it's on Windows (PC) only, but we are working on a MAC release also.

You can purchase a copy on our steam storefront .

If you bought your pc in the past 10 years and it runs windows 10, you are probably good to go, but check out the specifics of requirements on our steam page . Using a mouse is highly recommended.

At the moment there are 20 levels, but they greatly vary in complexity: end-game, high complexity levels can take hours to solve.

ALAN-13 doesn't teach any specific programming language. You'll use a visual, drag and drop style solution creator and typing can be avoided entirely. However the knowledge, the ability to use the coding concepts learned this way can be transferred to any actual programming language.

If you can finish all the levels without outside help, you most likely have what it takes to be a professional programmer, but this could be just the beginning of the journey.

Loops, variables, arrays and indexing, branches and conditions, function calls and in general breaking up problems to small, sequential steps.

Many people misinterpreted the Interruptor as a GOTO instruction. But it's actually much closer to a function call. Unlike a GOTO, Interruptors are pushed to the stack before the jump, and then when the jump branch terminates it's popped out of the stack to continue execution on its output. The only difference to a function is that it doesn't have a local scope, but local scopes didn't make sense from our specific gameplay perspective. Furthermore, this game meant to be introducing the very basics of programming tools, striving for clean code is another layer of abstraction. (On low abstraction levels every function call and method is basically a wrapper around GOTO jump instructions, understanding this could be beneficial for everyone.)

It depends on the reason you had trouble with learning programming. If you had incompetent teachers or a badly structured course, then sure, trying a completely different approach can help. But it's also possible that coding is not your strong suit. It doesn't mean that you are not smart, but programming requires a certain mindset that doesn't come naturally for some. If focusing on a single problem for long exhausts you, if having to keep track mentally of complex arrangement of things frustrates you, then programming probably won't be enjoyable or fruitful for you even if you force yourself to learn it. And there is nothing wrong with that.

You can contact us by the links provided on the bottom of this page (by clicking on the appropriate social media icons), check the troubleshooting section, or you can join our discord server.