It wasn’t long before my head was swimming in a swamp of digital logic, but it made coming up with a solution all the more satisfying.
Stuck inside? Yeah, me too. Learn through doing with these great Engineering games from over the last few decades. They are great for passing on to students or just diving in yourself!
Some of these games spark an interest in Engineering in me. The rest helped me learn during my career. They fostered my passion to create things and taught me about the process of design. They also helped me put new-found knowledge straight into practice – a key tenant of learning.
But my favourite aspect is that these games are deep, full of details and the challenges they pose. Sometimes the learning curve is steep, but these games teach you about the real world.
Zachtronics
A great story line, lots of fake chemistry, and space monsters the size of a city block
I found Zachtronic games a decade ago. The simple flash game KOHCTPYKTOP: Engineer of the People quickly became a challenge as I researched half-adders and flip-clop circuits to get to the get to the next level.
KOHCTPYKTOP places you as an engineer working in a semi-conductor factory, designing circuits from scratch. You are given input and output ports, a specification for what you need to create, and silicon and metal to build it. Beware, the first levels are moderately difficult, and it gets harder from there!
It wasn’t long before my head was swimming in a swamp of digital logic, but it made coming up with a solution all the more satisfying.
Dan’s Tip #1: Hold the shift key to change the type of silicon you lay down from N-type to P-type. This tripped me up to start.
You can check out the KOHCTPYKTOP tutorial on YouTube now, as the in-game video no longer works.
However, if KOHCTPYKTOP is to close to jumping off the deep end, Zachtronic has made a bunch of other games since then. The other games have easier learning curves, but they are still heavily STEM inspired.
Dan’s tip #2: All Zachtronic’s games are free for public schools and school-like non-profit organisations! Check out Zachademics for more information. These games are very addictive. I take no responsibility for any missed classes.
One of my favourite Zachtronic games is SpaceChem. It’s got a great story line, lots of fake chemistry, and space monsters the size of a city block. Build your reactors and pipelines, and fulfill the needs of mission.
Both of these games have a great engineering background, as you get into the details to produce results. Deal with design issues, scarce resources, and tight-timelines – just like in the real world!
Go and tell that Flying Cyclops-Laser-Pyramid who’s boss.
Kerbal Space Program
The Kerbal still had a smile on his face. I needed a lie down.
Kerbal Space Program is another great Engineering game. It’s more lighthearted than Zachtronic’s games, but much more of an open world
KSP is all about designing and running your own space program for the eternally happy Kerbals. Build spacecraft and vehicles, take the controls, and discover the solar system! There’s explosions, too.
The game has been updated in recent years, so now is a great time to get into it. You’ll have to deal with real-world issues like transfer orbits, plane change, and aerobraking. Not to mention building up the space program so you can actually pay for all your equipment.
There’s a lot to see in the Kerbal system, with five planets and a host of moons you can fly to and land on. Conduct satellite scans, geological science, or just escape the ship and walk around.
Sometimes the most fun comes from fixing your failures. Before I knew how to properly design rockets, I ran out of fuel on a return journey from the moon, stranding one of my adorable Kerbal pilots in orbit around the home planet Kerbin. Wracked with guilt with how poorly I had treated my space-pioneer, I set about pulling off a daring Apollo 13 inspired rescue mission.
Creating a rocket with two command modules, one for the rescuer and one for my poor orbital friend, I managed to get within 900 metres of the adrift explorer’s floundering ship, matching the orbits so they wouldn’t drift apart. 900 metres is pretty close when you are talking a orbits, but it was an awfully long distance when our poor hero had to bridge the distance with only his personal EVA thrusters. After what seemed like half an hour of coasting across the gap, watching the metres tick down and hoping the orbits didn’t drift apart, I was able to reach the rescue vessel and get our friend home. The Kerbal still had a smile on his face. I needed a lie down.
I determined never to lose a pilot through miscalculation again. In what soon became my favourite part of the game, I built a spreadsheet to design the rocket stages. This allowed me to pre-calculate how much Delta-V I would need to get to the end of the mission, and still have enough fuel to get home.
But that’s just me – you could just wing it. Who am I to judge!
Dan’s tip #3: Here are some resources to design your ships like a pro: Interplanetary guide and calculator, Delta-V cheat sheet, and Advanced Rocket Design.
Next Time
Catch us next time for the last two engineering games on the list – Take on Mars and Gizmos and Gadgets!
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Daniel is passionate about sharing his enjoyment and experiences of engineering with everyone, regardless of where they are in the world. Based in Sydney, Australia, Daniel has over 10 years of engineering experience: on site, in the workshop, and in the lab.
Engineering All Sorts exists to help you as an educator to become more confident in engineering concepts and thinking, and to help you grow your STEM strengths.