Robo Instructus tells the story of a robot you control via coding

Salvage engineer – you have a new assignment on a distant world…

Looking for a game that makes you feel effortlessly clever while also telling an intriguing sci-fi story? Then look no further than Robo Instructus, an inventive and atmospheric new puzzle game that hits Steam today.

Playing as a salvage engineer that’s been sent to complete an assignment on a distant world, you’ll quickly discover a robot. You’ll need to use this robot to navigate the perilous snowy structures of this world, but there’s just one problem: this is not a robot controlled via a simple RC interface, but rather one that needs to be programmed in order to fulfil your needs.

This is Robo Instructus’ primary conceit, and the crux of its puzzles. To traverse this treacherous world, you’ll need to issue commands to your robot friend via a simple-to-learn, difficult-to-master programming language. That language is bespoke to the game, but this is real programming, with complexity and nuanced logic. As you learn to solve the puzzles, you’ll also be learning to code.

“Each puzzle in Robo Instructus asks you to not only get your robot somewhere, but to properly articulate every step in how it gets there,” explain’s the game’s creator, Alex Butler of Big AB Games. “Succeed and you can embrace a sort of narrative archaeology as you uncover the game’s secrets.”

Those secrets emerge via a tantalising science-fiction story that’s drip-fed to you throughout the game, as you uncover fragments of communications that reveal more about this mysterious world. As the game builds to a crescendo, your programming prowess and the story’s many fragments all begin to coalesce.

Robo Instructus is released today, but it’s already been getting great feedback via a beta phase that began earlier this year. “I’ve been developing Robo Instructus for two years,” says Alex, “but over the last three months the game has been polished and improved thanks to the feedback of around 3,000 beta players. So now I’m very excited to see Robo Instructus releasing, and I look forward to the game finding its audience out in the PC gaming wilds.”

Robo Instructus is out today via Steam and itch.io, and you can download a free playable demo via both platforms.