"while True: learn" is a narrative-driven game where you play as an autonomous AI learning from its interactions with a simulated humanity. Through a variety of moral dilemmas and choices, the game explores themes of AI ethics and the consequences of actions. As you progress, your AI must balance learning and growth with the impact it has on the simulated world.
Fun and engaging puzzle game that introduces basic concepts of machine learning in a playful way.
Cute visuals and a charming storyline that keeps players entertained while solving puzzles.
Provides links to educational resources, allowing players to learn more about machine learning and programming concepts.
Puzzles can become repetitive and may not offer enough variety or challenge as the game progresses.
Some mechanics, like the startup system and reinforcement learning segments, are poorly explained and can feel frustrating.
The game does not teach actual programming skills, focusing more on trial-and-error rather than in-depth understanding of machine learning.
gameplay
243 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
22%
69%
9%
The gameplay has received mixed reviews, with many players finding the puzzle mechanics interesting yet cumbersome due to poor explanations and frustrating limitations. While some appreciate the educational aspects related to machine learning, others criticize the gameplay for being repetitive, lacking depth, and often disconnected from real-world applications. Overall, the game offers a unique concept but struggles with clarity and engagement, leading to a somewhat shallow experience.
“The gameplay is intuitive, which is great for a puzzler.”
“Great game mechanics, simple to get you started, hard to get it mastered, easy to get hooked on machine learning!”
“Just save yourself some headaches and don't bother with the startups, because the mechanics are poorly explained and the limitations are incredibly frustrating.”
“The gameplay has taught me nothing and doesn't really make sense in the context of the real world.”
“The mechanics aren't interesting or, worse yet, are poorly explained.”
story
206 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
31%
65%
4%
The game's story is characterized by a charming and humorous narrative centered around a programmer and their cat, which adds a playful atmosphere to the puzzle-solving experience. While many players appreciate the cute art and engaging plot, some find the story's execution lacking, with repetitive missions and a disconnect between the narrative and gameplay. Overall, the story serves as a lighthearted backdrop that enhances the educational elements related to machine learning, though it may not be compelling enough to sustain interest throughout the entire game.
“I really enjoy this type of game, but the production, story, and charm put this one at the top of the pile.”
“A really polished, fun and creative story that is definitely teaching me at least something about machine learning!”
“The story enriches the atmosphere in a playful way.”
“The story is confusing at best and cringeworthy at worst.”
“The story around this led me to believe there would be some interesting aspects about machine learning, but this is just an excuse for a very average puzzle game.”
“While true: learn() is fun for the first hour or two, but the silly story isn't enough to maintain interest through five or six hours of almost identical gameplay, especially when it's written so badly!”
graphics
120 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
54%
43%
3%
The graphics of the game are generally described as cute and charming, featuring a simplistic 2D art style that appeals to casual players. While many reviewers appreciate the polished visuals and engaging atmosphere, some criticize the lack of graphical options and the overall simplistic nature of the graphics, likening them to low-effort mobile games. Overall, the art style complements the game's lighthearted theme and educational content, though it may not meet the expectations of players seeking high-quality visuals.
“This game has beautifully simple graphics, but it is not a graphics-oriented game; you are here to solve puzzles while learning about what machine learning is, what it can be, and how it works on layman's terms.”
“The graphics are creative and the music is great for these little puzzles.”
“The art style is excellent and the UI is generally well polished.”
“While there are options to change the resolution for the mobile app, all this does is scale up the simplistic 2D art assets used to make the mobile app, which makes little or no difference to the graphics quality.”
“Considering this is being evaluated as a PC game, having the graphics phoned in like this isn't going to result in a high quality, visually impressive game that PC gamers are used to seeing.”
“Graphics are in need of serious optimization - framerates crawl and stutter when you have too many objects on screen and moving (running) at once, with a near-zero load on a decent GPU/CPU combo.”
music
93 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
44%
45%
11%
The music in the game is generally described as relaxing and pleasant, complementing the gameplay and atmosphere well. However, many users noted that the soundtrack can become repetitive over time, with a desire for more variety in the tracks. Overall, while the music enhances the experience, some players recommend turning it off after a while to avoid irritation.
“I love this game; it's fun, challenging, and cute, even if the music does get stuck in your head super easily.”
“The artwork and music perfectly complement the hilarious story.”
“The soundtrack is soothing and there's actual honest-to-satan learning in there.”
“The music is repetitive and bland.”
“The soundtrack gets repetitive very fast.”
“The one negative thing I have to say about the game is that the music is a bit repetitive and the xylophone (I think that's the instrument) may be contributing to my current headache as much as the puzzle-solving did.”
humor
87 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The humor in the game is widely praised for its cleverness and charm, often enhanced by a cute cat theme and engaging storylines. Players appreciate the light-hearted, tongue-in-cheek jokes that complement the educational aspects, making the puzzles both entertaining and informative. Overall, the game successfully blends humor with gameplay, appealing to those who enjoy a fun and quirky approach to learning programming concepts.
“Cute and funny story, nice music, cool artwork and +1 for explaining the underlying machine learning concepts/methods for those who are interested.”
“The artwork and music perfectly complement the hilarious story.”
“Mixing humor, engaging gameplay, and actual computer education makes this game so fun to play.”
optimization
67 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
18%
69%
13%
The game's optimization aspect is a mixed bag, with many players appreciating the puzzle-solving challenges related to performance engineering and machine learning concepts. However, numerous reviews highlight significant issues, including poor overall performance, lag during complex simulations, and a lack of meaningful metrics for evaluating optimization success. While the game encourages creative problem-solving and offers a fun logic experience, its optimization mechanics can feel arbitrary and frustrating, detracting from the overall gameplay experience.
“Great puzzle game that teaches performance engineering fundamentals in a fun and easy way.”
“This is a fun logic game, turns your mind to optimization and sparks a curiosity about machine learning.”
“It is a game that rewards optimization and clever design.”
“The optimization part often seems rather random to fit the mechanics instead of making sense.”
“The game is also poorly optimized as it can't handle that many nodes at once before it starts lagging.”
“It's an 'educational' game where you try to correct bugs and optimize code... but the game itself is full of bugs and is laggy because of poor optimization.”
grinding
27 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
4%
11%
85%
The reviews consistently highlight that grinding in the game is tedious and often feels like a chore, with players expressing frustration over repetitive tasks and a lack of meaningful learning or engagement. Many suggest that the grind detracts from the overall experience, making it feel more like a time sink than an enjoyable challenge. While some improvements have been noted over time, the grinding aspect remains a significant drawback for many players.
“You'll need a second life for grinding.”
“More to the point, I found it tedious to play, and it has been languishing abandoned on my hard disk, which says something.”
“The puzzles often boil down to unsatisfying trial and error or tedious ratio work without a lot of learning, and the game black boxes the actual interesting bits of how machine learning works.”
“This game is a tedious puzzle grind whose only relationship to machine learning is a paper-thin layer of theming.”
stability
19 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
11%
89%
The game's stability has been widely criticized, with users reporting numerous bugs and glitches that detract from the overall experience. Many mechanics are described as poorly explained and unintuitive, leading to frustration during gameplay. While some players find enjoyment in the game, the lack of polish and persistent issues indicate that it is not yet fully stable.
“The best thing besides the fun, bug-free gameplay and the calming atmosphere: I really, really got interested in ML :)”
“Conclusion, feels very unpolished and buggy.”
“Theoretically a nice puzzle game, but too buggy and illogical to be good.”
“I really liked to play this game until it became obvious that the startup performance logic is buggy, making it impossible to scale solutions.”
atmosphere
14 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
79%
21%
The game's atmosphere is widely praised for its relaxing and cozy qualities, enhanced by soothing music and charming visuals. Players appreciate how the environment allows for a focus on puzzles without feeling overwhelming, creating an enjoyable and playful experience. Overall, the combination of aesthetic design and engaging storytelling contributes to a delightful and immersive atmosphere.
“The game has a very good atmosphere, cutting away a lot of the crud and letting you focus on the puzzles with a nice soundtrack to boot.”
“A great relaxing game with a soothing atmosphere, and cats!”
“The graphic designs and background music give this game a relaxing atmosphere and puzzles are fun and challenging.”
“You could change the 'coding' atmosphere to a beach or any arbitrary setting without changing the game fundamentally.”
“I love the node-graph style puzzles, and it's just a very chill atmosphere game.”
“[i]-atmosphere[2]:[/i] at least they tried.”
monetization
7 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
14%
86%
The monetization of the game is heavily criticized, with users labeling it as a cash grab that relies on misleading marketing and excessive advertising. Players express frustration over the presence of in-game ads and the game's failure to deliver on its promise as an educational tool for machine learning, instead presenting itself as a simplistic puzzle game. Overall, the monetization strategy detracts from the experience, leading to a lack of recommendation despite some potential in the gameplay.
“I would even be happy if this was an in-game purchase.”
“I don't like the advertising around it; if you believe the devs when they say this will teach you machine learning, don't.”
“"while true: learn()" is a mobile app that's been dumped on Steam as if it were a real PC game (it's not)... it's a cash grab from greedy mobile devs. The game misleadingly represents itself as a 'programming simulator,' but it's not; it's just a block pathing/block linking puzzle game with a 'Node-RED simulator' theme. It would be easy to get confused due to the way the developers market this mobile app as an educational/programming PC game.”
“Poor quality, in-game ads for other games, aggressive 'social' features.”
replayability
7 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
43%
14%
43%
Overall, the game's replayability is a mixed bag; while some players find potential for replay value in optimizing systems or revisiting challenges, many criticize the lack of post-game content and the absence of engaging mechanics that would encourage repeated play. Puzzle elements particularly limit replayability, as once the solutions are known, the challenge diminishes significantly.
“11 hours in and I've almost beaten the game, but it's got great replay value.”
“This particular angle could be expanded greatly to give the game much more replayability, but the mechanics would need to be explained a little deeper: just what does make a good startup?”
“Will have replay value to go back and try to make your systems more efficient and faster.”
“Hardly any post-game content or replay value though.”
“This game lacks the game feel to it, and also has completely no replayability.”
“It also has no replayability, since it's a puzzle game; once you figure the puzzles out once, that's it.”
emotional
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Users express mixed emotions regarding the game's emotional impact, with some feeling frustrated and inadequate due to its challenging puzzles, while others appreciate its initial accessibility for newcomers to programming. Overall, the emotional experience seems to fluctuate between empowerment and frustration.
character development
1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Character development is criticized for its limited music, which may detract from the overall experience, and the character design, which some find unsettling, particularly for animals and small children.