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What are the best educational games on PC?

29

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Considered

255

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Dec 27, 2023

Last
Updated

28 Games Considered

Best educational games on PC	Price	Steam Rating	Platforms
87 Factorio	$20.00	Overwhelmingly Positive	Windows, Linux, Mac, Steam
84 Human Resource Machine	$9.99	Very Positive	-
-- Infinifactory	$24.99	Overwhelmingly Positive	-
-- Portal 2	9.99	Overwhelmingly Positive	-
-- TIS-100	-	Overwhelmingly Positive	-

Factorio

Top Pro

Massive and infinite procedurally generated world

The playing world is as large as you want to explore, it automatically generates it as you explore more areas. See More

Top Con

Can become rather repetitive

There's really little payoff for being able to build really long chains of automation, it usually results in being able to open a new tech tree which allows the player to continue the process of building automation chains ad infinitum, which, admittedly can become rather boring after a while. See More

ColorfulLahurati's Experience

I never played this so Ligament See More

Specs

Steam Rating:Overwhelmingly Positive

Genre:Realtime Strategy (RTS)

Co-Op:16+ Player Online (100+ has been done)

Top Pro

Endless solutions

With proper planning users can "code" together very precise ways to create all the things needed for the game, some in very inventive ways that can differ quite a bit. This allows for tons of replayability. See More

Top Pro

Charming old school graphics

While not the most technically advanced graphics the look of the game is much like a game from the 90s but seeing it in action when an assembly line starts moving there is an impressiveness to it that suits the game quite well. See More

Top Pro

Under active development

The game is still in Alpha which means endless future possibilities. See More

Top Pro

Cooperative or PvP building

Factorio also supports multiplayer, allowing many players to cooperate and assist each other, or work against each other in PvP. By default, multiplayer games run the CO-OP freeplay scenario where all players work together to launch a rocket with a satellite into space. See More

Human Resource Machine

Top Con

PC only

Top Pro

Simple and fun way to learn the basic mechanics of assembly code

ColorfulLahurati's Experience

Ligament without ent See More

Specs

Steam Rating:Very Positive

Top Con

Not free

Top Pro

Good graphics and sound

The game is very reminiscent of World of Goo's graphics, being very consistent and sort of cartoony, and all sounds are synthesized. See More

Top Con

Short for price (especially for people looking to learn)

This game contains about 5 hours of content for many players, and is composed of 3 "chapters" of about 11 levels each. Most of that is taken up by tutorials. Each chapter 'dives in' a little bit into a topic. But if you're looking to learn programming it'll likely be too short. It also has many mini levels where it shows a little topic, but those are not explored that much (one of the worst moments with it is when it asks you to "use a friendly search box" as a serious recommendation). (Note: This game actually is appearing in a Humble Bundle for $1 by the time of writing.) See More

Top Pro

Can optimize your solutions

The game's replay value increases as solutions can be beat in two metrics: Commands and Steps. See More

Top Con

Frustrating interface at later levels

The game does not show you every part of your program at once. At later stages, even about 20 instructions will require scrolling to reach parts of your program. Even with about 30, it quickly becomes tedious to move around your instructions as you will either have to wait for scrolling or spam the scroll wheel. Many of your solutions will also be using one of the 'blue' commands, which has two arrows, so you cannot just delete the key instruction and add a copy to where you want it to go. See More

Top Pro

Great debugging

Step back, step forward, pause, instruction pointer, variables always visible (side effect of the game style). Speed adjustments too. Everything you need. See More

Top Con

Levels are unoriginal

Related to the game's story not doing much, the gameplay also does not integrate itself with any cool story events that may happen, as they don't happen. You don't lose abilities, nothing gets 'screwed up', and the game doesn't last long enough to be able to explore the game's concept in depth. What this means is that the levels are more by-the-book as if they were programming puzzles in a book, and if you've played many games of this similar genre you've already seen about 80% of the puzzles in the game, in which most of the remaining ones are early tutorial puzzles. See More

Top Pro

Develops critical thinking skills

Encourages attention to detail and imperative thinging, supporting critical thinking skills. See More

Top Con

Story is disappointing

The game's story does not progress very far. With a premise as interesting as tying into the "machines taking over jobs and humans", you'd expect gameplay and levels as unique. But the game plays as stock as a programming game can get, even just on the story standpoint. Many details are shown around the game, but the game doesn't go deep for anything involving it. See More

Top Con

Lack of optimization accuracy

One pro about games like this are the fact that you can optimize your solutions. But the marked "Best" solution is almost always inaccurate. Some levels are tens of blocks and hundreds of steps away. You'll have to go to other places to challenge yourself properly. See More

Top Con

Awful debugging

The game's debugging features consist of a step forward button, a step back button, and fast forwarding (up to about 4x). However, these are not enough. In many levels you could find yourself noticing your program is stuck in a loop, then having to repeatedly click "Step back" dozens of times just to find the key moment, which is even worse if you were fully fast forwarding. In later levels, where solutions start taking some more time, it might take minutes to find the key moment in your program that failed to work, just to wait more to figure out if the change you made was enough to get it to work. See More

Infinifactory

Top Pro

Gives feeling of accomplishment

The puzzles in game are challenging and once solved the satisfaction of being able to watch a completed machine work correctly is quite addicting. See More

Top Con

Puzzles become difficult really soon

The difficulty curve is pretty high for Infinifactory in that once the user learns the ropes of gameplay the puzzles start getting really difficult and do not ease up. See More

Specs

Steam Rating:Overwhelmingly Positive

Top Pro

Incremental puzzle solving that creates lasting gameplay

The majority of puzzles can not be solved by just looking at the level. It will take a lot of trial and error to get the puzzle solved in slow single steps. This makes for longevity of each puzzle. See More

Top Pro

User created gifs upon finish

The game allows the user to create a gif of the working machine upon completion that can be shared with friends or uploaded to websites. See More

Portal 2

Top Pro

So large in scope that it takes multiple playthroughs to see everything

Portal 2 is larger in every way when compared to the first title, from the longer and more detailed story to the larger levels and new game mechanics. This makes for a title that will last 8-9 hours minimum, with many elements that are worth revisiting, not to mention the co-op section of the game, which is separate from the single player story. See More

Top Con

Late game single player can be quite difficult

While the single player learning curve is quite gradual, late game the puzzles can become quite difficult, sometimes leading to the player being stuck for long stretches of time. While not impossible to solve, some creative thinking will need to be done in order to finish. See More

Specs

Steam Rating:Overwhelmingly Positive

Top Pro

Challenging puzzles that require creative thinking

Top Pro

Huge selection of user-generated content that should appeal to any use-case

The game has more than 60,000 co-op puzzles created by users through the Steam Workshop and through mods. Because it is user-generated content, the quality and size of these puzzles vary widely, including everything from simple, one-off chambers to full-fledged expansions with high-quality stories, voice-overs, and new gameplay elements (for example, Mel). By having such a selection of content, there should be something that appeals to just about anything someone is looking for. See More

TIS-100

Top Con

No in game tutorial makes it difficult to learn

There is no hand holding with this game, no in-game tutorial makes it difficult to know how to play. Though there is a PDF manual that can be printed out. See More

Top Pro

Teaches actual coding

The game is basically text based which means users will have to actually type in code in order to play. This makes for a learning experience for those unfamiliar with coding due to actually having to code in order to play. See More

Specs

Steam Rating:Overwhelmingly Positive

Top Pro

Interesting parallel pipeline architecture.

Code similar to assembly. It's a fun puzzle game for coders, or anyone wanting to get familiar with the syntax of assembly. (though this doe not teach you assembly programming). Great balance for the challenges, right between fun and frustrating. See More

Top Pro

Replayability through a never ending sandbox creation mode

Users can create their own puzzles in the 3 available sandbox modes in game. This allows for users to come back to the game over and over to create custom puzzles and experience something different each time making for a lot of replayability. See More

Top Pro

Competitive score comparing

TIS-100 has a leaderboard function for all 45 puzzles in the game which allows users to compare score with friends and random online players. This way people can see how high they rank in comparison to all other players. See More

SpaceChem

Top Pro

Could help with real life programming skills

In particular, abstraction and concurrent programming skills could be gleaned from the game as it uses broad techniques often used by computer programmers. See More

Top Con

Annoying action-y 'boss' stages

At the end of each 'world', there is a boss stage in which you have to perform a unique task. This wouldn't be too bad, but in these levels, you can use blocks that you can activate in real time to change the way your program runs. This often means lots of manual work and a lot of padding to hit the buttons at the right time, which is unnecessary for a puzzle game (and, given that you cannot rewind, also stressful if your program is very tight). I would imagine that the best scores for these levels also overly abuse this feature to make solutions that would be almost impossible without use of macros, for instance. See More

Specs

Steam Rating:Overwhelmingly Positive

Top Pro

Easy to learn, hard to master puzzle

Spacechem's mechanics are pretty simple to learn and only takes minutes to understand how the game works. Of course mastering the gameplay is a whole different matter. See More

Top Con

Late game is difficult

In later levels some players may reach a point where the game has become too difficult or frustrating, which may discourage any more play time with the game. See More

Top Pro

Light on the system

The system requirements are quite low at only requiring a 2Ghz processor, 1G of ram and 300MB of hard drive space. Basically this game should work on just about any computer from the last 10-15 years. See More

Top Pro

Endless gameplay through user created solutions

An individual players choices of components, arrangements or factories used will result in completely different experiences and problems/puzzles when compared to another users experience. A truly individualized experience that expands the games replayability. See More

Top Pro

Allows for short or long play sessions

The gameplay allows for a player to come in and solve a single puzzle in a short amount of time or to sit and tinker with a puzzle for hours trying to devise the perfect solution and contraption. It all comes down to what one want to put into the game but the free form of the puzzle solving is what makes it great for anyones playstyle be it short or long. See More

Kerbal Space Program

Top Con

Sells your personal data

You have to agree to a EULA that allows the company to acquire personal information about you. See More

Top Pro

Teaches orbital dynamics & rocket design fundamentals in an accessible manner

The physics engine does a reasonably accurate job of replicating the fundamentals behind both orbital dynamics and rocket design, so by going through the tutorials and experimenting, you're actually learning some real rocket science. See More

Specs

Steam Rating:Overwhelmingly Positive

Top Con

Steep learning curve

Kerbal Space Program is not really a pick up and play title. There is much to learn before grasping the core concepts of the game, See More

Top Pro

Construction sandbox for building and launching rockets

Kerbal at its core is a rocket building and launching sandbox. See More

Top Con

Graphics are not the most detailed

The graphics of KSP are not the most detailed but they work non the less. See More

Top Pro

NASA working on a mission pack for the game

While not released yet NASA is working on a mission pack for the game. See More

Top Pro

Huge modding scene

There's a plethora of mods available that can change every single aspect of the game. See More

Top Pro

Fun sandbox mode to experiment with rocket designs

The rocket designer lets you experiment with as many different rocket designs as you can think up. The designer is based on components such as engines, fuel cells, structural elements and various other items such as parachutes. See More

Top Pro

In constant development

KSP is a shinning example of early release done right. The currently available game is fun to play, and the developers are constantly adding new major additions. See More

Top Pro

You just can't get bored with it. And you will learn a lot.

A "physics" game about space. Build rockets, space planes, space stations, rovers, landers, probes. Explore planets, moons, capture asteroids. With the addition of mods you can even test warp drive, set up a communications network, colonize a planet, mine for resources and much much more. It can even simulate our solar system (the in-game one is very similiar, although smaller to encourage new players. Learn orbital mechanics. Inspire yourself to learn about space and space travel history of human. This game is not only fun - it is inspiring. The game is under heavy development but is already playable (and gives a ton of fun!). Works very well under Linux (64bit as well). See More

Minetest

Top Pro

Easily modable

Nearly every feature in the game is written in LUA, which is an easy to learn, beginner, programming language. See More

Top Con

Mainly just an old Minecraft

It might be a copied name of Minecraft that comes pre-installed with less extensions. See More

SmartChukwu's Experience

best game ever See More

Specs

Genre:Sandbox, Survival

Top Pro

Works on all major platforms

GNU/Linux, Mac, Windows, and Android. See More

Top Con

Certain graphics are really bad

Parts of the games's graphics and functionality are really bad. Mob mods or default mobs look like a 4 year old drew them. However, the devs seem to be slowly sweeping through these issues. Come back soon if you don't like what you see yet. See More

Top Pro

Free, libre, and open source

Kids can modify any part of the game. See More

Top Con

Cannot be played on the Raspberry Pi

Top Pro

Active modding community

Top Con

Minecraft mod ecosystem separate from Minetest

Minetest is obviously an opensource implementation of Minecraft but the only problem is all the mods made for Minecraft do not work in Minetest. They could have designed their clone in such a way say fix it at 1.7.10 forge so that you could load up forge mods straight up and have them work somewhat. There's so much great content for Minecraft that is completely lost and unusable in Minetest, however at this pace of developement, maybe that will change in the future. See More

Top Con

Rips off Minecraft

Top Con

No weather

There's no built-in weather. However, there are mods which add this feature and extend it far beyond what you might expect from basic weather. See More

Top Con

Lack of mobs

Yet mobs can be installed through mods or subgames. However, if the server is not optimized, these can make the game run slower. See More

Top Con

Potentially unsafe online chat while on multiplayer servers

Online play can be disabled by modifying the menu files (specifically the tab_multiplayer.lua and tab_server.lua files in the "builtin/mainmenu/" folder). See More

FlightGear

Specs

Epistory - Typing Chronicles

Top Pro

Interesting controls

Instead of the normal movement used in a game on PC (WASD) the player uses the E F J I keys, as the game wants the player to have both hands on the keyboard as they would when typing. This means movement is done through both hands on the keyboard only. This allows the player to quickly type words when in combat with no need to transition to a different control scheme. See More

Top Con

Same words used on different enemies at the same time

This is an issue, as one enemy may be closer than the other and it can be a mixed bag as to which one will be hit with the attack when two enemies have the same target word. This leads to frustration and death due to the game not allowing for a way to target a specific enemy when the same word is used on both. See More

PoliteBalayang's Experience

It's a beautiful and very immersive game. The world is amazing! See More

Specs

Steam Rating:Very Positive

Top Pro

Unique graphics

The graphics are styled to look like folded origami pieces. As the player progresses in each stage, the map will fold out on a isometric plane in a way that looks like paper folding out to form objects. This gives an original look to the game that is actually a treat to watch. See More

Top Con

Progression is simple and formulaic

The basic premise of the game is, start a stage, earn a new power, clear out the dungeons on that stage that require that power. This is done for each stage, of which there are four. It can get pretty repetitive and become boring pretty quickly. See More

Top Pro

Teaches typing through a beautiful story

Top Con

Gets very difficult

The later portions of the game can be quite demanding on ones typing skills. This means that no matter how much a player wants to see the game through, if their fingers are not equipped with the skill required, they most likely will not be able to finish the game. This is actually a physically demanding game and only the most competent typist should go into the game with the goal of completion. See More

Top Pro

Great for a laptop

Due to the unique controls, there is no need for a mouse to play this game, which means it will be a bit easier to play on a laptop as no external mouse is needed nor the use of the touch-pad. This is a keyboard only game, and that lends itself well to laptops. See More

Top Pro

Strong female writer protagonist

Typing of the Dead: Overkill

Top Pro

Teaches typing in a fun way

Top Con

Poor graphics

Originally released for the Dreamcast, this game does show its age. While this is a port of the Wii version,simply the graphics look poor. Textures and models look pretty poor, though that does mean the game is not that demanding, so is good for people with low end hardware. See More

Specs

Steam Rating:Very Positive

Top Pro

Adaptive difficulty

Based on your individual typing speed and accuracy, the game matches your typing skill. This can also be found on the original Typing of the Dead game. See More

Top Con

Adult content restricts public school adoption

This is tricky since most children tend to already play age inappropriate games at home, such as Grand Theft Auto 5. See More

Glitchspace

Top Pro

Inventive 3D representation of programming

The player needs to get from point a to point b by fixing glitches in the environment by using a programming language called Null, which allows user manipulation of the environment. Through this manipulation the game focuses on an inventive way of showing 3D representations of the mechanics of programming. See More

Top Con

Intimidating to learn

Upon first boot it is quite obvious that the game will take a bit of play to learn, this is made worse by the fact that there is no tutorial. Though the game is in early access, so that may change. See More

Specs

Steam Rating:Mostly Positive

Top Pro

Helps you learn how 3D game geometry works

While the 3D programming language in the game doesn't have much scripting or logic in it, it does teach you about how 3D geometry works through concepts like scaling, translating, and transforming objects and vectors. See More

Top Pro

Non stress environment

The music in game is similar to elevator music and the visuals are simple and relaxing, combined it creates an atmosphere that is pretty stress free, which is good as the further one gets the more complicated the game can become. See More

Sid Meier's Civilization VI

Top Pro

The gameplay stays true to the Civilization series

Civilization VI is a turn-based game where players will vie over resources and land. In order to do this, each player starts with a settler to create their capitol city with, and the game progresses from that point on. While it can be a little daunting because there's so much to do and learn, a few minutes of reading through the suggestions of your in-game advisers (which are AIs) and experimenting with the user interface will cut that feeling of dread out and replace it with fun. There are several different types of resources on the map, and they usually yield food, gold, or production. Players can devote turns to training a worker from their city in order to "work" these tiles, letting you reap whatever benefits they may bestow. Getting yourself more food allows you to grow your city faster because you are able to work more tiles, and it just keeps getting bigger from there. Gold allows you to buy various units (like workers and settlers) or even buildings (which will provide even more food, gold, and production). Production allows you to produce units and buildings faster, which can be another way to instigate your city's growth. There are also strategic and luxury resources. Strategic resources like horses, iron, or oil, allow you to create different units and buildings that would otherwise be unavailable to you. Luxury resources provide "amenities" to your cities, which also helps to make them grow. Amenities represent how happy your citizens are with your rule. While you're building your cities, you are also simultaneously researching different technologies which allow you to build new buildings or improve different resources. The point of the game is taking as many resources as you can get your hands on, and then building your cities to amplify those gains so that you can achieve victory, which can be done in one of 5 ways. Culture, Domination, Religious, Science, and Time/Score victories are all possible win conditions. To attain a Culture victory, players have to attract tourists by generating high amounts of culture and tourism. A Domination victory happens when you capture the capital of every other civilization. A religious victory comes when more than 50% of the world follows your religion. A Science victory is done by achieving 3 things: you must first launch a satellite, then land a human on the Moon, then establish a Martian colony. Last is the Time/Score victory: you can set a number of turns for the game to run, and at the end of that turn the game is over. If you desire that type of victory, you will want to control many wonders (unique buildings that only one player can build) and research high levels of technology. See More

Top Con

Most victories won by timed or military victory

It can be pretty difficult to win by diplomacy, culture, or religion, which does add some challenge to the game but it can get tiresome if one keeps winning by only military or timed victories. See More

Specs

Steam Rating:Very Positive

Top Pro

A ton of fun because it's so fast-paced

The computer opponents in this game are much more aggressive than they have been in the past iterations of Civilization (and in fact, more aggressive than in most turn-based games), which makes the game more fun all around. Because the AI is so bloodthirsty, you've got to make moves to solidify your position (or take theirs!), which leads to you amassing an army and numerous cities rather quickly. See More

Top Pro

Great turn-based, strategic combat

Civilization VI utilizes a hexagonal grid for movement and combat. Each tile has six sides that connect to another tile, and units have a certain movement speed that is always depicted in tiles, which can be utilized in different ways. You can create stronger, slower units like catapults and pikemen, or decide to overwhelm and surround your enemies with faster units like cavalry. This adds a level of depth to the game that other turn-based strategies simply fall short of. There's a limit of one unit per tile, which really makes you take the strategic aspects into mind. Ranged units can often shoot over melee units, but not always. You'll have to figure out a few interactions like that in order to be the best commander you can be, but the good news is that it's very intuitive and easy to learn. Each leader has their own turn. Generally, the player goes first, then the computer players. This makes it much easier to plan your strategy, and you can take all the time you need. See More

Top Pro

Beautiful graphics

From the players cities and armies to the lush landscape, Civilization is an astonishingly gorgeous game for those with systems powerful enough to push the graphics to the limit. However, even when on lower graphical settings the game still looks great and is well animated. Unlike the previous games, Civilization VI has more of a cartoon-like feel to the environment, and that adds a more fun, less serious attribute to the game. It makes great use of colors and different landscapes in order to draw you into the game. It's also added background animations, for example, if you have a worker build an iron mine, then you'll actually see the mine being worked for the rest of the game. It certainly adds flavor to the game, and makes it feel more alive. See More

Top Pro

Endless scenarios and replayability

Sid Meier's Civilization VI has a large assortment of nation leaders to choose from that have an even bigger assortment of scenarios that are able to play out for said leaders. Each game can be quite unique in this way as each leader allows for a different nation to be controlled. See More

Hack 'n' Slash

Top Pro

Intuitively uses coding as a main mechanic

Players can use their hacking abilities to subvert their enemies instead of just using a traditional weapon like a sword. For instance a user can plug into a rock in a level and reprogram the code of the rock to allow for it to be moved and how many spaces. It is an intuitive way to interact with objects and solve the puzzles in the game. See More

Top Con

Design seems lazy at times

Things like a poorly designed map or often not knowing where to go which leads to back tracking that may not even help makes for frustrating play. Really it comes off as lazy more than a design decision. See More

Specs

Steam Rating:Mixed

Top Pro

Allows you to break the game

The game does not restrict or prevent the player from experimenting, and breaking the game (crashing it) is a common result. It's simple to load back to a previous point in the game and try again with a different strategy. See More

Top Pro

Writing is clever and funny

Like the majority of Double Fine games, Hack 'n' Slash is very cleverly written with humor similar to the Adventure Time series and many jokes referencing the old Legend of Zelda cartoon. This is definitely something for those that get the references of its origins. See More

Lightbot

Top Pro

Great for kids even as young as 2yo

There is also a lightbot jr that is simpler for very young gamers. See More

Top Con

Doesn't teach conditionals

Top Pro

Works multi-platform

Runs on iOS, Android and Windows. See More

Top Con

Windows requires flash

Flash should probably not be installed on your system if you enjoy a safe, virus-free system. Though the Chrome browser uses their own Flash fork which is safe to use being that the browser is constantly updated for security. See More

Top Pro

Teaches imperative instructions

Top Con

Frustrating to new-comers

The original two versions were better at easing you into the the logic. They can still be found on flash game websites. The latest iterations are difficult to jump into and promote the limited app version. See More

Zoombinis

Top Pro

Teaches logic in an approachable fashion

Each puzzle is a logic exercise, most utilizes the difference in appearances of the zoombinis (in a "guess who" fashion). Others are more varied, like process of elimination (guess what the gatekeepers want on their pizza), state machines (get the zoombinis through the active maze), etc. Most puzzles are very intuitive, yet all require a logic based approach to succeed. See More

Top Con

Might become too difficult for very young children

Although the puzzles have simple solutions at the beginning, each round/playthrough, the difficulty increases. The difficulty increases the farther you progress. Becomes quite challenging after a while, so younger children may struggle. See More

Specs

Steam Rating:Very Positive

Top Pro

Various logic puzzles

Top Pro

Great for teaching logic to young children

Although parental guidance is better than kids just "punching their way out of a paper bag", the puzzles are fun and engaging, and simple to explain. This creates a perfect environment to teach children deductive reasoning. See More

Total War: Rome II

Specs

Steam Rating:Very Positive

Genre:Grand Strategy

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