Code Romantic

I played this game at a very slow and chill pace. I liked the art, the post apocalyptic story, the characters.
About the programming part, it gave me a nice introduction about it and a way how to analyse and use logic without being bored. Some puzzles were harder than the other ones which required more time to think, but if you read again the explanations from dialogue and click on the words, you will get it eventually, some are even common sense.

I'm really curious what is the true ending, what happens next for this game, Leon, Mina, Mina's mom, Alice and others.

Charming story that had me very engaged. Lots of imaginative characters and witty moments that made me laugh. Overall it's very well written!

The gameplay of learning to program is perfect for getting your feet wet in a non-intimidating environment. Once I realized this I had my friend who had been meaning to try coding download it and we played it together on his account. (Hence my low play time)

Very clear the creators put in a lot of heart. IF YOU ARE AT ALL INTERESTED IN PROGRAMMING, THIS IS THE GAME FOR YOU :)

This was an enjoyable game, with some very light programming puzzles (though that's speaking as someone who codes for work), and an engaging story.

My only complaint is that the ending felt very abrupt, and left a lot of loose ends.
Here's hoping that there will be a sequel that picks up the story and brings it all to a conclusion.

The puzzles are very much beginner puzzles, but the concepts that they teach are solid - something I would have wanted 10 or so years ago.

It's a bit lacking in that cool feeling of "So I can make the computer do what I want?" feeling that made me like programming from the start, but I do realise that it would be very hard to write a program with open ended puzzles that is still beginner friendly. Unfortunately it's also very short, and ends without resolving any of the big plot threads. (hopefully a basis for a part 2?)

The romance between Lewis and Mina feels very organic, despite the absurd basis of it. The other characters are somewhat flat, but also pretty fun in a way.

It's still a solid recommendation from me, especially for any absolute beginners in programming (basically 1 year or less in experience)

Since only the basics of coding were covered i wasn't incredibly challenged but enjoyed the game a lot nonetheless!
Interesting story/worldbuilding, nice puzzles and wonderful art :]

A cute little game that can be played in around 10 hours (for those who doesn't know how to code)
Pros:
The story is naive and cute. There are different characters that clash and build up friendship and romance themed side stories, which is like little breaks in between the coding challenges.
Game helps to understand some basic concepts and functions. Most challenges were not that difficult to do for a beginner and when you make an error dialogues between the characters give you hints. It was especially interesting to see the similarities or parallel things between the language and grammar and the 'language' for coding.
They ask you riddles before some challenges to make you understand the concepts you are about to use which were both fun and useful.
Cons:
People mentioned that this is for children and teens, but I found most characters very stereotypical. Old school personalities. Even some gender biased dialog. Nice to have the female character as the smart and hardworking one but still... She doesn't own it. Which is okay but personally I would want young kids to see powerful female leads. But she is still cute and nice so .. yeah. I like the refreshing naivety of the dialogues between the characters though.
The story is left with a cliffhanger. Some challenges were not that clear for me although I managed to get the code running (the game helps you till it is correct)

Just to let you know what to expect before playing; It helps you understand some basics and gets you familiar, does not let you write something from scratch.

Even if it doesn't seem like the type of game you might normally be into, Code Romantic might surprise you.

Code Romantic is a nifty little game that offers a series of smartly designed puzzles presented within the context of a short but engaging kinetic visual novel.

Our story is set in a post-apocalypic future where a rogue AI has hijacked the internet, turning all networked machines into evil murderbots. Mina is an unassuming and somewhat geeky young coding tutor who is drafted by the military into a super-secret unit that may well represent humanity's last best hope against the machines. She is sent to a coding boot-camp within the ruins of an abandoned theme park in order to prepare for the final battle, where much to her delight/horror, she learns that her partner is a handsome and famous young military spokesman whom she has idolized since childhood. A number of likable supporting characters, such as a haughty rich rival and a jealous ex-boyfriend, are also there, and more than happy to make her life difficult. Can Mina make it through camp without making a complete fool of herself in front of her hero?

The story is broken up into fourteen short and easily digestible chapters. In addition to the story segments, each chapter features a handful of coding puzzles. Absolutely zero prior coding knowledge is needed for these puzzles, but being able to think logically certainly helps. This is the highlight of Code Romantic, as a casual newcomer could come to the game with no prior knowledge, solve the puzzles as though the game were any other puzzle game, and still walk away with a basic understanding of certain coding fundamentals.

Each chapter tends to focus on one concept, like arguments, if/elseif statements, for loops, arrays, etc. Puzzles will present you with a snippet of code with a handful of missing chunks, and the player needs to select the correct fill-in-the-blank choices in order to make the code make sense. A handy info-pane on the side will explain any word, phrase, or punctuation in the code simply by clicking on it, and errors are in no way punished whatsoever. As these concepts build on each other throughout the game, even if you're actively trying not to learn a single thing, it would be impossible not to pick up a few things just by osmosis.

I have a few small nitpicks - primarily, I feel like the difference between for loops and foreach loops wasn't super clearly explained, and the story does end on a pretty major cliffhanger just as things are starting to pick up. All the same, the setting is really cool, the characters are likable, and the game is fun and breezy overall. With Code Romantic 2 announced and on the way, now would be a great time to pick this game up to support the small developer.

I was attracted by the art work and ended up learning some programming! Really surprised myself. The story gets you absorbing some C++ programming very painlessly and before you know it, figuring out secret door codes and other useful stuff. Game ended suddenly so I really hope there is a part 2 because there are unfinished missions to undertake. Hurry up please devs!

this game covers the basic to intermediate things someone needs to know for C#, the story is well paced, the characters are enjoyable, specially trey, it had very dramatic and deep moments that makes you feel conected to the characters, the puzzles are a bit easy except for a few, but overall it was a great experiencie, it feels a bit short, but that demonstrate how inmerse you get on the story, by the time you finish the game you really want more.

it can feel a little slow if you know C#, but the story compensates that, so if you are beginer or expert on C# and enjoy this type of games, this is a must

Great innovative game! Full disclaimer: I program professionally. So I personally found the programming sections too easy and I was able to breeze through a lot of the game (finishing in just under 5 hours). But I was impressed how it covered not just syntax, but common computer science topics, such as data structures. I'd easily recommend this to anyone learning to code.

In addition to the coding exercises, there are logic puzzles/riddles presented throughout the story which was fun!

I really enjoyed the universe, but I'll confess I did have a little trouble getting hooked on the story. So mileage there will vary...

Very much looking forward to any sequels!

The story was fun and kept my interest, the coding problems were challenging enough and the artwork and soundtrack were great. I really enjoyed this game. The only possible problem is that it was not long enough, I finished in 6 hours. I definitely give this a 5 by 5 and I'm keeping watch for more games from prettysmart.

I professionally teach C# (among other languages) and a lot of the phrasing and methods in this game lines up well with our introduction to C#. This will not make you a master programmer or even make you able to write a basic program, however, it will improve your comfort with reading code and basic programming concepts while telling you a creative and entertaining story.

The story does end on a cliffhanger, but hopefully a sequel will pick up where this left off and explore other programming frontiers and more of the game's world.

i love this game,
'programming' is one of my favourite game type,
but the character and story make this game unique and shine
the game introduced the world and background quickly and the characters are well establishedl
for the programming part, i guess its for those who are interested in write code but do not know about 'C', so it teach every word quite clearly.
havent finish the game but i am hooked by the story so i will surely play more soon

Still playing through the game but it's been very helpful so far! I really love the logic puzzle/riddles minigames. Coding's not really my thing, so I've been playing the levels over and over again until I feel like I really understand why I'm putting this syntax here or there and I think I've been retaining the lessons better than any crash course I've been through so far. The in game dictionary is also really helpful and I should be using it more lol.However, I'd love like a Puzzle Select or Review mode where you could go into specific puzzles that gave you trouble instead of going back through the whole chapter just to play one. Alternatively, an actual cutscene skip would be nice instead of having the dialogue scroll past really fast but you still have to wait for the animations to play out.

I enjoyed this game, although not for the reason I originally purchased. So I thought I would share my review from the perspective of somehow who plays a lot of programming games.

First of all this isn't a programming game. I thought it would be based on the title and some of the screenshots, but when it says puzzles in the description it means they are puzzles and only puzzles. All the code is already written and the objective is to fill in a few blanks with the correct values to finish it. Essentially you have to know how to code to solve the puzzle, but you aren't actually doing any programming.

Coming from a programmer's perspective the puzzles are trivial. I occasionally made a mistake by being off by one or just plain not seeing a value that needed to be input, but otherwise each puzzle only took a few minutes. However I still enjoyed it because each one is used to simply and effectively explain a different coding concept. I could have skipped the ones on basic code syntax, but it was nice to hear sequential explanation of different object types with clear explanations and wrapped in an interesting story instead of a dry textbook.

Plus there were a number of riddles interspersed throughout the game on various other mathematical and graphing concepts that I found more challenge. I only wish the game had been been longer so that it had more time to go in depth on the more complicated topics. The hash table puzzle for instance only covered a summary of what a hash table actually is rather than uses cases.

Now on to the story itself. It was fun and engaging, and a big part of why I chose to purchase this game. There are after all plenty of other games that are just pure programming. I wanted something with a story, and it delivers very nicely. It does not shy away from dishing out emotional blows either. It might be basically a school setting, but people die, although not on screen. At the end I really wished it had been longer. The climax left a number of questions unanswered, and I want to know more about what happens next. I definitely would like to see a sequel to this.

It did make me laugh a bit to consider a setting where the level of programming skills shown is enough to fight an AI that can instantly subvert anything it connects to. They must have really amazing decompiling software on their hacking devices. But that's just me, and I can overlook it given the attention to other details it shows. I recommend this to anyone who wants to learn to code in an enjoyable manner or is looking for a nice little scifi story.

The story part of this game is great: the dialogue is funny and the characters are well written. The best part of this game is the coding lessons, though. In the coding lessons, wrong answers are highlighted in red and correct answers are highlighted in green, so can correct your mistakes easily without having to waste time wondering you got wrong.

I am a rank amateur as far as coding goes, so I was excited about the promises this game made at the outset. I didn't realize it, but I was prepared by previous experiences for there to be a somewhat solid logic problem element, and then a story that was written around the puzzles that, in the end, I probably could have done without.

Code Romantic is not that game! My expectations were blown away and I had a beautiful experience that I think is pretty uncommon: The puzzles served the story, which served the puzzles. I did not prefer one aspect of the game over the other, and in fact they are inextricably linked. So often, I go into games looking to enjoy some puzzles and practically disregard the writing. This game actually made me cry a couple of times.

The real acid test was, would I be able to understand code better once I finished the game. Looking at some regular program code in C# outside of the game, this is definitely true. It's almost eerie how this game teaches you to understand so many things so fluidly and cleverly that I didn't realize how many concepts I picked up until I tried to understand what code was doing elsewhere.

So, in summary, this game gave me what I cherish most about a great game: I returned to my life more empowered and with more mental tools at my disposal for programming (which is a huge part of the world now), AND it exercised my empathy by portraying a psychologically credible cast of characters in a setting that was delightful, creative and reasonable.

This game is a definite recommend!

My daughter, who has no real experience in coding, was hooked by this game, and completed it in 2 long sessions (7 hours total). She really liked the story, and enjoyed thinking through the coding puzzles as well. She is already looking forward to the sequel! This is the perfect type of game to get kids interested in coding, and in terms of that, I think it has done its job!

This game is amazing so far. I've played to Chapter 5.
The characters are really fun and feel pretty real and the art has a beautiful style.
The coding portions feel pretty informative and easy to understand in a non intimidating way.
I love the soundtrack especially Jackie's theme.
Can't wait to play more!

The story is so cute, you get invested in the characters so fast! The feels! As someone who has dabbled in a tiny bit of coding, I don't know a whole ton and this game helps me refresh my memory of any coding and help to teach me a few new things in a fun and very informative manner! As I've said to a few friends before, who needs a book when you can learn it the fun way with a game? Its in jest, but some people out there have a hard time learning new things in a direct manner from book to paper way. My son is one of those. If it doesn't keep his attention or grab him in some way, he loses interest then gets very frustrated with what we're learning about. If I turn it in to a game or a fun way to do it, he gets it without realizing it and we're both laughing the entire time. THAT'S 100% THIS GAME. So if you have youngsters or teens and want a fun way to bring them in to coding in a very fun and cute manner - This. This game. The whole premise of this game is to help teach the player that coding isn't as scary as it seems and how to go about doing simple coding options but instead of it just being a "Oh, you're doing nothing but coding and now you're bored," it has a cute story to go with it to help you get invested in what you are trying to learn WITHOUT REALIZING YOU'RE REALLY LEARNING SKILLS. As far as visual novel aspects go in my opinion, its mostly about a story line and way to connect with certain characters - This does that. I found myself disliking certain characters and REALLY enjoying others, even if they were not the MC! I can't wait to see what the devs do and if they decide to continue this game further! Good Job Pretty Smart Games! Keep it up!

A few hours in and I can say this a great looking story suitable for young adults that also teaches programming in a gentle way. If you wondered about programming but thought you couldn't then try this game.

I love it enough to have bought a second copy for a friend :D

<3