Google has released a game for developers that is designed to challenge programmers to solve puzzles by writing code. This may sound like the normal work of most of us, but Purrfect Code is a new box-pushing programming puzzle game, powered by Flutter, Dart, and the Flame game engine.

The game's challenge is that you need to update the programming of a janitor robot on Google's new space station headquarters where a shipment of cats has mistakenly arrived. Well, that's enough to provoke nightmares, I think maybe we should stop right there.

If you're still not traumatized, the goal of the game is to help the robot safely round up boxes containing the cats and push them onto teleporter plates so they can get home. Hah, have these people never worked with cats? The robot (or you) would be the one who ends up being teleported, and not safely home either!

Players need to write JavaScript to control the robot's movements while trying to discover efficient solutions to navigate through grid-based puzzles. Google's description says that the game is a fun way to explore coding, using your intelligence and creativity. Each level is focused on a programming concept and gently increases in complexity over the course of the five levels in the game.

The described game loop is that you write JavaScript code to move the robot (up, down, left, or right), run your code and watch as the robot attempts to solve the level.

The level is completed when all boxes containing cats are pushed to the teleporter plates (or presumably when the robot starts screaming and crashes through the teleporter and into deep space).

Players will be scored on the efficiency of their solutions including the number of spaces moved;  the brevity of the code; and the number of cats foiled in their evil escape plans. OK, we made that last bit up.

Google says the team hopes that "Purrfect Code" not only provides an enjoyable gaming experience, but also serves as a learning resource for developers interested in game development with Flutter and Flame. You can explore the game's source code and experiment with extending it further, with options for adding new features, levels, and gameplay mechanics.

Purrfect Code is available now, if you're daft enough to try it.

More Information

Purrfect Code Website

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