Turing Complete on Steam - User reviews, Price & Information
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Learn CPU architecture with puzzles
Turing Complete is a programming, logic and education game
developed and published by LevelHead.
Released on October 02nd 2021 is available on Windows, MacOS and Linux
in 5 languages: English, French, German, Simplified Chinese and Spanish - Latin America.
It has received 4,011 reviews of which 3,862 were positive and 149 were negative resulting in an impressive rating of 9.3 out of 10. 😍
The game is currently priced at 16.79€ on Steam.
The Steam community has classified Turing Complete into these genres:
System requirements
These are the minimum specifications needed to play the game. For the best experience, we recommend that you verify them.
Windows
- Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
- OS *: Windows 7/8/10
- Processor: I5
- Memory: 2 GB RAM
- Graphics: Intel UHD 630
- Storage: 512 MB available space
MacOS
- OS: 11
- Processor: Apple Silicon
- Memory: 4 GB RAM
- Graphics: Apple Silicon GPU
- Storage: 1 GB available space
Linux
- OS: 64 bit
- Processor: I5
- Memory: 2 GB RAM
- Graphics: Intel UHD 630
- Storage: 512 MB available space
User reviews & Ratings
Explore reviews from Steam users sharing their experiences and what they love about the game.
This is something of a NEUTRAL review. I have no computer science background whatsoever. Not even basic coding. I do like the game a lot from an intellectual standpoint, as it helps to conceptualize how a computer actually works. The problem with the game, which has been pointed out by many reviewers already, is that the instructions are woefully incomplete, leading to unneeded confusion and difficulty. Right from the beginning, the game throws you right into the deep end. If you don't have never dealt with Boolean Algebra, then you better fire up a few Youtube videos and start watching for several hours, as there is nothing even close to an adequate tutorial or even instruction until AFTER you complete all those levels. I understand that the developers want you to figure this stuff out on your own beforehand, but you are thrown into the deep end right away with no mercy. A couple more sentences of explanation or maybe another level or two in between would have made a world of difference. When you get to the higher levels, the developers don't even try to help you out with new concepts. Don't know how assembly works? Well, that's too damn bad. Would it have been so hard to write the sentence "reminder: you have to load from from register one and two and add into register three" in the hints? At the moment I am stuck on Wire Spaghetti. Not only are the instructions even more obtuse than they were before, but even the walkthroughs online involve people making new components that are never hinted at n the game itself. Basically, if you are not a computer science major, you are going to have a hard time. I appreciate that I have learned the basics of how 0s and 1s output a program, but the developers have no respect for the time or patience of the average gamer, that probably has not taken any college level courses in engineering or computer science. Again, just a few lines of added instruction here and there would have made a world of difference, but they can't even be bothered to do that. I give this a very reluctant positive review, as it is a great tool for learning the basics of how this stuff works, but in all honestly, this is a very frustrating experience. I should not have to stare at Youtube walkthroughs to understand the basic goal of the stage (nevermind the solution).
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tl;dr: as a SW dev and computer engineer, I enjoyed this game, but I wanted to enjoy it more. It's a great introduction to functionally how computers behave and assembly language programming. Some of the ways features are implemented results in a sometimes clunky experience, however. The Good: [*] wiring up components feels great, takes a little while to get used to. Getting a bunch of clean angles in components can be frustrating at times, but not too hard. [*] Iterative and clean lesson progression for designing components. Not overly hand-holding, but starts with simple babysteps into more larger leaps into design. Something that the assembly lessons could learn from, as they start out fairly hefty, such as the "shooting space rats" mission. [*] Custom component factory allows you to make clean and robust architecture designs, abstracting most of the logic away from the actual architecture parts. The needs improvement: [*] the assembly language feature. The fact that keywords can only be allowed as byte values is unfathomably restrictive, resulting in a cumbersome assembly language like overture (cp_r0_r1) or a naturally bloated instruction size, with key bits resulting in multiple near identical assembly codes (ADD R0 R0 R1, ADD_EX1 1 R0 R2, ADD_EX2 R2 1 R5, ADD_EX12 0 2 R5, ect.) or worse some codes with empty terms (such as JUMP _ _ location) A simple fix would be to allow keywords to represent any number of bits, where labels could only be used when the current bit is byte aligned (may need special syntax for bit_constants as well). If the argument that "OVERTURE's" assembly could be greatly improved is not sufficient, it can also be used for more complex compact architectures: An example of a simple compact instruction architecture with this more expressive assembly encoding: ALU command { 00 [2:6 op code] [7:9 arg1] [10:12 arg2] [13:15 arg 3] }, could be written as "add r1 r1 r2", using 7, 3, 3, and 3 bits respectively Immediate command { 01000 [5:7 arg1] [8:15 signed/unsigned constant] }, could be written as i.e. "store r1 0x00ff", using 5, 3, and 8 bits respectively Jump command { 01 [2:4 nzp bits] [5:7 arg1] [8:15 addr. constant] }, could be written as "jump zp r0 LOOP_START" using 2, 3, 3, and 8 bits respectively This is the primary reason why I haven't attempted to play around with new designs in the game, as the want to make a compact 16b or 32b design would result in an unusable assembly language. [*] The rat invasion level seems in the wrong place, but that's a small complaint. Seems very early in the programming journey, esp. considering how easy all the other program examples are. [*] making clean angle lines and removing the connection points to make the design neat is great, but having to move the components to make space and all the lines getting redrawn/messed up is infuriating. The neutral: [*] overall great game, with great learning experiences, but it does greatly simplify a lot which makes it hard to recommend to people as more than just an introductory novelty. Here are some notable examples a. Programmable memory being ROM and RAM is not initializable. Separation of the RAM and STACK, instead of having stack as a subsection of RAM. STACK only being really used for function calls, not necessarily JSR or variable lookups. b. Program Counter (PC) and Clock are treated the same. This, for one, trivializes the effect of circuit delay, removing important concepts such as multi-cycle instructions, pipe-lining, and the importance of delay reduction through parallelization (I know there are some lessons on it, but they hold no impact on game-play) [*] I would've felt better if the game assisted throughout the entire process of LEG design. This is noticeable with the frequent community posts for the "CALL" and "RETURN" command lesson. I feel like this could be easily tested, by allowing users to type the assembly for each command with a prompt/interactive component: Write CALL command to location "foo": (Example: CALL_EX1 foo _ _) Write RETURN command: (Example: POP _ _ PC) Seems remiss to not have those pieces be tested considering: 1. how instrumental they are to programming and 2. how different they are structurally to different designs. [*] Division should've been hardware and not software. The wiring would've be fairly simple, could be reduced to 4 bits and 4 bits similar to multiplication [*] more programming lessons would've been welcome. Programming challenges to add incentives for more improvements to the LEG arch would've been nice. So, long story short. I enjoyed the game. The assembly feature in general could be improved significantly, and some of the core loop of designing components could be improved as well. EDIT: fixed formatting
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Not being a big brain guy myself, rather drag my knuckles in counter-strike than ever try to use some other logical structure. This game requires big brain, but it sometimes makes you feel like it doesn't, and gives you good use of small brain to muscle train your brain to be bigger, essentially building your small brain to evolve into big brain. Like bicep, but brain. Sometimes small brain gets very confused. But it is okay. Because I know just because small brain confused, it is training. This is good. Very good. This game good.
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Brilliant. The best "game" of its kind I've played. Turing Complete takes you from the humble NAND gate, all the way to building your own fully-functional general-purpose computer, with your own assembly language running on it. It is a masterpiece. It starts by teaching you what a NAND gate does. From there, it tasks you with building the other logic gates - AND, OR, etc. - and then a library of reusable components which you use in subsequent stages. Storage registers, counters, shift registers, adders, multipliers... it has you build them all. Once you've got these basic electronic components, it teaches you how to use them to build a simple ALU, register bank, conditional circuitry, some basic input/output..., and gradually has you put it together piece by piece into a single machine, with a really simple assembly language to drive it. Using this you can solve some basic puzzles like driving a robot around a maze. At this point (if you're anything like me), you're already having more fun than you expected. But it gets even better. Once you've got this basic Turing-complete machine built, it has you throw it all away, and start again - this time building a much more sophisticated version. Your second machine will have a much larger instruction set (and more complex ALU), and again the game has you gradually add new components like RAM, a stack (with associated push & pop assembler instructions), support for call and ret assembler instructions, etc. etc. The game gives you puzzles to solve as you progress, to check that your computer, and your assembly language, are doing what they should. By the end of the game you are solving the Towers of Hanoi and doing bubble-sorts (*) in an assembly language *you* have created, on hardware circuitry that *you* have designed. It is hard to describe how satisfying it is. (* Yeah, sorry, I didn't fancy assembly-coding quicksort..) And then, once you have done all that and reached the end of the current "v1.0 early access" version (as of June 2025), ... it gets even better. There is an alpha v2.0 version. Once you've completed the "normal" version, switch over to this, and play the whole thing again, except this time it's even better. The first half of the game is basically the same, but the second is greatly expanded. We're on to a 16-bit architecture now, with a more complex instruction set (more closely resembling how real hardware works) and much more complexity to deal with. But again, once you get the thing breathing and doing what you want, there isn't really anything like it. And I'm saying this as a CompSci from 25+ years ago (a lot of this was a nostalgic blast from the past). It is almost as good as doing it in real-life, and orders of magnitude cheaper. The nature of the game means that most people will end up building similar looking hardware for the basic pieces. But there is huge scope for variation later on; as the game progresses it is less prescriptive about how you wire up & solve particular pieces, so you are left to your own imagination. People will lay out circuitry and components very differently, assign different opcodes to different instructions, and come up with their own assembler mnemonics. My Turing Complete machine feels like it is mine; there are others like it, but none identical. It is unique and I made it. (My assembler mnemonics are NFSW, BTW.) Ok, enough gushing. Here are some suggestions for the developer. I know v2 is a work-in-progress, so there's a good chance this stuff is already being worked on. - Amazing game, thank you for making it! - The "game" goes by too fast. In that, as soon as you learn something, you are whizzed on to the next thing. I think it would be great if there were a set of sub-levels attached to each major milestone in the game, where you could take what you had built so far and use it to solve ~12 different problems requiring different approaches. This could be optional, a side-branch kind of thing. But it would let you gain confidence that what you had built so far was good, and also gain satisfaction in using it to solve some fun problems (rather than rushing to the next thing). That's it... One suggestion, I guess. And it basically amounts to "can I have some more please, sir?" Finally (for those who read this far)... do not let the fact the game is in EA put you off. The current v1.0 is complete as far as I can tell. And if you complete that, then switch to v2.0 alpha, and have even more fun. There are bugs (with an excellent web page calling them out - https://turingcomplete.wiki/wiki/Known_issues/2.0.16) - and working around the bugs just adds extra spice to everything. Think about it... you're hacking a game on your computer, so you can play a game about building a computer that you can hack on. It's turtles all the way down.
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9.5/10 - some major warnings before you buy: 1. Difficulty: Coming into this game I knew very little about CPU architecture, but I have a strong background in related fields - I'm a C++ developer with experience with electronics (physics bachelor). The difficulty curve was targeted at people with a similar experience level to myself. If you've never touched a low-level programming language, are unfamiliar with logic gates, or don't understand how to represent a custom data type in binary, then expect some serious headaches. 2. All of the teaching in this game is done by practice, and barely anything is explained. Often I would solve a puzzle - yet despite understanding the solution and why it works - I would miss an important concept that the puzzle was supposed to illustrate, leading to big problems with later puzzles. Especially problematic when my solution was a non-standard one. I suggest you look up solutions to every puzzle after you have solved it, to see if you've missed anything. 3. A few (2-3) of the puzzles have terrible descriptions, where it was very unclear what the game wanted me to do. 4. No Puzzle editor! And to make matters worse, nowhere near enough puzzles. Good for racing to the point where you build your computer, bad because just playing through the puzzles in order might cause you to get out of your depth quickly. 5. In specific circumstances the inbuilt debugger is terrible (when the tick count was a factor in the problem, you can't simulate your solution past the point where the error occurs.) Despite these issues, I can't overstate how powerful of a learning tool this is. I've played for 15 hours over two days, and in that time I've built a computer. I'm not sure I've ever learned so much in such a short space of time, and I've had a lot of fun doing it. This game will teach you everything you want to know about machine code, just be aware that to get the most out of it, you need to go off the "main path" so to speak. Supplementary reading - how much depends on your experience level - and a lot of playing around in the sandbox is necessary to get a proper understanding of why you're doing what you're doing.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Turing Complete is currently priced at 16.79€ on Steam.
Turing Complete is currently not on sale. You can purchase it for 16.79€ on Steam.
Turing Complete received 3,862 positive votes out of a total of 4,011 achieving an impressive rating of 9.25.
😍
Turing Complete was developed and published by LevelHead.
Turing Complete is playable and fully supported on Windows.
Turing Complete is playable and fully supported on MacOS.
Turing Complete is playable and fully supported on Linux.
Turing Complete is a single-player game.
Turing Complete does not currently offer any DLC.
Turing Complete does not support mods via Steam Workshop.
Turing Complete does not support Steam Remote Play.
Turing Complete is enabled for Steam Family Sharing. This means you can share the game with authorized users from your Steam Library, allowing them to play it on their own accounts. For more details on how the feature works, you can read the original Steam Family Sharing announcement or visit the Steam Family Sharing user guide and FAQ page.
You can find solutions or submit a support ticket by visiting the Steam Support page for Turing Complete.
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Last Updates| Steam data | 19 July 2025 19:31 |
|---|---|
| SteamSpy data | 27 July 2025 11:43 |
| Steam price | 30 July 2025 20:37 |
| Steam reviews | 30 July 2025 18:02 |
If you'd like to dive deeper into the details about Turing Complete, we invite you to check out a few dedicated websites that offer extensive information and insights. These platforms provide valuable data, analysis, and user-generated reports to enhance your understanding of the game and its performance.
- SteamDB - A comprehensive database of everything on Steam about Turing Complete
- SteamCharts - Analysis of Turing Complete concurrent players on Steam
- ProtonDB - Crowdsourced reports on Linux and Steam Deck Turing Complete compatibility
Game modes
Features
Online players
161
Developer
LevelHead
Publisher
LevelHead
Release
02 Oct 2021
Platforms