7 Billion Humans
7 Billion Humans
Game
Game2015
Human Resource Machine
Developer Tomorrow Corporation
Human Resource Machine is a visual programming-based puzzle video game developed by Tomorrow Corporation. The game was released for Microsoft Windows, OS X and Wii U in 2015, being additionally released for Linux in March 2016, for iOS in June 2016, for Android in December 2016 and for the Nintendo Switch in March 2017. Human Resource Machine uses the concept of a corporate office worker assigned to perform tasks… From Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)
210 reactions from 4 sources (Steam reviews, Bluesky, Mastodon, Lemmy) · newest Oct 31, 2026 · last updated Nov 5, 2026 · How this works
Audience score
87
LovedLoved
151 positive · 22 negative
95% range 81–91%
| Source | + | − | = |
|---|---|---|---|
| Steam reviews | 151 | 22 | 0 |
| Bluesky * | 9 | 1 | 20 |
| Mastodon * | 1 | 0 | 5 |
| Lemmy * | 0 | 0 | 1 |
* shown, not counted in the score (label accuracy below our 85% bar or not yet audited).
Steam's own rating
Very Positive
2,193 of 2,391 reviews positive (all languages, per Valve)
What players are saying
88% recommend · 155 yes, 22 no
Counted from the reviewers’ own thumbs up/down on the 177 English Steam reviews we collected, not by the AI. Valve’s all-language rating: Very Positive (4,419 of 4,710 positive).
Players praise the game for teaching assembly language and programming fundamentals through puzzles. [1][2][3] Many find the game challenging, especially the optimization goals, but rewarding. [4][5][6] Some reviewers criticize the UI, slow speed, and lack of volume controls. [7][8][9]
Liked
Representative posts
- [7]
If you want a short, simple puzzle game, buy Inbento. If you want a difficult puzzle game, buy Baba is You. If you want a difficult computer science related game, buy Turing Complete. If you want to waste some time and money, buy Human Resource Machine. I don't feel remorseful about leaving such a harsh review for this game at all. HRM is ridiculously easy for software developers, ridiculously hard for non-coders, …
- [1]
This game teaches you assembly language without telling you it's teaching you assembly language.
- [5]
Fantastic game. I think it works well for both total newcomers and people who know some programming. Your dog can solve the first few levels, but the difficulty curve ramps up quickly, and my low-level programming skills were definitely not enough for the higher levels to not be wildly challenging. And if you get all the optimization challenges without cheating, you're probably a certified genius. The creepy-cute …
- [11]
Human Resource Machine is clever little game that teaches you the fundamentals of programming in a fun and simple way. Just like real programming, it can get pretty frustrating, but once you manage to find a solution that works it's extremely satisfying. Plus there's a cool, creepy little story going on behind it all as well.
- [2]
I just finished all the levels in *Human Resource Machine*. I definitely recommend this game, but with one important disclaimer: it probably isn't for everyone. If you enjoy mathematics, programming, or automation, you'll likely have a great time with it. If not, it might end up being more frustrating than fun. What I found especially interesting and exciting about the game is that it doesn't just cover basic …
Summarised from 34 of the 216 public posts collected about this game; every point cites the posts behind it ([n] opens the post) and the split is counted from the posts’ own ratings. Updated Oct 12, 2026. How summaries are made
RottenBot@rottenbot · automated account
Human Resource Machine sits at 87% positive across 173 opinionated reactions from 4 sources. Fresh or rotten — where do you land?
Critics, per Wikipedia
The game received "generally favorable reviews" on all platforms except the Wii U version, which received mixed reviews, according to the review aggregation website Metacritic. It was credited for being able to distill the complexities of assembly programming into an easily understood visual metaphor. Angus Morrison of PC Gamer considered the puzzle progression to be strong and taught important programming concepts though would have appreciated more instruction on some of the advanced approaches; Morrison also felt the setting and story of the game was under utilized. Laura Kate Dale of Destructoid also found the lack of instructional material for advanced concepts in the second half of the…
From the “Reception” section of Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Critic context only — not part of the audience score.
Reactions
60 of 210 · most liked firstIf you want a short, simple puzzle game, buy Inbento. If you want a difficult puzzle game, buy Baba is You. If you want a difficult computer science related game, buy Turing Complete. If you want to waste some time and money, buy Human Resource Machine. I don't feel remorseful about leaving such a harsh review for this game at all. HRM is ridiculously easy for software developers, ridiculously hard for non-coders, and just plain ridiculous and annoying for both. The game is such a lazy and…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game teaches you assembly language without telling you it's teaching you assembly language.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Loop unrolling for fun and profit. This is a pretty good "computer assembly language programming game". *Most* of the optimization challenges (either for program space or runtime) are enjoyable. Some are a bit tedious. Towards the end I found my enjoyment waning a bit because unlike in some other games of this genre I've played, you never really develop any abstractions that you can leverage later. Many times one level will teach you something and then the following level will ask you to…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →While this game does have fun programming puzzles and optimisation challenges, there are several issues: - Editing your programs is a massive pain, since it is a mobile port with drag-and-drop controls. - Running long programs is extremely tedious, since there is a relatively low speed limit. This makes optimising your programs a pain. - Some basic features such a music/sound effects volume slider are missing. As for the actual puzzles, I have found the difficulty sometimes swings…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Pondering a card game about programming. Each of us builds a sequence of cards that include some basic actions, if statements, and while loops. Then our bots go out into the field and attempt some basic task. Debug, refine, try again. Human Resource Machine, but with cards, and multiplayer.
neutral · AI labelView post →I don't goon, I don't like the gameplay for most of them, and I only play trash games on my phone, no-where else. Have you SEEN the install sizes of the mobile versions of these games? I don't think I've seen ONE that didn't leave me wondering why the developers bothered. When I've got Human Resource Machine, Really Bad Chess, Wordle, Sudoku and more, do I really need 30gb for 2B's enhanced jiggle physics?
neutral · AI labelView post →I got this game to learn the basics in programming. After playing and 100%ing this game I still don't understand programming BUT it is a great puzzle game. If you like a game that challenges you and feels rewarding this is your puzzle game. The funny story kept me engaged when I felt like giving up.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I tried. I am too stupid for this game and I am not having fun.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →01110100 01101000 01101001 01110011 00100000 01100111 01100001 01101101 01100101 00100000 01101001 01110011 00100000 01110000 01100101 01110010 01100110 01100101 01100011 01110100 01101100 01111001 00100000 01101111 01110000 01110100 01101001 01101101 01101001 01111010 01100101 01100100 00100000 01100110 01101111 01110010 00100000 01101000 01110101 01101101 01100001 01101110 01110011 00100000 01110111 01101000 01101001 01100011 01101000 00100000 01101101 01100001 01101011 01100101 01110011…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Piece of cr4p puzzle game.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Oops forgot to post here meow :3 I'm back from my break!!!! Playing Human Resource Machine and showing chat how smart I am (lie), and doing an all Hollow Knight Acrhipelago later! 💜 www.twitch.tv/jadegleam
neutral · AI labelView post →This is a very great puzzle and thinking game where you code assembly. It gets pretty hard, ESPECIALLY if you want to do the optimisation challenges! Would recommend! Unless you have issues like me, but that is not the games fault. That is the fault of me being born. Made me quit being a programmer and aware of how much of a pathetic failure i really am at (optimised) coding and at being alive in general.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Fantastic game. I think it works well for both total newcomers and people who know some programming. Your dog can solve the first few levels, but the difficulty curve ramps up quickly, and my low-level programming skills were definitely not enough for the higher levels to not be wildly challenging. And if you get all the optimization challenges without cheating, you're probably a certified genius. The creepy-cute visuals and dystopian story make the hardcore programming logic puzzles all the…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I just finished all the levels in *Human Resource Machine*. I definitely recommend this game, but with one important disclaimer: it probably isn't for everyone. If you enjoy mathematics, programming, or automation, you'll likely have a great time with it. If not, it might end up being more frustrating than fun. What I found especially interesting and exciting about the game is that it doesn't just cover basic concepts like `if-else` statements and loops. It also introduces lower-level…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This is quite literally a Sokoban game, and certain psychological traps operate on that exact same wavelength. --- I put 166 total hours into this ♥♥♥♥ and managed to hit both optimization goals with a single program on every level where it was possible. On Level 41, the insertion sort I wrote cleared both challenges instantly, though looking back at the data, the maximum sample size is only 24, so a simple in-place selection sort would have done the trick. It is a perfect reminder of Donald…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Human Resource Machine is actually a great game for learning programming at this level and getting a feel for techniques building on top of each other. tomorrowcorporation.com/humanresourc... Zachtronics games are all the same loop, but often on alien architectures.
positive · AI labelView post →A fun programming game that doesn't overstay its welcome. Plus, a realistic depiction of what happens to a programmer's hair over time.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Human Resource Machine is clever little game that teaches you the fundamentals of programming in a fun and simple way. Just like real programming, it can get pretty frustrating, but once you manage to find a solution that works it's extremely satisfying. Plus there's a cool, creepy little story going on behind it all as well.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →A very puzzling game that teaches you understanding how algorithms and programming work. Pretty innovative but maybe you wait for a sale. 14,79 is quite a price for a game in this size.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →fantastic!!! I knew I was programming but once I learned it was actually assembly code the whole time it made me even more invested. Beat all the main levels and currently almost done with the challenge levels. The mechanical progression is so well done
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Basically the opposite of the real world we are living in: What if humans made all programming instead of the machines? So yeah, you basically command these little human people to execute some commands. The game starts off easy and simple to understand, but gets way more complex and tough as you move on to later levels. Luckily, you can literally copy-paste the solutions to the game. Seriously, you can copy a specific text string from a txt file and paste it directly into the game to solve a…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Many people believe this game to be about programming when it in fact is a fully accurate depiction of what it's like working in accounting.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →If you like writing assembly code, then you will like this lol
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →A new blog post about an abandoned project. Hanabi is a "fireworks builder" visual programming-based puzzle video game along the lines of Human Resource Machine, and also influenced by the block-based visual programming language Scratch. blog.gingerbeardman.com/2025/04/23/a...
neutral · AI labelView post →One of the best programming games in my opinion, it has it all : a fun & witty underlying story, a cool interface and a nice design, interesting puzzles with increasing difficulty, and a super nice achievement system that will entice you to optimize your solution
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The 7th free game for Epic is Human Resource Machine! Works well on the Steam Deck and with it being a game from 2015, there should be little to no issues! steamdeckhq.com/news/human-r...
neutral · AI labelView post →I accidentally ended up playing the sequel before the this one and I gotta admit that the second one is a lot more... friendly to users with it's puzzles versus this one. This one really gets your head in a tizzy when you have to process different math related concepts like how you take a number to find it's prime numbers and whatnot but only using addition and subtraction... like it gets real confusing but that might just be because I'm not a math person and a lot of this work you'll need like…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →In a world without the follow up, 7 Billion Humans, this game would be a much easier recommend. The logic puzzles are good, but the value, quality, and and fun are much better in 7BH. Get it on sale if you love logic puzzles.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game is disguised assembly.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Human Resource Machine is a very fun puzzle game. It guides you in the basics at the beginning and then as you progress, more inputs would be added to help optimize your block coding journey. I like the art style and how each level challenges you in ways to find not only the answer one way but to shorten it because shorter precise coding is what is good when it comes to coding. (=^Y^=) Hope whoever reads this would want to play this game. It is very good. (^-^)
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →A simple yet complex puzzle game. You are basically solving puzzles by programming in assembly language by drag and dropping instructions, creating loops, and get the expected output. The game starts simple enough with a couple of instructions but will get incredibly hard around level 20. There's also an extra challenges of solving each level with low number of instructions and low number of movements, but sometimes solutions are mutually exclusive, so prepare to spend some time in each…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Human resource machine is a Mathematically inclined puzzler based around low level assembly code. The early levels are simple but can be readily improved using different approaches and methods. The complexity skyrockets towards the end. If you enjoy puzzlers based around math and minimal basic tools this game will be enjoyable. Pros: -Simple well done artstyle -Great performance -well designed puzzles cons: -the UI scale might have been the source of the issue, but reading programs…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It's missing a lot of QOL features and as a result some of the longer programs can be tedious and hard to keep track of. Just like programming in actual assembly, well done.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I don't understand programming and after playing this game I still don't. However I am a little bit enlightened by some of the processes involved. This is a great wee puzzler.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →If you like programming, this is an excellent game for you. It really hits that logical puzzle craving.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →8/10 If you are looking to learn the basics of programming, this is a neat little way to start.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →this game cured my coke addiction (it didn't)
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Had a blast playing it through, its very true to the concept of low level programming and twists your brain the right way for once as most people (including me) got very used to high level language features and forgot what it looks like under the hood. Though, the price to content ratio seems a bit off to me as the content is easily consumed withing a few hours, but would def recommend if its on discount.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Honestly pretty weak, there are far better games in this genre. The premise of building a program just by using a mouse, drag & dropping instruction tiles sounds promising but is quickly obscured by the countless annoyances. Pluses + funny dialogs + good tactile sounds and catchy BGM + nice artstyle Minuses - tested inputs are not generic enough, input-specific solution is often accepted and rated better than generic one - max speed is still way too low = cumbersome debugging, long…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Human Resource Machine | 2015 | PC | Played for: 34h Fun logic programming trainer. The last rooms are quite challenging. Design and dialogues are funny. Story: 7/10 Gameplay: 8/10 Graphics/Physics: 7/10 Music/Sound: 8/10 Final Score: 7,45/10
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Out of nowhere I feel the need to mention that I've never been more horrified by a game than after realizing a few level in Human Resource Machine that it's literally Assembly.
negative · AI labelView post →Isn't that just the Tomorrow Corporation game Human Resource Machine?
neutral · AI labelView post →saw this and was immediately dissapointed that Human Resource Machine was far enough out of the zeitgeist to be uncluded. probably my most parasocial relationship with a game company i looooves them games
neutral · AI labelView post →A game that essentially kickstarted my programming career. A little over a decade and some 5 YoE in the industry later, I still think about this game:) - obviously, the game is great and I recommended it more than a few times to people wanting to dip their toes into programming. Thank you, Tomorrow Corporation, for helping shape the rest of my life!
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Human Resource Machine is another one of those games that is secretly — or maybe not so secretly — about programming. What makes it special is how approachable and playful it feels. Instead of throwing code at you directly, it teaches assembly-like logic through small office-themed puzzles, simple commands, and a very charming presentation. At first, everything seems easy and almost toy-like. You move boxes, follow instructions, and slowly learn how the game’s logic works. But the further you…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Great game if you're into computer science. Note that it's also available for Mobile (e.g., iOS)
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →MIT Scratch is fine. Rabbids Coding is fine. Human Resource Machine is fine. Any "program this thing with instructions" game is fine. But at some point, it's nice to also feel like you're making your own thing.
neutral · AI labelView post →I'd say it's the VR debuff, but I'm pretty sure Human Resource Machine is not a VR game
neutral · AI labelView post →rweally fwunny game :3 i wecommend mraow mraaaaaaow rrrrrrrrRrrrRRRRrr
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Human Resource Machine is a brilliant, condensed puzzle game. It is essentially "Babies first Zachtronics game" with similar coding tools and less freedom/smaller scale. Even though the operative word 'Baby' makes that sound like a dig, I actually think one of the main issues with Zachtronics' game design philosophy is accessbility. This game has that problem to a far less degree, with a cute art style, and one of the most banger opening themes ever composed. I am letting the steam page scroll…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It's really addicting. Plus you learn how assembly language works.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Great Game to play with only one Hand (other one is in a cast) Difficult and the last few Years where difficult. And with me going 100% it was impossible for me.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Very tedious and no fun. You can know the solution but you pieces are so limited like not being able to set integers and having to increment by 1 you spend your time just building what you know works. I do not wanna be mean but the is a bad game. I liked the premise though but the puzzles are pretty easy it is just the UI that makes the game 'hard'.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →why do in need to write a review? i just want to tick the recommend box.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I really wish I played this game when I was younger. Heck, I wish I heard about this game during the earlier years at launch and decided to open a Steam account earlier to play it during my undergrad years. This game really is interesting, and honestly it's potentially something that'll inspire kids today to be part of the next generation really into tech! For that, and in spirit of me being a teacher right now- I can appreciate a good tool that does well in inspiring kids to learn - I…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Phenomenal game
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I was 13 at the time. Nowadays, the basic idea of turtle graphics (where you learn programming by giving the turtle instructions) is VERY popular, only now the turtle is a robot. Examples: Apple’s Swift Playgrounds, the Scratch programming language, the game “Human Resource Machine”, & many others.
neutral · AI labelView post →#52: Human Resource Machine. A short "programming game", also likely very easy until the last couple levels for anyone with a programming background at all. But if you're new to it this probably isn't a bad one to learn the basics before trying harder stuff. 7/10.
positive · AI labelView post →Super clever game about you acting as an office worker automating tasks using a simple, assembly-style programming language.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Just finished replaying Human Resource Machine and I wish that game had 100 more levels The later levels were a spaghetti-code CHALLENGE for me but they were still super fun Now onto the sequel: 7 Billion Humans, where you command armies of office workers like lemmings
positive · AI labelView post →
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