How to program an AI? Puzzle Game "While True: Learn ()" in the test

Life as a developer has to be bitter. The software does not work, the parents send money out of pity and even the cat programs better. The cat? Wait a moment. Maybe she can tell us how it works with artificial intelligence? But first we have to speak their language - and program an animal language interpreter.

The cat translator is the big target in the puzzle game "While true: Learn ()". But until then, the player has to wipe his way through the basics of logical thinking. That means sorting colors and filtering shapes. The app deals gently with the player, so programmers have a chance. The tasks are fairly straightforward at first, and are limited to placing green, red, and blue squares correctly and separating circles from triangles. Algorithms for beginners.

For this, the player can choose between different functions: expert systems, for example, recognize colors quite accurately but are lame. A decision tree, on the other hand, can properly separate red, green and blue, but makes many mistakes. So the user has to shake himself, until at the end he comes to the desired result. Each level is a balancing act between speed and accuracy.

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Unfortunately, the programming tasks are very drab. The Russian developers of Luden.io break through the bleak level design but still with nice ideas: Sometimes you have to drive a self-driving car and train on the street, sometimes you file at an algorithm for a pizza startup.

The learning effect motivates

Even emails with job offers that you get in between, read quite entertaining, but the German translation shows many weaknesses. Prompts such as "see the task tree" or "goals in the sky" indicate that a software has translated the dialogues. In addition, it quickly becomes clear that the game was initially developed for large screens. Even on an iPhone with a six-inch display, the blocks to move are rather fragmented and sometimes hard to hit.

But the learning effect motivates: The majority of the approximately two hours of play is concentrated on trying out a lot, wiring the programming blocks correctly and forming "if-then" chains. The logical decisions are apparently so close to experiments with artificial neural networks that, according to the developers even students at universities in Britain, Russia, USA and Germany learn the game the basics of artificial intelligence.

"While True: Learn ()" by Luden.io: for PC, Mac and iOS; about 10 euros; from 9 years