The Game Census
JOY OF PROGRAMMING - Software Engineering Simulator cover art

JOY OF PROGRAMMING - Software Engineering Simulator

Prof. Scherer · PlayWay S.A. · 2025-01-18

Steam

IndieSimulationStrategy

Modes: Single player · Perspectives: Bird view / Isometric

Releases: Jan 30, 2024 (PC (Microsoft Windows))

Use real Python code to automate machines, robots, drones and more: Program self-driving vehicles; crack passwords; apply machine learning; automate logistics; use image processing to guide missiles. Gain real coding skills and solve exciting bite-sized programming challenges.

JOY OF PROGRAMMING - Software Engineering Simulator is an Indie, Simulation, and Strategy game released in 2025, priced at $17.99, with an estimated 20,000 .. 50,000 owners and Mostly Positive (77% of 396 reviews) sentiment.

3
playing now
77%
positive of 396 reviews
Mostly Positive
steam's rating (official)
20,000–50,000
owners (SteamSpy est.)
silver
deck/linux tier (ProtonDB)
Unsupported
Steam Deck (Valve)
SteamOS: Playable
$17.99
steam price (US)

3 players in-game as of 2026-10-14 22:00 UTC (census sample)

Health check

Quietly active
  • · 3 players in-game at the last census sample.
  • · 59 reviews in the last 8 weeks (~7/week).
  • · Review velocity up 7% vs the prior 8 weeks.
  • · Top 18% of 49,793 Indie games in the census by review count.
Estimated sales: 7.9k–18k copies

Review-multiple estimate from 396 total reviews — how this is computed.

All-time low: $7.19 at Steam (2026-04-06)via IsThereAnyDeal

12-month high $17.99 · on sale 7 of 15 observed days (census price snapshots)

Review momentum

PositiveNegative
686820242026Week of 2024-01-01: 26 positiveWeek of 2024-02-01: 40 positiveWeek of 2024-02-01: 9 negativeWeek of 2024-03-01: 12 positiveWeek of 2024-03-01: 6 negativeWeek of 2024-04-01: 3 positiveWeek of 2024-04-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2024-05-01: 8 positiveWeek of 2024-06-01: 7 positiveWeek of 2024-06-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2024-07-01: 9 positiveWeek of 2024-07-01: 5 negativeWeek of 2024-08-01: 7 positiveWeek of 2024-08-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2024-09-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2024-10-01: 4 positiveWeek of 2024-10-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2024-11-01: 10 positiveWeek of 2024-12-01: 4 positiveWeek of 2024-12-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2025-01-01: 68 positiveWeek of 2025-01-01: 22 negativeWeek of 2025-02-01: 15 positiveWeek of 2025-02-01: 5 negativeWeek of 2025-03-01: 8 positiveWeek of 2025-03-01: 6 negativeWeek of 2025-04-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2025-04-01: 5 negativeWeek of 2025-05-01: 3 positiveWeek of 2025-05-01: 3 negativeWeek of 2025-06-01: 3 positiveWeek of 2025-07-01: 6 positiveWeek of 2025-07-01: 3 negativeWeek of 2025-08-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2025-08-01: 4 negativeWeek of 2025-09-01: 3 positiveWeek of 2025-10-01: 3 positiveWeek of 2025-10-01: 4 negativeWeek of 2025-11-01: 10 positiveWeek of 2025-12-01: 5 positiveWeek of 2025-12-01: 3 negativeWeek of 2026-01-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2026-01-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2026-02-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2026-02-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2026-03-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2026-03-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2026-04-01: 12 positiveWeek of 2026-04-01: 5 negativeWeek of 2026-05-01: 6 positiveWeek of 2026-05-01: 3 negativeWeek of 2026-06-01: 4 positiveWeek of 2026-06-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2026-07-01: 5 positiveWeek of 2026-07-01: 3 negative
Weekly review counts (Steam review histogram). Positive above the line, negative below.

Players online

1202026-09-15 07:00 — 11 players2026-09-16 15:00 — 10 players2026-09-17 23:00 — 6 players2026-09-19 06:00 — 8 players2026-09-20 14:00 — 7 players2026-09-21 22:00 — 4 players2026-09-23 05:00 — 9 players2026-09-24 13:00 — 6 players2026-09-25 20:00 — 6 players2026-09-27 04:00 — 6 players2026-09-28 11:00 — 2 players2026-09-29 19:00 — 3 players2026-10-01 02:00 — 2 players2026-10-02 10:00 — 2 players2026-10-03 17:00 — 9 players2026-10-05 01:00 — 6 players2026-10-06 09:00 — 7 players2026-10-07 16:00 — 7 players2026-10-09 00:00 — 4 players2026-10-10 07:00 — 3 players2026-10-11 15:00 — 7 players2026-10-12 23:00 — 0 players2026-10-14 06:00 — 3 players2026-10-14 22:00 — 3 players
Concurrent players, hourly average, last 30 days (census samples).
693Feb 2024Aug 2026Feb 2024 — avg 14 · peak 51Mar 2024 — avg 5 · peak 13Apr 2024 — avg 5 · peak 15May 2024 — avg 3 · peak 14Jun 2024 — avg 4 · peak 16Jul 2024 — avg 6 · peak 21Aug 2024 — avg 6 · peak 22Sep 2024 — avg 3 · peak 11Oct 2024 — avg 3 · peak 17Nov 2024 — avg 3 · peak 9Dec 2024 — avg 3 · peak 9Jan 2025 — avg 69 · peak 281Feb 2025 — avg 19 · peak 62Mar 2025 — avg 7 · peak 20Apr 2025 — avg 4 · peak 12May 2025 — avg 3 · peak 10Jun 2025 — avg 3 · peak 11Jul 2025 — avg 8 · peak 28Aug 2025 — avg 5 · peak 15Sep 2025 — avg 3 · peak 13Oct 2025 — avg 4 · peak 14Dec 2025 — avg 4 · peak 13Jan 2026 — avg 4 · peak 12Feb 2026 — avg 3 · peak 8Mar 2026 — avg 3 · peak 8Apr 2026 — avg 14 · peak 76May 2026 — avg 4 · peak 13Jun 2026 — avg 3 · peak 11Jul 2026 — avg 4 · peak 11Aug 2026 — avg 3 · peak 8
Monthly average players (source: steamcharts.com) — history via steamcharts.com; live census sampling since Aug 2026.

Price history

$17.99$7.192024-01-302026-07-202024-01-30 — best price $15.292024-03-14 — best price $15.292024-04-15 — best price $15.292024-05-27 — best price $15.292024-06-27 — best price $15.292024-07-22 — best price $15.292024-10-07 — best price $15.292024-11-27 — best price $15.292024-12-19 — best price $15.292025-01-18 — best price $12.592025-03-13 — best price $12.592025-06-26 — best price $12.592025-07-24 — best price $12.592025-09-29 — best price $12.592025-10-13 — best price $12.592025-12-18 — best price $12.592026-01-16 — best price $12.592026-03-19 — best price $14.572026-04-06 — best price $7.192026-05-25 — best price $10.792026-06-25 — best price $8.992026-07-13 — best price $8.992026-07-20 — best price $17.99
Lowest recorded price across tracked stores, per day (census snapshots).

Completion

46
achievements tracked
91.8%
earned "Earn First Star"
1.8%
median achievement earned by

Global achievement rates from Steam.

Details

WindowsSingle-playerSteam AchievementsSteam WorkshopSteam CloudStatsSteam LeaderboardsIncludes level editorRemote Play TogetherFamily Sharing

6 supported languages: English, French, German, Spanish - Spain, Russian, Simplified Chinese

Console footprint

PlatformPlayers trackedCompletionTrophies/achievements
Steam (Steam)5340%46

Players tracked by Exophase (achievement/trophy trackers) — a sample of the player base, not total sales.

Player tags

3DLogicCodingPuzzleRobotsHackingPhysicsScienceModdableTop-Down

Census log

Computed from census-recorded observations only — dates are observation dates.

Players also track

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Similarity via IGDB.

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