Human Resource Machine

Human Resource Machine is a puzzle video game from Tomorrow Corporation that teaches assembly language concepts through a visual programming interface. Players take on the role of an office worker who must complete tasks by moving items between an inbox, an outbox, and designated storage spaces. The game launched in 2015 on Microsoft Windows, OS X, and Wii U, followed by a Linux version in March 2016, an iOS version in June 2016, an Android version in December 2016, and a Nintendo Switch version in March 2017. A sequel, *7 Billion Humans*, came out on August 23, 2018. The game contains about forty puzzles, each representing one "year" of the player character's corporate career. In each puzzle, the player writes a list of simple commands to control their avatar on an overhead office view. The office has two conveyor belts: an inbox that delivers integers or single letters as small boxes, and an outbox that receives them. The floor often includes numbered spaces that can each hold one box. Tasks range from adding two numbers from the inbox to sorting a zero-terminated string of characters, with results sent to the outbox in the correct order. Commands include picking up the first item from the inbox, placing a carried item in the outbox, copying a carried item to a marked square, adding or subtracting the carried item from the item on a marked square, and making decisions based on whether the carried item is zero or negative. These mimic assembly language elements: the commands act like opcodes, the avatar's carried item acts like a processor register, and the floor spaces act like main memory. Later puzzles introduce memory addresses, where instructions can target a specific floor space labeled with another floor space's number. Players can add hand-drawn notes to instructions or floor spaces for clarity. Loops and jumps are marked with arrows to show logic flow. After creating a program, players can run it, speed it up, or step through it for debugging. If the outbox receives an unexpected box, the program stops immediately, and the player must fix it. The game tests each solution against multiple random inputs and outputs, alerting the player if any fail. A supervisor character can remind the player of the task and provide hints. Once a puzzle is solved, the game shows the number of instructions used and the average processing time.