Not being able to restart the simulation and keep your code is an no-no for this type of game, that I imagine many users will notice. Another minor issue is poorly implemented win condition detection on some levels (but also there are no content unlocks so passable).
Great foundation here, lots of fun production, and much of it is competently done, but it suffers in some of its key goals until those issues are resolved.
Some people complain that it is not like a real PLC, and that is okay for a teaching tool / gamified challenge. Restrictions are par for the course if you consider Zachtronics as the standard.
Also, part of PLCs is they hide important debugging information from you, and you have to find ways to work around that. I think it would be nice to have an "easy mode" where you can see the inputs, but encourage the user to drop them for a challenge.
The biggest "real world" complaint that jumps out is that you are tied to one output per rung, an issue which is going to dirty up your "code" in situations where any real world PLC is are going to provide simple, more straightforward answers. Is that fair and possibly fun for a programming game? Yes. But does it make for a better learning tool / simulation? Not really. Bridging the gap of simplicity and clarity is something that a gamified tool can bring to the learning process, and this is a lynchpin area for that. Again, I would call what is here hard mode, and encourage the developer to make it available both ways, as is (hard), and with multiple outputs (easy).
The dev is humble has some nice clear acknowledgements and requests for patience on the forum, but I would still consider it a project at risk of being abandoned. I'm fine having supported it and I hope it evolves.
In devs defense, it was a simulation product that he is updating to be a game, and he is only a year or so out from launch, and is also trying to bring in additional content. Will follow up on review if updates come to my attention.
