Programming Games and Planning Games Explained

You laugh. You groan. You immediately start planning the next one.

The Short version – TL;DR

Programming and planning games ask you to decide your actions in advance, commit to them, and then watch what actually happens. You cannot react mid-turn. Whether you’re queuing five robot movement cards or secretly choosing actions alongside three opponents, the skill is forward thinking and accepting the fallout. Gateway picks: Colt Express and Camel Up. Medium-weight tables: Wingspan and Dungeon Lords. Experienced groups: RoboRally, Mechs vs Minions, or the recently released Unconscious Mind (2024).

What are Programming Games and Planning Games

Everyone at our table has had that moment. You’ve spent two minutes planning your exact sequence of actions, locked in your programme, and you’re sitting there quietly confident. Then the round resolves, two other players have moved through your intended position, your robot has driven into a wall, and what should have been a perfect diagonal run has sent you spinning off the back of the board.

That’s programming and planning games. They reward forward thinking, punish laziness, and produce a specific kind of chaos that other mechanics rarely match. In my experience, no category generates more collective groaning or more collective laughter than a planning game where everything goes precisely wrong.

This post covers what programming and planning means as a mechanic, where it came from, why it works, and which games I’d recommend across every experience level – including some of the most talked-about recent releases.

What Programming and Planning Actually Means

A programming game is one where you select and commit to a sequence of actions before any of them resolve. You’re not reacting in real time. You’re deciding in advance what your character, vehicle, or worker will do – writing the script before the curtain goes up – and then watching what actually happens, which is often quite different.

BoardGameGeek splits this into two closely related mechanisms: Action Queue and Programmed Movement. In Action Queue games, players build a sequence of action cards and execute them in order. Programmed Movement is a specialised version focused on movement specifically, where you plot a route in advance and your piece travels that path regardless of what has changed on the board by the time it gets there.

The defining quality is commitment. Once your programme is locked in, you live with it. That inability to react is where all the tension, the comedy, and the actual skill of the category lives.

Planning games sit alongside this as a broader group: games where the primary challenge is thinking multiple steps ahead, reading opponents, and constructing efficient sequences of decisions. Not all planning games require strict advance commitment, but the best ones give you that feeling that your turn was well or badly constructed long before it resolves.

A Short History of the Mechanic

Chess is the original planning game. Reading the board several moves ahead is its core skill, even if you’re not technically locking in actions in advance. Go works the same way. The instinct to plan further ahead than your opponent is old.

In hobby board gaming, the mechanic in its modern action-queue form traces back to RoboRally, designed by Richard Garfield and published in 1994. Players programme a sequence of five movement cards for their robots, choose from a hand of nine, and then resolve everything simultaneously. Conveyor belts, pushers, pits, and lasers interact with the revealed programmes in increasingly chaotic ways. It was a novel design and it remains the game most people name when the programming mechanic comes up.

Colt Express (2014, Ludovic Maublanc, Spiel des Jahres 2015) brought the mechanic to a much wider audience with a more accessible, thematic wrapper. Players are outlaws robbing a moving train, drafting action cards into a shared deck that resolves in order. Some rounds are played in the dark: cards are added face-down so nobody knows what sequence will emerge. It’s funny, it’s quick, and it can be taught in ten minutes. I’m a huge fan of Colt Express

Mechs vs Minions (2016, Riot Games) moved the mechanic into cooperative territory, and Unconscious Mind (2024, Fantasia Games) integrated action programming into a dense Euro framework with interconnected systems and one of the most striking visual designs in recent years. The category keeps attracting inventive work across a wide weight range.

Why It Works

The planning is the game

In most games, planning is preparation. In programming games, planning is the main event. Selecting the right cards, ordering them correctly, anticipating where the board will be by the time your third action resolves – that’s the primary skill. When a well-constructed programme executes cleanly, it’s genuinely satisfying. When it falls apart, it’s usually funny enough that it doesn’t sting.

The reveal is unlike anything else

When all players reveal their programmes and resolution begins, there’s a specific kind of theatre that few mechanics produce. You already know what you planned. You’re watching to see whether the world cooperated. That watching phase draws table attention in a way that individual-turn games don’t. At our table, the resolution phase in Colt Express or RoboRally brings more eyes to the board than almost anything else we play.

The chaos is earned

The chaos in programming games comes directly from player decisions. Your robot didn’t drive off the board because of a bad dice roll. It drove off the board because three players had the same idea at the same time and their interactions produced a result nobody intended. That’s a meaningfully different feeling. It feels fair because it emerged from the collision of plans rather than from luck.

There’s real skill underneath the fun

A casual session is pure entertainment: robots drive into walls, outlaws shoot each other by accident, mechs spin on the spot. That works regardless of your tactical experience. But the better players in your group are constructing tighter programmes, reading the board state more accurately, and making fewer expensive errors. The fun-on-the-surface and skill-underneath layering is what makes the mechanic work across experience levels.

Who Are These Games For?

Programming and planning games work well for players who enjoy spatial thinking and like to feel that their results were earned. If you find satisfaction in constructing a clever sequence and watching it land, this category will make sense to you immediately. Groups who enjoy shared chaos also get a lot from it – the collective experience of watching everyone’s plans collide is a social event in itself.

They’re less suited to players who find other people disrupting their plans genuinely frustrating rather than funny. Even in skill-heavy programming games, other players will sometimes derail your programme in ways you couldn’t have fully anticipated. If that kind of disruption breaks enjoyment rather than providing comedy, the category may not land.

Heavy planning games without much chaos – Wingspan’s engine planning or the multi-system puzzle of Unconscious Mind – suit players who want a deep optimisation challenge with minimal luck. These feel more like a controlled, methodical experience than the anarchic collisions of a movement-programming game.

Families and gateway players should start with Colt Express or Camel Up before moving toward anything more complex. Both are accessible, genuinely funny, and short enough that a single session teaches all the necessary instincts without anyone getting lost.

The Different Forms Programming Takes

Action queue (batch): Players build a complete sequence of action cards, place them face-down, then reveal and resolve in order. Colt Express is the most accessible example. Cards go into a shared pile and produce a sequence nobody individually controlled.

Programmed movement: Players plot movement instructions for their piece, then simultaneously reveal and execute them all. RoboRally is the archetype. The spatial consequences of everyone’s movements interacting with board hazards is where both the comedy and the skill live.

Rolling queue: Actions are added to one end of a queue while the first action executes at the other. This creates a more dynamic version where earlier decisions shape future options.

Simultaneous programme reveal: All players lock in plans and reveal together. This removes last-player advantage and puts everyone on the same planning horizon. Mechs vs Minions uses this cooperatively, which changes the feel considerably.

Planning within a larger Euro system: The mechanic sits inside a broader framework. Wingspan’s bird-engine planning and Unconscious Mind’s rondel-activation system both require thinking several moves ahead to fire the right cascading effects. The commitment isn’t always rigid but the forward planning is the core skill.

Secret simultaneous selection: Players select actions secretly, reveal together, and resolve based on what everyone chose. Dungeon Lords extends this into a fuller system where the order in which players claim actions determines what quality of action they receive.

Games Worth Playing

Family and gateway players

Colt Express (2014): Colt Express is the programming game I recommend most often as an introduction to the category. You’re an outlaw on a moving train, selecting action cards each round: move along carriage rooftops, fire your gun, grab loot, or hide. Cards are played into a shared deck – some face-up, some face-down depending on the round type – then resolved in order. The 3D train box insert is a visual delight, and the game teaches in ten minutes. The chaos is immediate and funny. It never feels punishing enough to frustrate new players and it scales well with player count. Also crosses into: Card Games, Hand Management.

Camel Up (2014): Camel Up is a racing and betting game where the planning element comes from deciding when to bet, which camel to back, and how your timing interacts with other players’ predictions. The movement of the camels is determined by a pyramid dice draw, so the races are unpredictable, but reading the likely outcomes is the actual game. Accessible, quick, works with families who have never tried a hobby game before. Also crosses into: Betting and Bluffing, Dice Games.

Ticket to Ride (2014): Ticket to Ride is a route-building game where planning the order in which you complete destination tickets – and timing completion before others block key connections – is the core skill. It’s less a strict programming game and more a forward-planning game, but the mental model it builds is exactly the right preparation for heavier games in the category. Also crosses into: Route and Network Building.

Medium-experienced players and groups

Wingspan (2019): Wingspan is technically an engine-building game, but the planning challenge at the heart of it – constructing bird-power chains that fire efficiently, managing which habitat actions to use each round – makes it one of the better planning games in the hobby. In my experience the groups who enjoy Wingspan most are the ones who genuinely engage with the planning puzzle rather than treating it as a pretty card collection exercise. It rewards groups who like to think ahead rather than react. Also crosses into: Engine Building, Card Games, Set Collection.

Dungeon Lords (2009, Vlaada Chvátil): Dungeon Lords is a planning game with real teeth. Players are dungeon masters, secretly selecting three actions each round and writing them on a planning sheet before any are revealed. The catch is that the second player to claim an action usually gets a better version of it than the first, which means reading what your opponents are likely to choose is as important as deciding what you want to do. It’s one of the cleverest simultaneous-selection designs around. Also crosses into: Worker Placement, Eurogames.

Space Alert (2008, Vlaada Chvátil): Space Alert is a real-time cooperative programming game and one of the most intense experiences in this whole list. Players have ten minutes to plan a sequence of actions using cards while a soundtrack plays and events unfold. Then planning stops and the programme executes in order. Either you survive or you discover exactly where collective planning went wrong. Not for every group – I’ve seen it click brilliantly with some and frustrate others – but when it lands, it produces sessions people talk about for a while. Also crosses into: Cooperative Games.

Pandemic (2008, Matt Leacock): Pandemic is a cooperative planning game where the primary challenge is constructing an efficient joint plan each round – prioritising which crises to address now and which to defer, managing hand sizes, coordinating roles. The programming isn’t explicit but the forward-planning discipline is the same muscle. A solid mid-weight entry point for groups not ready for Space Alert. Also crosses into: Cooperative Games.

Recent releases (2024 and 2025)

Unconscious Mind (2024, Fantasia Games): Unconscious Mind is the most substantial recent release that uses action programming inside a larger Euro system. Players are members of Freud’s inner circle, placing workers on a central meeting table and activating a personal rondel that triggers cascading effects on player boards. Planning several actions ahead to fire the right row and column combinations is the central skill. The artwork from Andrew Bosley and Vincent Dutrait is exceptional, and the theme – psychoanalysis in early 20th-century Vienna – is genuinely unusual for a hobby game. It’s heavy. But unlike most heavy Euros it has a thematic throughline that makes the complexity feel grounded. Also crosses into: Worker Placement, Engine Building, Eurogames.

Arcs (2024, Leder Games): Arcs is a space-conflict game from Cole Wehrle that uses card-led action selection to create a very specific planning tension. Players must decide whether to lead or follow each round, with the lead action determining what’s available to everyone else. The planning comes from reading which actions opponents need, timing your leads to limit them, and positioning your empire for campaign objectives. It rewards forward reading of other players’ intentions as much as pure tactical planning. Also crosses into: Area Control, Card Games, Ameritrash.

Experienced players and groups

RoboRally (1994, revised 2016, Richard Garfield): RoboRally is the game that defined the programming mechanic in hobby gaming and it remains one of the most enjoyable chaotic experiences you can have at a table. Players programme a sequence of five movement cards from a hand of nine, then everyone reveals and resolves simultaneously: robots push each other, fall into pits, get shot by lasers, drift on conveyor belts. The revised 2016 edition trimmed the ruleset and addressed some of the notorious game-length problems of the original. In my experience RoboRally is best with three or four players and a group who are there to laugh rather than optimise. The chaos is the point. Also crosses into: Action Point Games.

Mechs vs Minions (2016, Riot Games): Mechs vs Minions is a cooperative programming game set in the League of Legends universe and one of the most impressively produced games I’ve opened. Players draft action cards and programme them into slots on a command line board, then execute simultaneously. Damage cards disrupt your programme in genuinely interesting ways – covering slots, forcing unexpected rotations, sending your mech somewhere unhelpful at the worst possible moment. The campaign of ten missions escalates well, and the tutorial-based teaching structure means the first session is manageable. Also crosses into: Cooperative Games, Dungeon Crawl.

Spirit Island (2017, Greater Than Games): Spirit Island is a cooperative game where players are island spirits defending against colonisers, and the planning challenge is exceptional. Each round players commit to powers before seeing exactly how colonists will advance. The interaction between spirits – and the need to plan around each spirit’s specific power curve – makes this one of the deepest planning puzzles in the hobby. Not a fast game and not a light one, but very rewarding for groups who want genuine strategic depth. Also crosses into: Cooperative Games, Area Control.

Twilight Imperium 4th Edition (2017, Fantasy Flight Games): Twilight Imperium is a full-day planning game. Players select strategy cards at the start of each round, publicly committing to a general direction, then spend the round executing within that framework while reading everyone else’s stated intentions. The political, military, and economic planning layers interact constantly. It’s a commitment of time and group buy-in. But for the groups it suits, nothing else in the hobby really compares. Also crosses into: Area Control, Economic and Trading, Ameritrash.

Common Mistakes

Not accounting for where the board will be by the time your action resolves. The most common error in programming games is planning for the current state of the board rather than the state three actions from now. Opponents will move, positions will change, and the situation you planned around may not exist by the time you get there.

Underestimating how much disruption other players will cause. Your opponents are not passive obstacles. They will occupy your intended positions, push your pieces, or block your routes entirely. Planning without any contingency for this is planning to be disrupted.

Over-planning in cooperative games. In Space Alert and Mechs vs Minions specifically, the instinct to coordinate every single action tightly can produce programmes that are too rigid to absorb the unexpected. Good cooperative planning has some give in it.

Ignoring turn order and resolution timing. The difference between your third and fourth action executing before or after an opponent’s card can determine whether your plan works at all. Reading timing as carefully as reading actions is a real skill.

Playing too conservatively. Programming games often reward clear commitment over vague hedging. Plans that try to keep all options open tend to do nothing well. Pick a direction, commit to it, and accept the fallout if it goes wrong.

Is Programming for You?

Programming and planning games work for almost any group that enjoys the feeling of a well-constructed plan executing cleanly. The entry points are accessible: Colt Express and Camel Up teach in minutes and produce genuine laughs within the first round. The ceiling is as high as you want – from RoboRally’s anarchic collisions to Unconscious Mind’s cascading multi-system puzzle.

These games are less suited to players who find other people disrupting their plans frustrating rather than funny, or who prefer reactive structures where adjusting mid-turn is an option. The commitment to a programme is precisely what creates the tension, but it’s also what creates the chaos, and those two things are inseparable.

If you’re not sure where to start: Colt Express for a group who want something immediately funny and quick to teach, Wingspan for a planning puzzle with more control and less collision, and Space Alert if you want to see what genuine collective planning under pressure actually feels like. All three are widely available from UK retailers including Zatu Games and Amazon.