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A game about making chips

Play your way to a real chip.

etchling is a game where you design computer chips. You start with a single switch. You finish with a chip you built yourself, made in a real chip factory and mailed to you.

Get early accessPlay a level
  • Ages 13+
  • No experience needed

01 · What

etchling
ETCH-01Preliminary

What is etchling?

1 General description

etchling is a video game about building the chips inside every phone, console and laptop.

Each level is a puzzle made of switches and wires. Solve it and you've built a real piece of a computer. Keep going and those pieces add up to a whole chip.

At the end, your design leaves the game. It gets made in a real chip factory, and it's yours to keep.

2 Features

  • No reading before playing. You learn by building.
  • Every puzzle uses the same ideas real chip designers use.
  • Everything you build stays in your toolbox for the next level.
  • The final level is a real chip with your design on it.

3 Operating conditions

Player age13 and up
Experience neededNone
Final output1 chip, fabricated
Preliminary: etchling is in development. Specs may change before release.Page 1 of 1

02 · How

Six worlds. One real chip.

You don't read about chips first. You build one, a piece at a time. Every world gives you a new part, and every part is made from the ones before it.

  1. W1

    Switch

    Meet the transistor: a tiny switch with no moving parts. Chips have billions.

  2. W2

    Logic

    Wire switches into gates that make simple yes-or-no decisions.

  3. W3

    Math

    Turn gates into a circuit that adds numbers. Try it below.

  4. W4

    Memory

    Build a circuit that remembers, one bit at a time.

  5. W5

    Computer

    Put math and memory together into a tiny computer that runs your code.

  6. W6

    Factory

    Send your design to a real chip factory. Then check your mailbox.

Level 3-1 · Adder

Try a level.

Flip A and B. The circuit adds them together in binary, the way every computer counts. Find all four combinations to clear the level.

3-1Goal: find all 4 combinations0/4

These wires cross without touching. In a real chip they sit on different layers.

0+0=00That's 0

Combinations found
ABCarrySum
00??
01??
10??
11??

The last level

The final boss is a chip factory.

When you finish, your design is sent to a real chip factory. It gets printed on a silicon wafer, right next to designs from other players.

The wafer is cut into tiny chips, and yours comes back to you, ready to plug in and run.

Tip: chip factories light their rooms yellow. Blue and white light would ruin chips while they're being made.

Yours

03 · Why

The world runs on chips. Almost nobody learns to make them.

67,000

US chip jobs could go unfilled by 2030

Of about 115,000 new chip jobs expected in the US by 2030. Source: SIA & Oxford Economics, “Chipping Away”, July 2023

  1. Most people meet chip design too late.

    It's usually first taught deep into an engineering degree, with software built for professionals. By then, most students have picked something else.

  2. Their favorite games already run on chips.

    Every console, phone and gaming PC is built around chips. Young people use them all day, and almost nobody shows them how one is made.

  3. A real chip is finally within reach.

    Open-source design tools and shared factory runs mean a small chip no longer needs a big-company budget. It can cost less than a game console.

Be one of the first players.

etchling is in development. Get on the list to play the first worlds before anyone else.

Get early access

Investors, accelerators and schools

We'd love to show you where etchling is going.

hello@etchling.fun