shapez wires: how its logic gates compare with real ones
shapez is a factory-building game by Tobias Springer (tobspr Games), released on Steam in June 2020 for Windows, macOS and Linux, and open source under GPL-3.0. Later in the game you unlock the wires layer, a separate layer on top of the factory that you switch to with E. Its wires carry signals that can be a shape, a color or a boolean 1 or 0, and differently colored wires do not connect. The game's own descriptions give the parts: a Switch emits a 1 or 0; AND, OR, XOR and NOT gates emit 1 when their inputs are truthy in the right pattern (truthy means a shape, a color or a 1); a Transistor forwards its bottom input while its side input is truthy; Compare emits 1 when two signals are exactly equal; and a Display shows a signal. Signals then control buildings such as the item Filter and the Quad Painter, and virtual versions of the cutter and other processors let you compute shapes on the wires alone. The gates behave like real ones, with one twist: a wire can carry more than a bit.
How shapez's wires map to logic
With booleans on the wires, shapez's AND, OR, XOR and NOT are exactly the real gates, and a Switch is an input. Its Transistor is the most faithful part of all: in a real chip a transistor also passes a signal only while its control input is on, which is how a transmission gate or a tri-state buffer works. The twist is truthiness: a wire carrying a shape or a color counts as 1, so a gate can test whether anything is there at all, and Compare checks two whole signals for equality in one step. (digiwleea is an independent project, not affiliated with shapez or tobspr Games.)
How real logic differs
In a chip a wire carries one bit, and comparing two values takes a gate per bit: an XNOR on each pair and an AND across them, the start of a comparator. digiwleea lets you build those layers yourself in the browser, from CMOS transistors to gates, adders, latches, registers, RAM and an 8-bit CPU that runs a stored program, plus the assembly language behind it, with every part checked against its truth table and an AI tutor (Wleea) to help.
| shapez | digiwleea | |
|---|---|---|
| What a wire carries | A shape, a color or a boolean 1 or 0 | One bit: 0 or 1 |
| Gates | AND, OR, XOR, NOT, Transistor, Compare | NOT, NAND, NOR and more, built from transistors |
| True means | Truthy: any shape, any color, or 1 | A 1 on the wire |
| Equality test | One Compare building | An XNOR per bit and an AND across them |
| Runs in | shapez on Windows, macOS and Linux | Any modern browser, nothing to install |
shapez wire parts and the real circuits behind them
- AND, OR, XOR, NOT gates. With 1s and 0s these are the real gates: AND, OR, XOR and NOT; inside, a NOT is a CMOS inverter.
- Transistor. A switch controlled by a signal: the MOSFET simulator and the transmission gate.
- Compare. Equality of two values: an XNOR per bit, as in the 1-bit comparator and the 4-bit magnitude comparator.
- Choosing between two signals. A 2-to-1 multiplexer picks one input by a select bit.
- Remembering a value. Real circuits store bits in latches made of gates fed back to each other: the SR latch and the D latch.
Other games do logic too: see Factorio's combinators, Minecraft redstone and Mindustry's processors.
No sign-up is needed to start: open the lab and place your first transistor, or read the free theory course. The account (and the AI tutor) are optional.
More comparisons: Games about logic and computers
See for yourself: build a logic gate from transistors in the simulator, then follow the path from sand to an 8-bit CPU.
Open the digiwleea lab →Frequently asked
How do you unlock wires in shapez?
Wires come later in the game as a reward; the unlock message introduces the wires layer as a separate layer on top of the regular one, which you switch to by pressing E.
What logic gates are in shapez?
AND, OR, XOR and NOT gates, plus a Transistor that forwards its bottom input while its side input is truthy and a Compare building that emits 1 when two signals are exactly equal.
What does truthy mean in shapez?
A signal counts as true if it is a shape, a color or a boolean 1. Only an empty signal or a 0 counts as false, so a gate can react to any item at all.
Is shapez good for learning logic gates?
It is a fun way to meet AND, OR, XOR and NOT and see them control a factory. To see how gates are built from transistors and combined into adders, memory and a CPU, try digiwleea's free browser course.