PC Lab is live at blockzerointeractive.com/games/pc-lab. It's been through three major development phases since the original MVP in early 2026 — about 16 hours of build time across four sessions. This post covers what the product actually is, the technical decision that defined v2.1, and why the assembly sequence works the way it does.
4
Development sessions
8
PC components
2
Languages (ES / EN)
What PC Lab actually is
PC Lab is a virtual hardware laboratory. Students work through three stages in sequence: first, a matching exercise that pairs component names with their definitions; then a visual matching phase where they identify real 3D models of each component; and finally an assembly sequence where they install eight components into a PC case in the correct order.
The assembly order isn't arbitrary — it enforces the actual physical sequence you'd follow building a real machine. Attempting to install a component before its prerequisite produces an amber warning in the HUD rather than a silent failure. The constraint is pedagogical: hardware assembly has an order because the hardware requires it, and the game reflects that.
"Reading about what a CPU is and placing a 3D model of one into a case are different cognitive operations. One is recognition. The other is recall under constraint."
The product is fully bilingual. Spanish and English are available throughout — in the matching screens, the assembly workshop, and the printable session report. The toggle is persistent within the session.
How it was built
The MVP and the rename
The original product launched internally as PC Builder in early 2026. The rename to PC Lab came during the v2 feature update in April — it better reflects what the product actually is: a simulation of a lab environment, not a builder tool. The URL changed accordingly to /games/pc-lab.
v2 added the matching module, the forced assembly sequence, and the printable HTML report. Those three features together turned a hardware quiz into a structured lab exercise with a deliverable at the end.
The 3D viewport system
The visual matching phase in v2.1 was the most technically involved part of the build. Each component is displayed as a rotating 3D model in its own viewport — real geometry, not illustrated cards. Getting there required solving a non-obvious Godot 4 problem.
The first attempt had all viewports sharing a single World3D instance. Every viewport showed the same model. The fix was assigning a fresh World3D.new() to each SubViewport individually — that's the only way to render independent 3D scenes simultaneously in Godot 4. Once that was in place, the ComponentViewport scene became fully reusable: one scene handles any component by reading an @export var component_id from the Inspector.
The Blender pipeline
The PC case model was built in Blender 5.1 and exported as .glb. The material is a dark metallic gray — intentionally utilitarian. Each component has calibrated camera distance and height values stored in ComponentManager so the 3D presentation is consistent across models of very different sizes.
The printable report
The session report at the end captures the student's name, the components they assembled, completion status, and the date. It prints via window.print() through Godot's JavaScriptBridge. No account required to generate or print it. Same approach as ERA — a student can produce evidence of completion without any platform dependency.
What comes next
The immediate open item is the instructor dashboard. The session data — component matching completion, out-of-order assembly attempts, student name, timestamp — is already being collected and stored. The backend endpoints to surface that data to instructors are the next build target.
PC Lab is currently in courtesy access for an instructor at the university level. That pilot will produce the first real classroom usage data, which will drive the next round of calibration.
Free to play in the browser. No account required. Printable report at the end.
Questions or feedback: studio@blockzerointeractive.com. If you work in a computing or IT program and want early access for your course, reach out directly.