A game that lets players experience software development could be a great way to teach coding concepts and programming like loops and conditional statements. Games that do this include Zachtronics’ Shenzhen I/O, which puts players in the shoes of disaffected engineers next working at an uninteresting chip maker and have to build computer chips by hand. The circuits they have to design get more difficult, starting with making the lights flash in a specific pattern.

The game’s interface looks very similar to the developer tools found in browsers and also teaches scripting. Another great example is Screeps which is a game that combines JavaScript programming with massively multiplayer online gaming to build self-sustaining colonies. Both games are excellent at teaching the basics of concepts and gradually introducing other players.