A game that lets players experience software development can be an excellent way to introduce programming concepts and concepts in coding techniques, including loops and conditional statement. Games that can do this include Zachtronics Shenzhen I/O which puts players in the shoes of disaffected engineers working at an uninteresting chip maker and have to build computer chips by hand. They are given increasingly complex circuits to design, starting with the making lights flash according to a certain pattern.
The interface of the game is very similar to that is found in browsers, and it helps students learn scripting. Screeps is a great example that incorporates JavaScript code with massively multi-player online gameplay to build self sustaining colonies. Both games excel at teaching basic concepts and slowly introducing new players.
www.mrworkspace.nl/2010/05/11/the-news-from-software-development-world-game/