Games which present you with a text box and ask you to write in a language to solve a problem feel too much like being tricked into eating your vegetables. That's not saying that programming games can't work, but thinking about it as programming can get in the way. Dijkstra's famous quote is that computer science is no more about computers than astronomy is about telescopes, and games are proof of that.
Factorio is often given as an example of managing complexity, as another response said. TIS-100 has the aesthetics of assembly programming but the substance is actually a game that teaches hardware parallelism. Even something as simple as having students act out the 'dining philosophers' problem can be thought of as a game.
Factorio is often given as an example of managing complexity, as another response said. TIS-100 has the aesthetics of assembly programming but the substance is actually a game that teaches hardware parallelism. Even something as simple as having students act out the 'dining philosophers' problem can be thought of as a game.