I recommend checking out Zachtronics' puzzle games, they're very much programming in disguise. I'd start with Infinifactory as it's learning curve is the least steep. They're all hard and great fun. Depending on the kids' history with games and computers they might get into the harder ones (like Shenzhen I/O and TIS100).[

Here's an article on this

](http://gregorulm.com/programming-game-review-spacechem-2011-by-zachtronics/)[^] But keep in mind - quote :

Sometimes people mention SpaceChem as a good game to introduce people to programming. I would not recommend that at all because an introductory programming course is laughably easy in comparison. If anything, it is a game you may want to introduce a subset of programmers to.