I have been planing to come up a list of games that teach people to program. Luckily with the chance got requested to answer on Quora, I spent some time to organize the list.

Here are several sites that allow you to using coding to play.

CodeCombat is an RPG game which you could use Javascript, Coffeescript, Lua, Python, Clojure, and Io.

Code Hunt is developed by Microsoft Research. In which, you are a code hunter to find the bug in C#/Java code.

CodinGame I haven’t played it yet, but it looks fun.

Screeps is an online RTS. You have to build up your territory, and defend it from AI and other player’s attach. For now, it only support the Javascript, and you have to pay2play.

FightCode Build your smart tank and beat others. It’s really similar to Robocode.

Elevator Saga You become an elevator operator. You have to deliver certain number of people within a time frame to pass to next level.

Battle Code Not know much about it, but it holds contest for students.

Ruby Warrior Learn Ruby and beat dungeon.

Scratch Visually coding.

LightBot Simple game which teachs the basic function and loop concepts.

FlexBox Froggy Learn CSS FlexBox through games.

Halite Artificial Intelligence chanllenge game.

CryptoZombies is an interactive code school that teaches you to write smart contracts in Solidity through building your own crypto-collectables game.

Bot Land is a strategy game by buiding your own robot to fight with other players.

Although these games could not lead you to create applications, they are just good start up. If you found you really enjoy the game, you could pick a programming language to learn it deeper.