The first games I ever made were so long ago...text-based adventure games on the ZX Spectrum in BASIC, and being a kid at the time (~10 years old) I had no concept of programming properly or structuring anything. It was just strings being displayed based on input.
A recent non-puzzle game I've been playing is Killer Frequency - you are a radio DJ who has to prevent murders of people who call in to your show, and it's set in the 80s.