  Engagement in educational games, a recently popular academic topic, has been
shown to increase learning performance, as well as a number of attitudinal
factors, such as intrinsic interest and motivation. However, there is a lack of
research on how games can be designed to promote engagement. This mixed methods
case study aimed to discover effective game elements for promoting 17-18 year
old high school students' engagement with an educational game. Using
within-case and cross-case analyses and triangulated data, 10 elements emerged
and were categorized into the constructs of story, gameplay, and atmosphere.
Examples and connections to the literature for each element are reported.
Findings implicate that educational game design for both learning and
engagement is composed of educational-game specific elements, game design for
solely engagement is similar for both educational and entertainment games, and
a gap on educational game design technique instead of theory should be
addressed to further benefit educational game development.
