Urban Immersion as Education: Motivation, Engagement, and Learning in City Games

While game-based learning is a growing field, city games remain an underresearched area. This study examined a custom-designed city game and the learning outcomes, motivation, and engagement of 49 visiting American university students in the city of Stockholm, Sweden. The game's design was grounded in game-based learning, self-determination theory, and situated cognition, featuring four puzzles designed to activate specific learning mechanisms: a logic puzzle (deductive reasoning), a wordplay puzzle (associative learning), a task-based puzzle (scaffolding), and a rebus puzzle (insight learning). Participants completed a post-survey assessing knowledge retention, motivation, and engagement. Results revealed a positive relationship between motivation and learning outcomes, while the measurement of engagement did not show any relationship with learning. These findings suggest that while city games show potential as educational tools, their effectiveness hinges on designs that successfully foster motivation, as mere engagement with the game environment is not sufficient to ensure learning.