A challenge we faced while building SpriteBox Coding, a learn to code game for kids ages 5+, was that the educational component primarily centred around puzzles. However, as we learned with our previous title LightBot, for some kids, puzzles simply aren’t exciting on their own. There were often players who needed a reason for why they would want to solve puzzles in the first place.

Luckily, years of video game history have taught us about all kinds of things when it comes to what makes games fun. We analyzed games across multiple genres to find some of the more universally popular ideas. Then, we tried to extract how exactly those game elements map to motivators that engage players.

Here are some of the ideas we adopted, and the reasons why:

Story

Games often feature some kind of storyline. At the start of SpriteBox Coding, players see their character building a rocket, only to have it explode during launch. Rocket pieces fall from the sky onto the world map, leading the player to go collect those pieces to rebuild their ship. As well as giving players a sense of direction, story lets players gain a sense of purpose.