User Experience and Game Performance in 5G-Enhanced Educational Escape Rooms for STEM Learning

Secondary STEM education faces persistent challenges in student engagement and conceptual understanding, particularly in abstract domains such as chemistry and physics. While digital escape rooms offer potential solutions, systematic evidence on the relationship between game performance and user experience in technology-enhanced implementations remains limited. This study examined user experience, engagement, and game performance in two 5G-enhanced educational escape rooms for chemistry (ChimiGame) and physics (FisiGame) with twenty-eight high school students in collaborative gaming sessions. We combined Game Learning Analytics with the User Experience Questionnaire to investigate how objective performance metrics relate to subjective experiential dimensions. Results revealed high engagement and positive user experience across all dimensions. Performance-UX relationships proved context-dependent: in ChimiGame, session duration negatively impacted satisfaction regardless of success levels, while in FisiGame, higher scores enhanced attractiveness and perspicuity whereas excessive attempts diminished them. Engagement correlated with stimulation, efficiency, and attractiveness. These findings suggest that the performance-experience relationship depends on content characteristics and feedback mechanisms rather than following uniform patterns. The study provides evidence-based guidelines for balancing challenge with positive experience in technology-enhanced STEM learning contexts, focusing on experiential rather than learning outcome dimensions.