Embodied Entrepreneurship: Exploring How an Analogue Role-Play Game Develops Entrepreneurial Mindsets in Master's Engineering Students

This paper examines the Entrepreneurial Journey Game, an embodied, improvisational analogue role-play simulation designed to develop entrepreneurial mindsets among master's engineering students. Grounded in game studies, performance theory, and the EntreComp framework, the game is positioned as megagame-adjacent rather than a full megagame, given its two-hour, single-cohort classroom format. The central thesis is that performative role-play can produce identity-level shifts in entrepreneurial mindset that conventional lectures do not.

The study was conducted at University College Dublin using a pre- and post-game survey with 26 complete responses from 37 participants. Self-reported entrepreneurial intention rose from a mean of 3.50 to 4.00, perceived ability to handle uncertainty increased from 3.31 to 3.88, and idea validation showed the largest gain, moving from 3.13 to 4.37. Overall comfort across entrepreneurial tasks averaged 4.31, and 92% of respondents reported feeling more comfortable afterward. Because responses were unlinked and no inferential tests were applied, these figures represent descriptive cohort-level trends rather than statistically confirmed effects.

Qualitative findings suggest that students moved from abstract fears of failure and financial risk toward more concrete operational concerns, and that pitching, investor interaction, and idea validation were rated as the most valuable stages. The authors also identify three exportable design principles: competency-mapped mechanics, layered uncertainty created through hidden roles, chance cards, and investor agendas, and deemphasised victory conditions.

The study's limitations are clearly acknowledged. Without a control group and relying on short-term, self-reported data, it cannot establish behavioural change or long-term transfer. Its theoretical foundations draw on entrepreneurship education, game design, and serious-game assessment, and its contribution lies chiefly in informing DiGRA and Game Studies scholarship on hidden-role mechanics and embodied play.