A Study of Game Psychology & Corporate Training

Video games use psychological principles to create highly engaging and rewarding experiences. Traditional training methods often lack this level of immersion. By understanding game design, we can enhance corporate training and learning software to make it more effective and enjoyable, by transforming it into gamified learning.

In this post, we study successful game psychology techniques used in video game creation to engage their users and how we can mindfully incorporate the same techniques for training employees.

Dissecting The Hit Game Balatro: A Case Study in Game Psychology

A great example of a video game I’ve been playing a lot personally, is Balatro. Balatro masterfully blends sound, reward systems, and psychological engagement. Every small interaction, from gaining points to progressing, is paired with satisfying sound effects and animations. The repetition of these sounds that appear during scoring conditions the brain to find joy in even minor interactions that are part of the game.

• Music shifts dramatically upon failure, reinforcing the weight of losing and changing the vibe of the music.
• The soundtrack quickly restarts with a transition from the ‘game over screen’ soundtrack upon starting a new game, fueling the “one more try” loop.
• Losing can unlock new content, ensuring players always feel a sense of progress. After all, each session has to end somewhere.
• Feedback through sound and visuals makes even small actions feel rewarding.

These little features are all part of what makes Balatro’s gameplay loop so addicting for gamers, but when it comes to training employees, we don’t want them to be addicted.

We want them to be engaged and learning effectively, so how can we borrow some of the techniques used in gaming, to make small interactions more enjoyable and keeping users engaged for longer?

The Role of Sound Effects & Music in Gamified Training

Games use small, rewarding audio cues to reinforce habit formation. A well-timed sound effect can make even minor achievements feel meaningful. Background music can also shift emotions. Calm soundtracks help with onboarding, while intense music builds urgency during challenges.

• Sound effects provide instant gratification, reinforcing progress.
• Music sets the tone for different training scenarios.
• Well-placed audio cues can improve focus and engagement.
• Training simulations benefit from dynamic sound design to create immersion.

Below, I explore how the same techniques used in games like Balatro can actually be implemented in training and how they’ve been used in one of my favorite SHIIFT training solutions, James Hardie’s Jobsite Safety Training.

Music:

Music isn’t commonly seen in training, since most simulations focus their soundtracks fully on being immersive and so there’s not always room for music. In James Hardie’s Jobsite Safety Training, we use an ambient music style that plays ‘in the background’ via a radio that’s on the Job Site. In real life, not all job sites will allow music, but this was a way to include music which can help a lot with keeping users engaged in the training, while still being immersive as the sound comes from a radio on the Job Site.

It chooses between a selection different music tracks, and some curious users might have noticed they can actually click the radio to change the soundtrack choice.

Here’s an MP3 of me cycling between the different music soundtracks:

Sound Effects:

We use lots of sound effects in James Hardie’s Jobsite Safety Training, some are immersive sound effects, and some are interactive sound effects.

By that I mean, immersive sound effects that involve the sound of a vehicle’s engine, planks being put away, machinery and equipment being used, etc. A Job Site simulation should feel noisy and play the same sounds you’d expect to hear in a real Job Site, these sorts of sounds are to be expected in any decent simulation.

Interactive sound effects on the other hand are only triggered by the user’s interactions, the expected actions that a learner would take such as highlighting over an interactable animation, clicking the answer to a multiple choice question, or getting the answer wrong or right.

All these sound effects add a layer of depth to the user’s experience and have a huge impact on how engaged the user is that you can only really understand after directly comparing a flat, boring experience without sound effects, to one with sound effects.

Here’s a demonstration of some of James Hardie’s Jobsite Safety Training’s sound effects.

Animations:

Of course animations are used throughout the Job Site, and they would need to exist in a simulation, but how about using small animations for interactive elements, similar to Balatro and other successful video games.

In James Hardie’s Jobsite Safety Training, we use these animations for teleporting from location to location, user interface, selecting animated characters or objects, etc. These small animations are designed to have a minor yet satisfying experience throughout the learner’s experience in the application.

How Positive and Negative Feedback Shapes Learning in Training and Behaviors in the Real World

Behavioral psychology, particularly Skinner’s behaviorism, explains how reinforcement and punishment shape learning. In games, progress bars, score multipliers, and failure screens all influence motivation.

• Positive reinforcement (Congratulatory voiceovers, positive SFX for correct question answers, points, achievements, unlocks and associated animations and SFX) encourage repeated behaviors.
• Negative reinforcement (answering a safety question correctly to switch an unsafe animation into a safe animation, or performing tasks safely to avoid hazards) reinforce safe habits and following best practice.
• Constructive failure messages help learners see mistakes as learning opportunities.
• Structured feedback loops in training can improve retention and motivation.

In James Hardie’s Jobsite Safety Training, the sound effect for positive reinforcement sounds happy, for correct answers. The sound effect for wrong answers is more abrupt and blunt.

Correct:

Incorrect:

Why ‘Losing’ Can Be Just as Rewarding as Winning in Gamified Training

Many successful games use the concept of “losing forward,” ensuring players still feel progress even when they fail. Balatro, for example, allows players to unlock new content after a loss, making failure a stepping stone rather than a setback. This is a common concept particularly in roguelike games where the user is expected to fail a lot and continuously improve when they start from the beginning.

• Failure should feel like a learning opportunity, not punishment.
• Games like Balatro provide rewards after failure, such as unlockable content.
• Framing failure as progress fosters resilience and continuous learning.

In a gamified safety scenario, ‘losing’ can be as simple as getting a question incorrect, or getting too many incorrect and being scored a fail at the final results.

To encourage continuous learning, training systems can have unlockable content like badges allocated to a learner’s user profile to indicate they’ve gotten a good result in a specific learning topic such as Working at Height related risks. This could motivate learners to repeat the module again to earn the rest of the badges, and while doing so, the learning material they repeat sticks in their minds more effectively.

How Training Simulations Can Learn from Game Life & Death Mechanics

In video games, a “Game Over” screen isn’t necessarily discouraging—it often signals a chance to try again with new knowledge. This creates a loop where players learn from failure, refine their strategies, and improve.

• “Death” in games often means resetting and trying again, not actual loss. – In traditional eLearning, if it’s too boring this and you realise you didn’t pass the first time, it can be a dreadful thought that you may have to spend a long time on the training again.
• Creating a sense of progression, even after failure, keeps engagement high. – Unlockable content like badges, star rating on a modules, etc can be beneficial for competitive learners, or completionists who enjoy unlocking everything in an experience.

Instant vs. Delayed Gratification in Training

Instant rewards, such as sound cues and animations, keep learners engaged in the moment. However, long-term progress, such as unlocking new modules or earning certifications, provides lasting motivation. Gamified learning should balance both types of gratification to maintain engagement without overwhelming learners with too many immediate rewards.

• Micro-rewards (animations, sounds) keep learners motivated.
• Larger, long-term goals (badges, certificates, competitive victories) create a deeper sense of achievement.
• The right balance prevents distraction while maintaining engagement.

Ensuring Gamified Training Remains Productive & Engaging

Gamification should enhance learning, not distract from it. Engagement should never turn into addiction, and training should feel rewarding but not compulsive.

• Training should use game mechanics to encourage learning, not overindulgence.
• Reward systems should align with real-world skills and progress.
• Overuse of game elements can shift focus away from actual learning.
• The goal is to make training effective, not just entertaining.

But how do we ensure the training is used as a productive learning tool, and not a tool for escapism like video games tend to be?

It’s crucial strike a balance between incorporating fun elements as a secondary part of the training rather than the main goal. We need to create training with a hint of gamification, not video games with a hint of learning material.

This is simple for training developers, since they understand the core goals of a training module when they create it from the ground up, similar to game developers who understand that the core goal for their games is user enjoyment.

Closing Thoughts

Understanding video game psychology allows us to design better training experiences. By using well-placed feedback, sound effects, and failure mechanics, we can create training programs that feel rewarding without being distracting and without using any of the less healthy facets of video game psychology like addictive design.

The future of gamified learning lies in harnessing these principles while maintaining a strong focus on educational outcomes for employees.