Work hard, play hard: How linking rewards in games to prior exercise performance improves motivation and exercise intensity.

•Study of motivation, performance in pervasive accumulated context exergames (PACE).•Linking rewards in games to prior exercise appears to increase exercise performance.•Impact on motivational measures compared to rewarding with unlinked games varies.•First study to indicate positive measurable impact of the PACE concept.•Introduction and discussion of design dimensions for PACE.