Building blocks for creating enjoyable games—A systematic literature review

•Game design elements that improve player enjoyment in games are presented in the article as a result of the systematic review.•A well-rounded understanding of game design elements and their relationships is paramount to design enjoyable games.•Literature reports on instruments to assess individual game design elements, and determine their respective influence on player enjoyment.•The use of standardised instruments is highly recommended to facilitate analysis and comparison between studies.•GWAP study for linguistics shows that the GDE adds interaction to linguistic tasks, preventing them from becoming monotonous.