This article explores how gamification can be applied to education to improve student motivation. An experience developed in a game design course, in which experience points, levels, badges and challenges were included, is presented to this end. The study took place during 2014 and 2015. To assess how gamification impacted the learning experience, a survey and subsequent interviews with the students were applied. Results show significant improvement in terms of attention to reference materials and proactivity They also suggest that this approach can help students score better.