This study looks into students' motivation and engagement after playing a virtual escape room game based on the Matrices topic. Data was obtained from 24 respondents who were Diploma students enrolled in an Engineering Mathematics course at a polytechnic in northern Malaysia using a pre-experimental, one-group post-test research design. Genially was used to create the virtual escape room game, which included the escape room framework, game characteristics, and ARCS motivational model. Students' perceived motivation was assessed using a 20-item adapted Instructional Materials Motivation Survey (IMMS) questionnaire, while their perceived engagement with the Matrices topic virtual escape room game was assessed using a 16-item adapted engagement questionnaire. According to the findings, incorporating a virtual escape room game into learning a Matrices topic can have a beneficial impact on students' perceived motivation and engagement. According to the questionnaire, attention has the greatest motivating rating among the four subscales in the ARCS model, where the introduction of the virtual escape room game attracts students the most. Despite the fact that the students have never used a virtual escape room before, they love the exercise for the most part because they all agree that it is quite engaging. This research gives teachers, course designers, and instructional designers a general idea of how to use virtual escape rooms as an online pedagogical tool to make students more motivated, interested, and engaged in learning.

virtual escape room; virtual escape room game; gamification; game-based learning; perceived motivation; perceived engagement