Interactive craft simulation and immediate procedural performance in intangible cultural heritage learning

Learning intangible cultural heritage (ICH) crafts requires more than recognizing symbols or recalling historical context. Learners also need to understand ordered, error-sensitive procedures and the feedback loops through which craft knowledge becomes usable. This study examined a serious game for Siqian woodblock New Year print as an interactive procedural simulation and compared it with content-matched video instruction. Using an MDA-ARCS design rationale, the game translated craft stages into mechanics, dynamics, and aesthetic cues intended to support Attention, Relevance, Confidence, and Satisfaction. In a posttest-only controlled experiment, 83 undergraduate design students were assigned to a serious-game condition (N = 41) or a video condition (N = 42). The game group reported higher post-intervention scores on all four ARCS dimensions. No statistically significant conceptual-knowledge difference was detected (p = .085; 95% CI for the mean difference [-0.38, 5.85]); this result does not establish equivalence between conditions. The game group scored higher on procedural knowledge. The formal procedural-minus-conceptual contrast was positive but marginal (p = .069, 95% CI [-0.34, 8.76]). Thus, the study documents a procedural-score advantage but provides only conditional, inconclusive evidence that the game selectively benefited procedural rather than conceptual knowledge. The study therefore interprets MDA-ARCS at the level of intervention design and knowledge outcomes at the level of the administered items.