This study examines how student-led game creation can serve as a transformative pedagogical model for integrating the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) into vocational education. Drawing on a semester-long, project-based course in a Chinese vocational university, the research investigates how designing educational games shaped students' creativity, collaboration, critical thinking, global awareness, and digital agency. Adopting a qualitative case study approach, we analysed reflection journals, project artifacts, peer evaluations, and group interviews through thematic analysis. Findings show that the process of designing games—rather than consuming them—enabled students to engage deeply with complex sustainability issues, negotiate ethical tensions, and develop systems thinking. Students shifted from passive learners to active creators, expressing a sense of authorship, civic responsibility, and collaborative ownership. The digital learning platform played a critical role in scaffolding this transition by facilitating reflection, co-creation, and iterative feedback. We argue that game creation, when situated within a structured, SDG-focused design task, fosters transversal competencies central to 21st-century vocational learning. The study contributes to emerging debates on design-based pedagogy, global competence, and transformative education in applied learning contexts. © 2025 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
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