The growing interest in the use of digital games for education resulted in the expansion of the field of game-based learning. There have been several research on the perceptions and attitudes of students towards the use of games for learning. These studies have tried to understand what students make of the use of digital games for learning, as it is believed that the views of users and their acceptance of new technologies play a crucial role in ensuring successful outcomes. However, it is unclear whether there is any relationship between experiences, perceptions towards games and gameplay performance in a learning game. Understanding this relationship is important for game developers to effectively design and develop games, and for educators to be able to determine how to best deploy games for educational purposes. This study examines how the experiences and perceptions of engineering students towards digital games for engineering education influence their use and performance in a serious game called CosmiClean. Findings suggest that while students are enthusiastic about digital learning games, there was no relationship between their perceptions of games for learning and their gameplay performance. However, a relationship was found between the game experiences of students and their gameplay performance.