Software process improvement is a topic of interest that permeates the processes of different economic sectors. One of the most relevant process improvement methodologies is Lean-Agile for software development, which is a pertinent topic in the training of professionals in Software Engineering. One of the challenges still to be solved associated with the training of professionals in this topic is the high theoretical component and the level of abstraction required. Nevertheless, since gamification promotes motivation and commitment by including game elements in training contexts, it has been identified that it is possible to teach the principles of Lean-Agile for software development from the simulation called “House of Cards” which aims to stimulate the knowledge of Lean principles throughout during six iterations in teams of four members. This work's objective is to conduct a quasi-experiment that facilitated the measurement of the motivation of the participants exposed to this simulation in a training environment in Software Engineering. This paper reports the results collected from a motivation measurement instrument. From the results, it is possible to infer that the level of motivation in the participants is high, according to the perception measured by the instrument used. This work corroborates the relationship between motivation and the inclusion of innovative training strategies, such as gamification in Software Engineering professionals. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2024.