Like many other scientific theories, teaching biological evolution involves two fundamental challenges. First, the theoretical conceptualization is complex and includes many mathematical and genetic models. Second, timeframes required by biological models to demonstrate evolutionary processes make it challenging to visualize and understand them, especially in the context of introductory courses (e.g., high school, first-year undergraduates). Typical approaches to this challenge include simple narratives of events and evidence to get the students to grasp the basic idea that evolution exists. Alternatively, the evolution class is included later in the programs when students have been more exposed to natural sciences and biology information. Unfortunately, this late arrival of evolutionary theory study may leave some students to rely on intuition and even ideas unsupported by scientific evidence. As an alternative, game-based learning allows for a different approach to engage students of any level. However, game-based strategies may be stigmatized as tools to learn scientific theories under the assumption of a trivialized version of complex phenomena. Here, I propose strategies involving play and experimentation to achieve the appropriation of concepts with a learning-by-doing approach. These strategies rely on accessible material, becoming easy to implement in any school or university around the globe. This work collects more than 15 years of experience using games to bring students closer to theoretical concepts challenging to acquire from evolutionary theories (e.g., natural selection, genetic drift, or phylogeny). Notably, while focusing on students majoring in natural sciences (biology and earth system sciences), I also include experiences with a student from other disciplines. The systematization of this process includes interviews with students who inquired about crucial concepts before and after the experience and with participants that subsequently used these concepts in their advanced courses in biology or other natural sciences. The research indicates that the implemented games fostered an understanding of the theory developed general thinking skills, and are efficient tools for learning complex topics such as vicariance or evolutionary convergence. Remarkably, these results have proven to be replicable and support a central role of gamification to address issues in genetics, ecology, or socio-ecological systems, without compromising the rigor with which scientific theories support them should be addressed.