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The Case of the Lost Linkers is an innovative Digital Educational Escape Room (DEER) Game designed to transform the learning of cohesive devices from a rule-based grammar exercise into an engaging and meaningful communication experience. The innovation addresses a persistent challenge among English as a Second Language (ESL) learners, who often struggle to connect ideas coherently despite years of formal English instruction. Traditional approaches frequently present linkers as isolated grammatical items, limiting learners’ ability to apply them effectively in authentic communication contexts. The game immerses learners in a detective-themed investigation in which they solve a mystery by analysing clues, completing challenges, and using appropriate linkers to communicate ideas clearly, justify their reasoning, and unlock subsequent stages. Unlike conventional grammar activities, The Case of the Lost Linkers integrates listening, reading, speaking, and writing tasks within a narrative-driven environment that promotes collaboration, critical thinking, and meaningful communication. Key features include interactive puzzles, contextualised language tasks, immediate feedback, progressive difficulty levels, and flexible implementation in face-to-face, blended, or online learning settings. Designed for secondary, pre-university, and higher education learners, the innovation supports both individual and collaborative learning. Evaluation involving 151 ESL learners revealed highly positive perceptions of its usefulness, ease of use, and learning effectiveness, with mean scores ranging from 4.34 to 4.69. The innovation demonstrates strong potential to enhance meaningful communication, learner engagement, and discourse competence while offering significant commercialisation opportunities through educational licensing, institutional subscriptions, teacher training programmes, and EdTech partnerships.