The present proposition is based on the EGRESS project (Educational Game about Randomness and Evolution for Students in Science), and is interested in the first step of the design of a game to promote teaching and learning of challenging concepts in science education: the theory of evolution and the concept of randomness. The game is part of a teaching resource for lower secondary school teachers so they can engage students (aged 12-15) to manipulate three sub-concepts of randomness - chance (or fortuitous event), random probability, and contingency - in order to understand evolutionary processes. The communication is addressing the foundations of the design of such an educational resource and is based on the idea that prior knowledge influences the act of learning. This is particularly relevant for the specific case of teaching and learning the concepts of biological evolution and randomness, where a number of studies identify students believes that can stand as obstacles to learning. Using a quantitative approach with a questionnaire addressed to 1634 students in 10 lower secondary schools in France, we highlight that the students have difficulties recognising various forms of randomness and linking them to a Darwinian understanding of evolution. These results are used to discuss the gamification of the content to engage students to manipulate the different concepts of randomness and evolution in a game. This research, tackling an interdisciplinary concept such as randomness along with biological evolution, has potential to develop a non-deterministic view of science and promote critical thinking.