Serious games (SGs) offer an engaging format for teaching industrial engineering (IE) methodologies. IE methodologies involve people following a process in a set of conditions to design, improve and install systems, which are easily scripted into gameplay. The scholarship has proposed co-design approaches for teachers and SG designers. However, teachers are not always ready to engage, and designers can readily create SG elements rapidly alone. We propose a co-design framework to distinguish their roles and four tools for them to better embed relevant expertise in the SG design process. A first tool is a domain decomposition model, which helps teachers create the knowledge repository for an IE methodology. Then, a specification vector is provided to define clear learning objectives. The third tool is a mapping table that inspires designers building gaming elements based on the learning objectives. The final tool is a verification table that helps check whether the learning experience offered by a SG is aligned with its learning objectives. A game on innovation management was designed that adopts the co-design framework. It was tested in three sessions with 23 players, resulting in a playful learning experience.