Design-based learning (DBL) is gaining increasing acceptance as a motivating and practical approach that can be used to prepare young people for the challenges of the twenty-first century. Emotions are known to influence a student's academic performance in traditional learning, which raises the question as to what role emotions can play in DBL. This article presents a systematic survey of literature published in the last 20 years (searching from 1998 to 2019) and indexed in the Scopus, ERIC, and PsycINFO databases which contribute to our understanding of children's emotions in DBL. This review coded a total of 34 papers that met the inclusion criteria. Findings that reported on children's emotions are structured under three themes: (1) the affective DBL components, (2) the labeled emotions, and (3) the impact of emotions in DBL. Based on this evidence, we make recommendations for future research and compile a set of guidelines for designing DBL activities, taking into account students' emotions that can aid their learning.