What making a game taught me

I set out to make “The Pentacle of Happiness” in order to become a happier person. It’s a trainer for balancing the areas of life: it helps you practise the skill of holding the balance and teaches you not to collapse into a single aspect while ignoring all the others. And that task, in my view, is done. Over the three months I spent making this game, I lived through yet another age-and-worldview crisis — and I clearly see that without the game it would have been harder.

“The Pentacle of Happiness” rescued me both as a balance trainer and as an outlet for my creative energy. And in some cases as a way to strengthen my social and even family relationships. Not to mention a substantial contribution to my résumé (work!) and to my self-respect.

I also had some insights tied directly to making games, which I want to put on record in this post. Having made my own game, I realised: a game isn’t about the story, the mechanics or the art. All of that matters, but only as an addition to deeper things.

A good game has to steer the player’s attention and emotions. It needs a balance — not entirely transparent, but intuitively clear — between what the player can fully control, what they can’t control, and what they can control only partly, gradually gaining more agency. It must have a core idea: dynamic enough not to grow stale, yet not rigidly static, or the game quickly becomes boring. And it has to give a person vivid emotions. Not always good ones, but always vivid.

In short, a game should be like life :)

Right now I’m thinking about a third mode for “The Pentacle”, and also about a completely different game. So all these insights of a beginning game designer are gathering in this blog for a reason. They’re the foundation for what I’ll build next.