🎮 Why I Make Video Games When I'm Bored (or Burned Out)
Sometimes I open my laptop with no real agenda. No startup pitch. No product roadmap. No client spec. Just a blank canvas and a vague feeling that I need to make something move. And more often than not, that “something” becomes a little game.
Not for release.
Not for likes.
Just for me.
Dopamine in 2D
There’s something deeply satisfying about stitching together pixels, logic, and interactions in real time. I drag a sprite across the screen and boom — dopamine. I wire up some simple rules, add a character, and suddenly I’m not in my apartment anymore — I’m in a tiny world I made from scratch.
It’s like coding therapy.
Game dev gives me the feeling of progress without pressure. It scratches the same itch that launching products does, but in a more playful, forgiving way. There’s no “founder stress” or “what if it flops” anxiety — because the point isn’t success.
The point is to feel better.
To have fun building something small and complete.
To remind myself that I can still create things for joy.
Build Small, Feel Big
One of the games I made recently (see screenshot below) is basically just a grid system with a few interactions — but I loved every second of it. No ads, no signups, no business model. Just movement, color, sound, and logic.
It helps me reset.
And weirdly, those “just for fun” projects often teach me the most about interaction design, flow, and playfulness. Lessons I bring back to my client work, product launches, and $99 MVPs.
Make Stuff That Feels Good
If you’re a founder, dev, or builder feeling stuck or burned out, I have a simple suggestion:
Build something that doesn’t matter.
Make a tool nobody asked for. A game you’ll never ship. A weird little experiment that breaks halfway through but teaches you something.
Because sometimes the best ideas — and the best feelings — come when there’s nothing on the line.
And if you do want help building your next thing (fun or functional), I ship $99 rapid builds at gmcarl.xyz.
✨ Thanks for reading.
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— Carl
