My job has no clear career path. No school lessons teach it, and no training course or study program prepares for it. Yet people still do this job! I am a game designer. I regularly get asked how I started out. There are about as many reasons as there are game designers, but my top three are:

1. I love numbers and patterns

2. I search for order in life’s chaos

3. I consider play a worthwhile activity

I’m always thinking (almost) about games.
When I go for a walk, while driving, while looking at patterns on a tiled floor, observing falling or rolling objects – a new game can lurk anywhere. At the earliest hint of an idea, I get hooked, infatuated, lost.
I make notes and calculations; I sketch and create things. I test the early prototypes, abandon game rules and start over. I carry on… until the final round when my play testers say “again!” That’s the ultimate compliment for any game designer! It’s often a long road to the final game version, but I avidly follow it every time.

I love my job.

Krastel, May 2015

Steffen Mühlhäuser