Can a game capture an emotion or desire? With Inner Compass, players navigate the turbulent world of their feelings to achieve their life goals. We talk to the designers about boarding an emotional rollercoaster

A GAME OF LIFE

Words by James Winspear

Life, it has often been remarked, is complicated. To quote Rick and Morty’s venerable Mr. Meeseeks, many people often find themselves “born into this world, fumbling for meaning”, with no clear conception of what their purpose is or what they want out of their oh-so-fleeting existence. How a life should be lived is something that has been pondered over for millennia by philosophers. What can one do when faced with this vast existential quandary? Why, make a game about it, of course!

WHAT’S IT ALL ABOUT, ANYWAY?

The purpose of Inner Compass is to find and ultimately achieve your personal life goals, all before the other players do. The game comes to the tabletop courtesy of Asger Granerud and Daniel Pedersen, a veteran game designing duo behind titles like Deep Blue, Copenhagen and Bloomtown, amongst others. Fittingly enough for a game about journeys, their partnership in boardgames design began as a result of a car trip back from a games convention. The two had first met through a shared interest in climbing (“we’re in Denmark,” explains Granerud, “where the highest place is a hill 170 metres above sea level – so we opted for indoor climbing!”), though they decided to work together after returning from Essen 2013. The two had travelled to the convention to show off their own designs independently, but ended up sharing a car ride on the way back. To pass the time (and to keep each other awake behind the wheel) they started spitballing ideas for a game, an exercise that eventually resulted in their first published collaborative title, 13 Days: The Cuban Missile Crisis. Several projects later, and the pair came across the basic idea that would become Inner Compass. For this, they started from a mechanical rather than a thematic standpoint.