What makes a journaling game a game and not just journaling prompts?
There are plenty of people out there that would look at even the most gamified journaling game and say “It’s just prompts.” How do I ensure that there is still a game in there? (For the sake of this thought experiment, I am ignoring the answer “You don’t need to. It can just be prompts.”)
If I think that the act of losing, it is probably less fun than the act of winning. However, losing is still more fun than playing a game that guarantees winning. This leaves the possibility of losing as being the key. If I can keep the threat of losing in a game, but still have it be a game that the player will probably win, will that create the most fun for the most players?