Angular 12: Event emitter is undefined

I am learning Angular (version 12.0.1, TypeScript 4.3.4) and cannot figure out why this event emitter is undefined. Any ideas?

The error message I get: ERROR TypeError: this.gameClick is undefined

.ts file:

import { Component, OnInit, Output, EventEmitter } from '@angular/core';

@Component({
  selector: 'app-game-control',
  templateUrl: './game-control.component.html',
  styleUrls: ['./game-control.component.scss']
})
export class GameControlComponent implements OnInit {
  gameInterval: number = 0;
  score: number = 0;

  @Output() gameClick: EventEmitter<any> = new EventEmitter<{ clicks: number }>();

  constructor() { }

  ngOnInit(): void {
  }

  emitEvent() {
    this.gameClick.emit({ clicks: this.score });
    this.score++;
  }

  startGame() {
    this.gameInterval = setInterval(this.emitEvent, 1000);
  }

  stopGame() {
    clearInterval(this.gameInterval);
  }
}

html file:

<div class="controls">
  <button
    class="btn-game"
    (click)="startGame()"
    >Start game</button>
  <button
    class="btn-game"
    (click)="stopGame()"
    >Stop game</button>
</div>

Change this function:

emitEvent() {
    this.gameClick.emit({ clicks: this.score });
    this.score++;
}

to

emitEvent = (): void => {
    this.gameClick.emit({ clicks: this.score });
    this.score++;
}