Why do I get this error when installing Pygame, and how can I fix it?

Question

I get this error downloading Pygame:

C:\Users\<USERNAME>\Desktop\stuff\Playground>pip install pygame
Collecting pygame
  Using cached pygame-2.1.2.tar.gz (10.1 MB)
  Preparing metadata (setup.py) ... error
  error: subprocess-exited-with-error

  × python setup.py egg_info did not run successfully.
  │ exit code: 1
  ╰─> [74 lines of output]


      WARNING, No "Setup" File Exists, Running "buildconfig/config.py"
      Using WINDOWS configuration...

      Traceback (most recent call last):
        File "<string>", line 2, in <module>
        File "<pip-setuptools-caller>", line 34, in <module>
        File "C:\Users\<USERNAME>\AppData\Local\Temp\pip-install-duqf4ri6\pygame_afbf8900edd144e7bffd76514f197ea9\setup.py", line 359, in <module>
          buildconfig.config.main(AUTO_CONFIG)
        File "C:\Users\<USERNAME>\AppData\Local\Temp\pip-install-duqf4ri6\pygame_afbf8900edd144e7bffd76514f197ea9\buildconfig\config.py", line 225, in main
          deps = CFG.main(**kwds)
        File "C:\Users\<USERNAME>\AppData\Local\Temp\pip-install-duqf4ri6\pygame_afbf8900edd144e7bffd76514f197ea9\buildconfig\config_win.py", line 511, in main
          return setup_prebuilt_sdl2(prebuilt_dir)
        File "C:\Users\<USERNAME>\AppData\Local\Temp\pip-install-duqf4ri6\pygame_afbf8900edd144e7bffd76514f197ea9\buildconfig\config_win.py", line 471, in setup_prebuilt_sdl2
          DEPS.configure()
        File "C:\Users\<USERNAME>\AppData\Local\Temp\pip-install-duqf4ri6\pygame_afbf8900edd144e7bffd76514f197ea9\buildconfig\config_win.py", line 336, in configure
          from . import vstools
        File "C:\Users\<USERNAME>\AppData\Local\Temp\pip-install-duqf4ri6\pygame_afbf8900edd144e7bffd76514f197ea9\buildconfig\vstools.py", line 11, in <module>
          compiler.initialize()
        File "C:\msys64\mingw64\lib\python3.9\distutils\msvccompiler.py", line 259, in initialize
          self.__paths = self.get_msvc_paths("path")
        File "C:\msys64\mingw64\lib\python3.9\distutils\msvccompiler.py", line 602, in get_msvc_paths
          r"\Win32 (%s)\Directories" % (self.__root, platform))
      AttributeError: 'MSVCCompiler' object has no attribute '_MSVCCompiler__root'
      Making dir :prebuilt_downloads:
      Downloading... https://www.libsdl.org/release/SDL2-devel-2.0.18-VC.zip ed561079ec622b0bab5a9e02976f5d540b0622da
      Unzipping :prebuilt_downloads\SDL2-devel-2.0.18-VC.zip:
      Downloading... https://www.libsdl.org/projects/SDL_image/release/SDL2_image-devel-2.0.5-VC.zip 137f86474691f4e12e76e07d58d5920c8d844d5b
      Unzipping :prebuilt_downloads\SDL2_image-devel-2.0.5-VC.zip:
      Downloading... https://www.libsdl.org/projects/SDL_ttf/release/SDL2_ttf-devel-2.0.15-VC.zip 1436df41ebc47ac36e02ec9bda5699e80ff9bd27
      Unzipping :prebuilt_downloads\SDL2_ttf-devel-2.0.15-VC.zip:
      Downloading... https://www.libsdl.org/projects/SDL_mixer/release/SDL2_mixer-devel-2.0.4-VC.zip 9097148f4529cf19f805ccd007618dec280f0ecc
      Unzipping :prebuilt_downloads\SDL2_mixer-devel-2.0.4-VC.zip:
      Downloading... https://www.pygame.org/ftp/jpegsr9d.zip ed10aa2b5a0fcfe74f8a6f7611aeb346b06a1f99
      Unzipping :prebuilt_downloads\jpegsr9d.zip:
      Downloading... https://pygame.org/ftp/prebuilt-x64-pygame-1.9.2-20150922.zip 3a5af3427b3aa13a0aaf5c4cb08daaed341613ed
      Unzipping :prebuilt_downloads\prebuilt-x64-pygame-1.9.2-20150922.zip:
      copying into .\prebuilt-x64
      Path for SDL: prebuilt-x64\SDL2-2.0.18
      ...Library directory for SDL: prebuilt-x64/SDL2-2.0.18/lib/x64
      ...Include directory for SDL: prebuilt-x64/SDL2-2.0.18/include
      Path for FONT: prebuilt-x64\SDL2_ttf-2.0.15
      ...Library directory for FONT: prebuilt-x64/SDL2_ttf-2.0.15/lib/x64
      ...Include directory for FONT: prebuilt-x64/SDL2_ttf-2.0.15/include
      Path for IMAGE: prebuilt-x64\SDL2_image-2.0.5
      ...Library directory for IMAGE: prebuilt-x64/SDL2_image-2.0.5/lib/x64
      ...Include directory for IMAGE: prebuilt-x64/SDL2_image-2.0.5/include
      Path for MIXER: prebuilt-x64\SDL2_mixer-2.0.4
      ...Library directory for MIXER: prebuilt-x64/SDL2_mixer-2.0.4/lib/x64
      ...Include directory for MIXER: prebuilt-x64/SDL2_mixer-2.0.4/include
      Path for PORTMIDI: prebuilt-x64
      ...Library directory for PORTMIDI: prebuilt-x64/lib
      ...Include directory for PORTMIDI: prebuilt-x64/include
      DLL for SDL2: prebuilt-x64/SDL2-2.0.18/lib/x64/SDL2.dll
      DLL for SDL2_ttf: prebuilt-x64/SDL2_ttf-2.0.15/lib/x64/SDL2_ttf.dll
      DLL for SDL2_image: prebuilt-x64/SDL2_image-2.0.5/lib/x64/SDL2_image.dll
      DLL for SDL2_mixer: prebuilt-x64/SDL2_mixer-2.0.4/lib/x64/SDL2_mixer.dll
      DLL for portmidi: prebuilt-x64/lib/portmidi.dll
      Path for FREETYPE not found.
      ...Found include dir but no library dir in prebuilt-x64.
      Path for PNG not found.
      ...Found include dir but no library dir in prebuilt-x64.
      Path for JPEG not found.
      ...Found include dir but no library dir in prebuilt-x64.
      DLL for freetype: prebuilt-x64/SDL2_ttf-2.0.15/lib/x64/libfreetype-6.dll

      ---
      For help with compilation see:
          https://www.pygame.org/wiki/CompileWindows
      To contribute to pygame development see:
          https://www.pygame.org/contribute.html
      ---

      [end of output]
  
  note: This error originates from a subprocess, and is likely not a problem with pip.
error: metadata-generation-failed

× Encountered error while generating package metadata.
╰─> See above for output.

note: This is an issue with the package mentioned above, not pip.
hint: See above for details.

The error apparently said that the problem wasn't with pip, it was with the module itself. I'm using the Python interpreter 3.10.9 on VS Code. I'm downloading it using VS Code's integrated terminal.

How can I fix this error?

I tried doing "pip install pygame --pre" and got the same results.