About Touko
Touko Tahkokallio is one of the rare designers who has mastered both tabletop and digital worlds. Starting out as a theoretical physicist, Touko shifted careers to follow his passion for play. First by designing acclaimed board games like Eclipse, then shaping some of the biggest mobile hits of all time at Supercell, including Hay Day, Boom Beach, and Brawl Stars. In 2022, he co-founded a mobile game studio Stellar Core which he is the chief creative officer.
In this episode, we explore the hidden value of juggling multiple projects, how to prototype without rules or components, and why a playful mindset is essential, especially when the work gets tough.
Ah-ha! Justin’s Takeaways
Don’t Take Yourself Too Seriously: Touko explains that the healthiest creative mindset comes from balance. Even when you’re working on something important, it helps to have other passions and routines that keep your identity from hinging on one project. When your sense of self isn’t tied to a single success or failure, you can experiment more freely and take creative risks with less fear.
Your Mind Is Your Best Playtest Tool: Before building anything, Touko runs through his designs mentally: testing systems, pacing, and player choices in his head. He calls this “mental playtesting” and it helps him to identify weak points early in the design process and saves hours of prototyping time. As designers, we should learn to slow down, imagine deeply, and pressure-test our ideas in our minds before bringing them to life.
Physics, Play, and Pattern Recognition: With a background in theoretical physics, Touko approaches game design as a study of systems and feedback loops. He sees design as an experiment where he’s observing player behavior, forming hypotheses, and refining the model. The lesson is simple but powerful: creativity born from disciplined curiosity. By studying how players react to your game, you gain the insight needed to understand what their experience truly is and that’s the key to ramping up the fun and making your game memorable and replayable.
Show Notes
“I really try to keep all my work as just a fun thing and hobby and as long as that works, I feel like I’m always in a good spot and there’s a lot of room for creativity and fun.” (00:07:49)
Touko talks about how creativity thrives when work feels like play. When your work becomes your identity, failure can feels personal, but when you approach it as a hobby, you stay flexible, resilient, and open to discovery. The most innovative ideas often come from those still having fun. At the same time, there’s a balance to strike: without deadlines or accountability, that same freedom can drift into complacency.
“If you can keep it in your head and really try to think about how it will play out, see all the possible outcomes and problems and what could be fun, what could be challenging—it helps you tremendously. You can kill many ideas, kill many mechanics already there.” (00:14:06)
Touko describes mental prototyping as one of the most valuable design skills you can build. Before cutting any components, he imagines how systems interact, what could break, and what might be fun. This mental simulation saves time and sharpens focus. By rigorously testing ideas in your head first, you can identify weak mechanics early and enter real playtesting with clarity and purpose.
“I think it’s easier to work on games where there’s a very simple core gameplay loop, and then you have a meta-system around it.” (00:42:35)
This is a great lesson for new designers, keeping the core gameplay loop simple is always the right answer, from there every componet or additional mechanics should support or expand on that core gameplay loop. This approach keeps games scalable and replayable, whether you’re building a tabletop title or a global digital hit.
“I want to test things as fast as possible to get some reads on them and do smaller testing rounds with limited players. Just send the builds to players and get their feedback.” (01:03:26)
Touko discusses the importance of fast, focused playtesting, something echoed by Elan Lee, creator of Exploding Kittens, in a previous episode. Rather than waiting for a perfect build, he runs small tests early to gather real player reactions. Watching how players behave (where they hesitate, smile, or lose focus) reveals more than any internal assumption ever could. The faster you get those signals, the faster you can adapt, improve, and uncover what truly makes your game fun.
