by Rafael Verri

The Origin

Igor Knop: In early 2020, my co-designer André Teruya was in full swing with our game Àiyé, which was entering its final stages of theme and iconography adjustments after almost two years of testing and refinements.

Since we were always 900km apart, our daily communication was through WhatsApp. The only way to describe the level of communication and the sheer volume of information exchanged is to say I practically had a mental link with André and he with me. It was images, photos, sketches, prototypes, personal conversations, and stories from our family lives. In one of those chats, there was a tile game in which you built paths with tiles and used a pawn to collect more tiles, something in the style of Patchwork.

At a certain moment, André looked at the system and asked: "What if it were track-building?" That caught my attention immediately. The concept of "move the pawn and resolve the effect of the space you stop on" is so simple. The possibility of making a game in which you move along a track while altering the track itself instantly captured my interest — especially because of its direct parallel with the most famous model in computing: the Turing Machine. Without realizing it, I was entering one of the best experiences I've had with game development.


André Teruya: The beginning of the project came from experimenting with the track. So many games feature this mechanism, often highlighting progression or acting as a facilitator for other elements and mechanisms to shine.

In a way, we understood that the track usually played a supporting role, and it seemed like a good attempt to explore it as the core mechanism of a game.

Knop and I had already gone through a dense and enriching process with another game, Àiyé, which encouraged us to experiment with another continuously evolving mechanism. If in Àiyé the focus was on building a continuous mancala, in this new project we turned completely to the track.

We analyzed some games, and Reiner Knizia's Keltis was particularly interesting. Its track movement drew our attention and served as an initial inspiration as it created a chain between movement and bonus actions.


A Simple First Theme

Knop: In the version that accompanied us for the next years of social isolation, the theme was "garatujas" — that is, scribbles, the drawings we humans make in childhood while developing language. Those who wanted a light game to warm up their brains but not burn them out would be satisfied. Those who wanted to fry their brains and jump at their friends' throats would also find their space. The possibility of handing the game to players and letting them decide how they wanted to play with it was cool.

Teruya: Thematically, in the beginning the tracks featured tiles with children's scribbles, simplistic graphic elements like sun, umbrella, moon, etc. We called it "Garatujas", but the focus was really on the mechanisms.

Choosing a theme with children's drawings helped us understand the whole picture in the sense of a continuously built panel that generated a certain enchantment. Garatujas are representations made by children up to around three years old, showing continuous lines like circles and uninterrupted drawings.

The simple symbols — like moon, heart, car, and cloud, among others — allowed anyone to quickly understand what each thing did. No need to read text or memorize complex icons; it was enough to say: "Landed on the heart, do this; stopped on the car, trigger the moon."


This clarity was helpful in testing, and combos came naturally at different scales. New players would join, and within minutes, they were already planning moves just by visually "reading" the board.

Playtests with new players showed that this initial simplicity was on the right path since the track itself became both the base rule and something self-explanatory. Combos always sparked joy and interest, leading players to realize that the choice of the next tile was crucial for their personal board's progression.

About the Track

Knop: For this track-building idea, we started playing around with using classic wooden pawns, too — taking a common subsystem that often appears as a side element in games and turning it into the main course.

The rule was simple: On your turn, you move a pawn. Beautiful! Having several pawns and tracks would give variation, and we could make the tracks influence each other, granting more moves. At that time, we were in a lighter, more "good vibes" mindset. We wanted to keep the game minimalist so that anyone could enjoy tinkering with the little machine they had built.

Teruya: We started with the idea that on their turn a player would take only one action: choose a track along which to advance. Advancing along a track had two aspects. First, by moving forward, you were building for the future. Second, the track movement itself could activate other tracks, which generated an interesting synergy.


From the beginning, the premise was always the same: aiming for simplicity that could generate emergent complexity. This "build and trigger" system was all there, only disguised in a scenario of scattered icons.

We focused on making each move matter since that significant choice could trigger both short- and long-term strategies. That was our concern from the start.

At some point, our editor pointed out that the moving tracks resembled a rondel under construction since the pieces always returned to the beginning of their specific track, circularly and continuously. The idea of a rondel made of interconnected tracks being gradually built seemed interesting and elegant to us.


A New Theme Emerges

Knop: When André suggested changing the theme to kokeshi, it felt like it had always been there, maybe because the nature of track-building evoked the process of continuous improvement — something we use when learning to write, or that artisans use to improve their craft. Maybe because of the need to observe what holds value for the client and adapt to provide the best. Or even to avoid wasted effort in unnecessary moves or stockpiling.


The concept was all there, and André uncovered it with a visual image that defined what the game would become during the process of finding a publisher, with the concept later brilliantly realized by Ellie Horie's brushwork and Daniel de Lucca's graphic design.

Teruya: As we realized the mechanisms had solidified, we also understood that the garatujas theme wouldn't hold as a final product. We needed something more cohesive, connecting all the tracks within the same universe and with visual and narrative appeal.


That's when the Japanese kokeshi dolls entered the picture. Kokeshi are traditional Japanese wooden dolls with strong cultural and artistic value.

Once we had this idea, we realized they were perfect: They feature great diversity of types and characters, which could be represented along the tracks. This gave us a way to tie together a visual progression of "assembling" a productive sequence across the tracks, which felt compelling.


From Game to Product

Rafael Verri: My role as editor was to see beyond the prototype. The game already worked and was already fun, but it wouldn't hold up as a product in the "scribbles" format. We needed something that gave identity and personality to the tracks. It was important to preserve the lightness and improvisation, but within a universe that was instantly recognizable and appealing.


At that point, we started exploring possible thematic directions, and when kokeshi appeared as an option, everything clicked: simple shapes, artisanal tradition, clear visual progression, and above all, enormous aesthetic potential.

The biggest challenge was to not lose the soul of the original prototype. On the path from scribbles to Japanese dolls, it would have been easy for the game to become "too serious" or "too complex". Our goal was to maintain lightness, clarity, and spontaneity, now wrapped in a theme that highlighted all of that.


And I believe we succeeded. When I see Kokeshi today, I feel the final product preserves that spirit of scribbling and improvising, but now enveloped in a visual and cultural identity that gives meaning and warmth to the experience.

Kokeshi was born from children's doodles, turned into Japanese dolls, and finally became a product we can proudly place in players' hands. Most importantly, we made sure to include this in the rulebook itself: Kokeshi is a game to make you happy.