Meet Arnold Rauers, founder of Tinytouchtales

If you’re a fan of card-based games, you’ve probably come across Arnold Rauer’s collection before. From the solitaire-style Card Crawl to the tactical hit Guncho, Rauers’ games have captivated millions of players with their innovative mechanics, quirky art styles , and strategic gameplay.

We had the chance to chat with Rauers about his development process, inspirations, and the people that make up his ever-shifting team atTinyTouchtales.

Arnold Rauers: I’ve always been passionate about games, but never imagined being able to make them myself with no formal coding background. Around 2011, I discovered Stencyl: a visual‐programming engine where you snap together logic blocks instead of writing code. It was an incredible introduction to game development that taught me the fundamentals of design and programming.

A few years later, once I’d gained confidence, I transitioned to traditional text‐based engines. Coding still isn’t my strongest suit, but modern engines have become so user‐friendly that even non‐programmers can bring their ideas to life.

I stumbled into mobile games almost by accident. After earning my degree in Communication Design, I started doing graphic design and animation for a Berlin-based studio. Soon after I realized that I could build my own projects– around 2012, I began working under the alias TinyTouchtales in my spare time. Juggling two full-time roles quickly led to burnout, so in 2014 I took the plunge and went fully independent.

I knew I couldn’t handle art and studio alone, so I pitched my rough prototypes to artists whose work I admired. Over the years, this model of small, rotating teams has proven to be hugely successful; collaborating with top-tier talent continually sparks fresh ideas and elevates my games.

Growing up in Germany during the ’90s, my family played a lot of physical card and board games. I’ve always admired the elegance of their design. Combining tactile card interactions with digital possibilities felt like a natural fit for mobile: digital platforms let you automate rules, randomize layouts, and introduce emergent gameplay in ways that physical decks can’t.

I’m endlessly fascinated by how simple systems can yield vast, replayable experiences, especially through procedural or rogue-like elements that keep each session fresh.

As a small developer, constraints often shape what I focus on next– but if time and resources weren’t an issue, I’d love to try my hand at a FPS. That’s another genre I really enjoy as a player.

Fantasy has been a lifelong preference. I read Tolkien as a kid, and loved games like Moonstone and Diablo II. The genre’s established tropes make it easy to convey mood and mechanics quickly, which is invaluable for smaller experiences or mobile games. That said, I’m open to exploring other genres in future projects– sci-fi, for instance.

I distinguish between execution difficulty and rule complexity. My games typically feature deep, intricate rules, but simple controls. Naturally that narrows my audience, but I believe that the payoff justifies that niche.