About Sami Liukka
Hello, users! I'm Sami.
1982
I was born. The haunts were at a little dusty mining town of Outokumpu, Finland. My family unit was modest. Our early childhood was colored with interests in nature, space, drawing, and video games. We lived surrounded by wilderness, in a house our father built for us.
1980s
Nearby our house, there was an ant's nest where my brother and I brought other insects for the ants; just to see how they battle against each other. At home, we drew. It had to be my favorite hobby. Around these times, I got the chance to play video games for the first time when my friend's family bought an Atari 2600.
1990s
Right at the beginning of the decade, in our school, there was a PC (MS-DOS), which we used not only just for playing games but also for modding games. Our friends had been getting microcomputers with their home TVs, so I logged more hours with Commodore 64, NES, Amiga 500, and others. I was extremely happy to get to experience playing those spectacular video games on all these devices.
We also played commercial tabletop games, and later designed and crafted our own from cardboard, and played with them with my brother.
After our family moved to a bit bigger town, Kuopio, our mom bought us a brand new Sony PlayStation console, which pretty much recalibrated my interest in video games. At the kitchen table, we often played Magic: The Gathering, and sometimes (Advanced) Dungeons & Dragons. I used to spend a little time exploring the Internet at the local youth center.
2000s
After I gloriously entered the work life in 2003, I started as a face-to-face sales representative (in mobile subscriptions), with record sales, got a tiny mobile and electronics store to run, and then transferred to business-to-business sales (websites and early CMS systems). As a side project, I built one of my first websites and made my first Internet money via black hat SEO techniques. It felt surreal to go to the bank and redeem that paper cheque for my first online $100 earned.
I co-founded my first company in 2005 in market research, and it was the start of my entrepreneurship. After I moved to Helsinki, I got awarded a regional Young Entrepreneur of the Year award in 2009. Worked on confidential and sometimes special access projects, with companies that are responsible for critical weapons, space, and defense functions for NASA and the U.S. Government, like manufacturing nuclear arsenal and taking astronauts to the Moon.
2010s
At the beginning of the 2010s, I co-founded a classified ads platform in Sweden (which later became the #3 in the market). After that, I restarted my childhood passion for drawing game worlds and original characters. I moved to Espoo. Then my game plans started to move forward. Around 2013, I started practicing with my first video game development projects with a team, and drawing low-resolution pixel art. In 2016, I founded my first game studio, for which I built an experienced game development team. Along the years, after pitching my idea by email to thousands of investors, including several high-profile people like Kimbal Musk, we raised over €2 million in capital. I also started advising other startup companies.
2020s
My first commercial game was released in 2020, and a couple of years after that, I joined a Finnish-Chinese Record-to-Earn gaming platform. Eventually, I continued with my own projects, ideating and prototyping a few old / some new game concepts. I assembled a few development teams and worked with some great game concepts. Then, in 2025, I dug up some of my old pixel graphics from a folder and started reworking on an older game idea. We successfully accessed a games incubation program in 2026, and I partnered with a coder/co-founder/co-designer to work side-by-side on our Summer Dungeon game concept.
My Journal
Our long-term game project is finally starting off (2026 May)
This game project started well over a decade ago, in 2012, to be exact. I felt an inner fire and a drive to start making a game. My goal wasn't to develop many different games. But one game. Into which I could pour the deepest corners of my imagination. I felt a strong urge to make my vision come alive. I sketched characters, imagined stories, and drew worlds. Now I have a coder/co-founder/co-designer, Tuomas, working side-by-side with me. This path had changed my life. This is where I'm coming from - may I present, Summer Dungeon?
I stepped aside (2022 August)
Time, I told you so. I was in a constant capital-raising mode for the last years. And in the recent times, I've been in a furious innovation mode, trying to get to the next level. But not at any point could I get into a stage where I could have started capitalizing on my game development or artist skills. What I have on the table was clearly paper-thin. And I feel these walls are constraining. I'm unable to push through with my new, fledgling ideas...
Got funding for my game idea (2016 September)
We had just pivoted to this collectible card game concept. We're in the corner of this murky bar. Our presence is heavy. Glancing above the crowd, an investor who wanted to meet has decided to come sit with us. I take the three copies of the long, maze-like structured Shareholder Agreements (SHA) that we founders sign. And after that, the Adherence Agreement, the Subscription Agreement for the investment amount, were all signed. This marks the beginning of a journey... of Heavyweight Rex. [The graphics (c) our team's artist].
Working as an artist on my game project (2015 July)
It always happens at the end of the summer when the air is hottest. The temperature presses my mind. It's ubiquitous, per se. I've been working sweaty on various worlds, ideas, and characters in my game concept(s) over the recent years. Just recently, I got a motivational drive to recruit a team. The game has a name. Pixel graphics feels like my thing and a passion.
It's my 30th birthday (2012 October)
I've just lost the firm I was working for so hard for the last 7 years. I wasn't able to grow, to renew, to innovate. I was still stuck with my life and things. My vision is black. I can hear the vast and endless cogwheels of the monetary system turning for the planet. Everything is connected. This... this is my vision.
Incorporated my first business (2005 June)
Today, our company has been registered in the Finnish trade register. 'European Contact Center United', or Eccu - let's try (Finnish: yrittäjä = yritetään!)... This shall mark the start of a completely new kind of chapter; one way or another, we shall make it. I believe.
Designed a collectible card game (1994)
The techno-gothic world was a creation from my brother and I, and it combines elements of humans, weapons/technology, mutant creatures, and religion, and it has been something that interests me.
Started my school journey (1988)
Started my immersive journey in the schooling system at the "Departing" Elementary School (Finnish: Lähtevän koulu). This is the place to be. The pic was taken here, on the first school day with my double agent.
Chernobyl disaster (1986)
One of my earliest memories is from April 1986, when our family was gathered around the television, watching a Finnish news report about the Chernobyl Reactor No. 4 meltdown in the Soviet Union. I was too small to understand the details, which was something about a faraway explosion and radiation spreading through the air – but the atmosphere at home was something I still can remember.
I was born (1982)
My whimsical soul took form in the circuitry, and then I was born together with my double agent in the enigmatic year of 1982. Things looked pretty retro here, just the way I liked it. Hometown Outokumpu was the perfect place to start my journey.