DEVELOPER STORIES

Games simply don’t get cozier than Hello Kitty Island Adventure, a wholesome open-world adventure in which players help restore an island to its former glory by solving mysteries, spreading kindness, and exploring long-lost corners of the Sanrio universe.

The second title by the Boulder-based studio Sunblink, Hello Kitty Island Adventure is full of adorable characters, regular content drops, more than a few self-aware winks to its fan base, and a visual style that makes it pop on tvOS, says chief product officer Chelsea Howe.

“The game is really pretty on iPhone. It’s stunning on Apple TV,” says Howe (who, it should be noted, is currently seated in front of a significant collection of Cinnamoroll merch). “The animations, the music, the sound effects — Apple TV is the best place to experience it.”

We said hello to Howe, director of marketing Logan Beru, and vice president of operations Nicky Britt to indulge our curiosity about partnering with Sanrio, unearthing forgotten Hello Kitty lore, and the big challenges of reviving a character named (checks notes) Big Challenges.

Available on: iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple TV
Team size: 6
Based in: Boulder, CO
Awards: Apple Arcade Game of the Year (2023), Apple Design Award finalist (2024)

How familiar were you with the Hello Kitty universe before this game?

Howe: It‘s almost impossible not to know about Hello Kitty at this point, but I don’t think anyone knew what we were getting ourselves into in terms of the breadth of the characters, the weirdness of the lore, the nuance of some of the brand guidelines. It was definitely a wild adventure of discovery as we went through development.

But we didn’t just get to dive into this world. We got to create a way for fans to go on adventures with these characters in a way that they really hadn’t before. There have been shows and theme parks and different manifestations of this brand, but there wasn't necessarily a singular vision for who each character was and how they related to each other. Providing the first opportunity for fans to interact at this new level was really special.

Throughout Hello Kitty Island Adventure, players can customize their avatars to explore the wonders of the island (and occasionally snap a selfie with gudetama).

Hello Kitty has been around for over 50 years, which gives you a lot of background material to work with. How did you decide what to include?

Beru: I think there are over 400 Sanrio characters now? We do not have that many in the game. (Laughs)

Howe: We launched with 12 main characters and are now up to 20, each with their own visitors like Dear Daniel, Hello Kitty‘s boyfriend. When we add a new main cast character, we look at Sanrio’s character ranking, which is this annual popularity contest where fans can log in and vote for their favorites. It’s a very useful tool for knowing who’s in the zeitgeist and who should be in the game. Those are the updates people really crave. And we have a very long backlog.

Beru: We’ve had curveballs too. For example, we were obsessed with a character named Big Challenges early on, and we basically asked Sanrio, please, please, please can we put him in the game?

A humble 2-D alligator named Big Challenges — and his curious lore — became a driving force for the entire story behind Hello Kitty Island Adventure.

What’s the deal with Big Challenges?

Britt: There was literally one single piece of art made for Big Challenges. In 1978.

Howe: It was this 2-D picture of an alligator and the words ”BIG CHALLENGES” in all caps, and that was it. They never touched the character again. One of our colleagues told us this story, and we immediately all said, ”Oh, we have to bring him back.” That became the goal of the game’s core storyline: You have to go find and rescue Big Challenges.

Britt: To be fair, there are other strangely named characters too. Fresh Punch used to be a literal glass of punch, and now it's a gumball machine. I think fans kind of fall in love with the strange surrealism here, and we did too.

How do you bring a character like Big Challenges — who previously existed only in 2-D — into a 3-D adventure world?

Howe: OK, so the only drawing of Big Challenges was an alligator with both eyes on one side — hard to do in 3-D without getting that flat-fish look. So we did a lot of iterations: Should both eyes look straight ahead? Should they rotate to face you? Eventually we said, you know what, we’re just gonna have the eyes on one side. If you look at him head-on, you're just going to have an interesting experience. And that's okay, because that's who Big Challenges is. And we love him.

From a technical standpoint, what considerations were involved in bringing the game to tvOS?

Howe: On the UX side, tvOS meant a fundamentally different experience. We designed the game touch-first, so we had to rethink some fundamental interactions while making two different navigation schemas feel first-class. It was a lot of work on our UI, but it unlocked all of these phenomenal benefits on TV. This game is a family experience; it’s something you can share with others. And having that TV-sized experience was 100% worth that extra level of effort to make it sing on controller.

Fan favorite Cinnamaroll spreads a little magic around the island.

What’s an example of a controller adjustment you had to make?

Beru: Movement is such an unexpectedly big part of the game. You do a lot of climbing, running, floating, and diving, so making sure those felt perfect on controllers was a big emphasis too. That’s something we get compliments on all the time.

Lightning round: What are your favorite characters or moments?

Howe: You know those character rankings? My boy Cinnamoroll has been No. 1 for like five years now.

Britt: I'm going to say gudetama. I love that lazy egg.

Beru: My favorite moment has been the same since the prototype, when we were using basically blocks, and it’s the first time you dive underwater. There's something magical about realizing, “Oh my gosh, there’s so much more here than I thought.”

Originally published September 2, 2025