Hello Kitty Island Adventure was an excellent way to start off the 2025 Cozy Game season. It’s one of those games that doesn’t demand you spend all of your time there. But always rewards you when you do. My wife and I adore the game, and it’s the perfect way to unwind after a busy day.
I had the opportunity to speak with the Marketing Director of Sunblink, Logan Beru, about what makes Hello Kitty Island Adventure an excellent addition to a crowded genre. Plus, we also learn of new features coming to the game in an exclusive sneak peek at what we can expect.
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‘Hello Kitty Island Adventure’ was an absolute hit in this household. Outside of the adorable Hello Kitty branding, it was an excellent cozy simulator to boot. How did licensing agreements for this particular game come to be?
We’re always delighted to meet people who have been enjoying the game! Working with Sanrio and the Hello Kitty and Friends universe has been a creative dream in so many ways. The character roster is so deep. And the inherent coziness and flexibility of the Sanrio world gave us a lot to play with.
Originally, Apple was hoping to make a Sanrio game. And asked us what we would want to do with the Hello Kitty brand. We created a cozy adventure pitch — and prototype — and shared it with Apple and Sanrio. Everyone was immediately on board. Since then, we’ve been working together and have been able to create something incredible!
While Hello Kitty has been the star of her own games before, none of them have had quite the impact that ‘Hello Kitty Island Adventure’ had. What was the team’s reaction when they saw how well the game did on Apple Arcade and consoles/PC?
We’ve been thrilled to see the positive reception. And we’re so grateful for all the love from players and critics. We knew we had a dynamite game on our hands even before we launched it on Apple Arcade. But it always feels like a gamble in this industry. Will people see it for what it is and recognize this beautiful thing we made? Or will something about the moment and the content just fail to gel? In our case, we’ve been overwhelmed with positive feedback.
We understand that a cozy game with an earnest and cute aesthetic could be easy for some people to dismiss at first glance. But a lot of hard work and heart went into crafting a world that players would want to return to, time and time again. It’s been encouraging to see people respond to that care and make their support known to us. We want to keep delighting players as long as possible!
I have to ask: was the name ‘Hello Kitty Island Adventure’ inspired by the classic ‘South Park’ episode “Make Love, Not Warcraft”? Or was it just a happy coincidence that they shared the same name?
Sanrio, this game, and Sunblink aren’t affiliated with South Park in any way. We chose our name because the game has always been an island adventure.
While there is already a ton of content and plenty of things to do in ‘Hello Kitty Island Adventure,’ are there any plans to release more content in the future, especially now that consoles are in consideration?
Absolutely, we have plans for more content in the future. We already have a long list of seasonal holidays and events lined up throughout the year. Which will all be free updates to the base game. Also, we want the world to feel alive, with new things to discover constantly!
We also have larger content packs, both free and paid, on the roadmap.
Lastly, since Hello Kitty Island Adventure has been live on Apple Arcade for a longer stretch of time, the game has more content available there, which will eventually make its way over to the console and PC versions.
I was so happy to see that a jump button was present in ‘Hello Kitty Island Adventure.’ And that some light platforming elements were included. What went into the process of adding this to the game?
Exploring the island and platforming elements were all in the game from the very first prototype! We found a lot of fun early in development with the climbing mechanics, underwater diving, racing, and floating and jumping around from place to place. So, that was definitely part of our original intention. Figuring out how to manage the seamless open world and technical aspects of player navigation was a considerable engineering challenge. But it was well worth the effort.
When it comes to making a cozy game in this style, there are some massive competitors out there. What do you think, beyond the branding aspects, makes ‘Hello Kitty Island Adventure’ stand out from the crowd?
What makes the game stand out is that it’s essentially a new blend of genres — it’s a Cozy Adventure game. We took the nurturing and ritual of life sim games and mixed them with the excitement and exploration of open-world adventure games. While the cozy aspect is deep in the game’s DNA, I think the surprising blend of mechanics is really what makes it unique. Our design team had all kinds of players in mind when creating the world. And they wanted to ensure we had something for everyone.
For example, the platforming mechanics we mentioned earlier — jumping, gliding, the stamina gauge — these are not typical for a cozy game. But, they’re implemented in a very cozy way. Or, the puzzle rooms that players encounter all over the island. In that sense, and with a lot of other design decisions, our team made a new genre entry that’s unique in the way it challenges some assumptions about what a cozy game can be, but also unquestionably embodies that core aesthetic.
There’s Always Time To Get Cozy
One of the things that’s core to the Cozy Adventure, and that I’ve been happy to see so well-received, is Quests! Hello Kitty Island Adventure has a massive narrative behind it. Quests and story were things we felt weren’t being emphasized as much in other cozy games. Quests gave us, as a studio, a chance to really get to know the Sanrio universe. And bring in details about both popular and lesser-known characters, which has been a tremendous opportunity.
And aside from that… this can be said about so many studios, but the Sunblink team cares so deeply about what goes into each and every update. Whether finding a way to spotlight a long-lost Sanrio deep-cut character (we love you, Big Challenges!) or bringing the top requests from our Discord server to life, everyone’s passion makes the game experience feel rich.
The multiplayer aspect of ‘Hello Kitty Island Adventure’ is surprisingly robust. What are some of your favorite things to do when playing with friends?
For me, it’s taking selfies! I love the dress-up aspect of the game, all of the great poses the animators have added, and finding zany setups around the island for that perfect shot. It got even more hilarious once we got the multiplayer emotes in there.
What went into selecting the main roster of Sanrio characters that appeared? Are there any characters you wanted to see that didn’t make the cut?
With the main cast plus visitors, we have more than 70 Sanrio characters in the game right now. And we’ve got even more on our roadmap. It’s the first time we’ve seen characters like Retsuko (from Aggretsuko) or Gudetama together with the Hello Kitty and Friends cast. It’s truly something special to work on.
We’ll never be able to use some specific characters because of licensing nuances. But I’ve been so happy with how many characters we’ve included in the adventure. All our favorites are here!
The Character Customization aspect of ‘Hello Kitty Island Adventure’ is one of the best parts of the game. Are there any plans to add additional types of animals? And what went into choosing the animals we can run around as?
I adore the character customization. A lot of thought went into what kind of customization we could provide. From the very beginning, we wanted to ensure that players could create their own Sanrio-style animal character. It situates the player in the universe and puts them on a level playing field with Hello Kitty and Friends, which is really crucial for a game about making friends and having cozy adventures.
With the avatars being animals, it feels like you can immerse yourself in the world of Hello Kitty and Friends — but in a way that’s also unique and expressive. It also allows us to gently nudge players away from the idea of a character avatar as a 1:1 representation of oneself, freeing it up to be more exploratory or aspirational: suit-and-pants unicorn one day, lop-eared bunny in a dress the next, and large cat inside a lemon after that! Sanrio’s characters are so varied, charismatic, and inclusive in their design language that many players can see themselves (and hopefully even in a new light!) in the Island Adventure style.
All that said, we have a long list of new animals we’d love to provide as avatar options, and you can expect to see more soon. You heard it here first!
I know that Tuxedosam is my favorite Sanrio character, and I’m glad that he’s here in all his glory. Who are some of your favorite Sanrio characters?
It’s hard for me to choose! I’ve kind of been charmed by everyone. But if I had to pick some favorites, I’d go with nap king Pompompurin, sporty Pochacco, and recently I’ve been joining the Cinnamoroll fan club more and more, including all of his Cafe Cinnamon friends. They’re too cute. How does one resist?
I would like to thank Logan Beru for taking the time out of their busy schedule to chat with me about Hello Kitty Island Adventure. Hello Kitty Island Adventure is available now on Apple Arcade, Nintendo Switch, and Steam (with PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 releases coming later in the year).