"We hope that it can be a nice, cozy place to calm down": Hello Kitty Island Adventure devs on goals for the game, Sanrio input, and more (Exclusive)

Hello Kitty Island Adventure is a game I didn’t really expect to love as much as I did, but I shouldn’t be too shocked. After all, I love Sanrio — especially Tuxedosam, because he’s the best. After my review of the game went live, I had a chance to speak to Logan Beru (Director of Marketing) and Chelsea Howe (Chief Product Officer) at Sunblink about how this all came together. We discussed a variety of topics, such as goals for the game, Sanrio’s input on the characters, and much more.

When asked about what newcomers to the game should take away from it, the Sunblink officials answered:

"We hope that Hello Kitty Island Adventure can be a nice, cozy place to calm down from the wild world around us."

Frankly, for many people, the world is in a state where it’s hard to find a little time to relax, be peaceful, or get cozy. I do feel like Hello Kitty Island Adventure helps in this regard — it’s a cute, relaxing game with no pressure or stress, just a fun romp on a cool island with familiar characters. We have to find peace where we can, and this has certainly been one of my comfort games over the last few weeks.

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Sunblink’s Logan Beru and Chelsea Howe on Hello Kitty Island Adventure’s development

Q. It’s such a fantastic thing to see such a small studio not only having access to but keeping true to such a massive IP like Sanrio/Hello Kitty Island Adventure. What’s the secret sauce to the success? Was the team already fans of the Sanrio characters?

Sometimes, it's just nice to relax and do some baking with friends (Image via Sunblink)

Sunblink: We owe a lot to Apple and Sanrio and the trust they’ve put in us. We launched a game on Apple Arcade prior to Hello Kitty Island Adventure (HEROish) that showed Apple we were a small but mighty developer capable of making polished, quality experiences. That trust, combined with a persuasive prototype, earned our team the honor of bringing Hello Kitty to life in an unprecedented way.

While a few of us were already fans from the onset, we’ve all gotten sucked into the world of Sanrio. I know for myself personally, I didn’t know much about Sanrio’s world before we started the project; but I was immediately charmed by all the characters, and I know way more now than I ever thought possible!

Q. There’s a lot of talk about inclusivity going on right now, so there’s perhaps never been a better time to re-release Hello Kitty Island Adventure. Was there ever any worry about making this game non-binary coded, and gender-inclusive — such as backlash from certain members of the gaming community?

It's easy to make a cool Sanrio-esque character (Image via Sunblink)

Sunblink: Many of Sanrio’s values revolve around friendship, kindness, and inclusivity. So it was never a question of whether inclusivity should fit in the game. Not only would a form of gender restriction feel silly at best, but an approach of inclusion and respect is just the right thing to do.

Plus, considering how approachable Sanrio’s characters are, the designs for a Sanrio-style character creator fit perfectly in a way where all kinds of players could see themselves reflected!

Q. There’s more to Hello Kitty Island Adventure than you might find in other cozy games — there’s fun puzzles, races, quests, and relationships to explore. How did you decide to design this kind of content for a Hello Kitty game?

There's certainly no shortage of stuff to do on the island! (Image via Sunblink)

Sunblink: We actually started with the game we wanted to make, which was a cozy escape with a wide range of activities and quests. It turned out Hello Kitty was a fantastic fit; which really gave us a lot of rich inspiration to layer in.

In blending cozy life sim with open-world adventure, we were able to cover a huge range of player motivations, which we saw reflected in the cast of Hello Kitty and Friends. Our studio is relatively diverse, and everyone’s been able to find a character that they resonate with.

Q. On that note, what sort of input did Sanrio have when it came to Hello Kitty Island Adventure? Were there any musts that simply had to be included, or were you given free rein?

The characters look and act like you'd expect, which is to their credit (Image via Sunblink)

Sunblink: There were a lot of musts surrounding some of the characters and how they could be portrayed — from what they were called, to the colors associated with them, to what kinds of storylines they could be a part of, even to what specific words they could or couldn’t say. Which, considering how long many of these characters have been around, makes sense!

On the opposite end of the spectrum, some characters, like Big Challenges, were a completely blank slate. Only one image of him existed when we started the game, so we got to work together with some of the writers of Supercute Adventures as well as Sanrio HQ in Japan to figure out how he would act, look, and speak (props to Sanrio HQ for suggesting "gao gao", everyone loves it).

Sanrio gave us a lot of free reign when it came to the concept and game design itself, and continues to trust us with anything gameplay-related, but all character-related content (models, icons, dialogue, design intent) goes through them for approval. We’ve almost always been able to find solutions that suit a shared vision.

Q. For many gamers, like myself, this is their first foray into Hello Kitty Island Adventure. However, others were already playing on Apple Arcade. Is there any chance of being able to transfer save data/et cetera in the future, perhaps through a QR code?

Sorry, you'll have no choice but to start over. In recompense, have this cool picture of Tuxedosam (Image via Sunblink)

Sunblink: Sadly, this one is outside of our control.

Q. I’ve really been loving Hello Kitty Island Adventure — though I was already a Sanrio fan going in. It’s my first “Hello Kitty” video game though. Were there any major challenges that went into the design of the game, and if so, how did your team solve them?

Friendship is what it's all about (Image via Sunblink)

From a design perspective, two things stick out:

First, we created the game without the two most common staples of progression design: a unified soft currency (something like coins, for instance) and player XP. Instead of a single soft currency, the whole game works off a barter system — some clothes cost thread and sanddollars, some cost fabric and sparks, and so on.

When we were creating this world centered around friendship, all the nickel-and-diming of a unified currency just felt off, and didn’t make thematic sense. But it was a challenge from a design standpoint.

This made tuning quite a bit more difficult, but in the end, we believe it makes the game interactions feel more natural, and allows us to have more interesting moments in the game. Early players might really need rubber, mid-game players might need magmablooms, late game players might need strawberry crates.

On the player XP side, again leaning into the idea of Friendship as a north star, we instead made progress all about your relationships with other characters. Some take a long time to build up friendship, others are easy, and every player’s path is different. Again, we thought that autonomy felt more natural and true to life than a more arbitrary, artificial player XP.

Second, we always knew we wanted the game to revolve around gifting, and that a gift’s value came down to how much a character liked it. In the launch version of the game, you know what a character likes immediately. In early prototype versions, you had to use trial and error by giving different gifts to slowly get to know what each character prefers. While the early version was more true to life, we ultimately found it far too confusing, and much less fun. In the end, the fun wins over what might be more true-to-life!

Q. Personally, I think my favorite feature is either designing houses or expanding the Nature Reserve by catching the wildlife on the resort island. For those who are new to perhaps cozy, casual games or even just Hello Kitty Island Adventure, do you have any tips to not get overwhelmed by all the quests and things to do?

The lack of FOMO is honestly one of my favorite things (Image via Sunblink)

Sunblink: Our design philosophy is to always be kind to players, and that means no FOMO. Events will always come back, and quests will happily hang out in your log until you’re ready for them. You don’t need to collect everything every day, because it will just come back tomorrow, and you can always ask the nul — or your bestie — for help collecting.

Take it at your own pace. If you want to spend hours on it one day but only a few minutes the next, both of those work! Just think of a full quest log as a promise of fun for the future.

Q. Was there any pressure to put microtransactions in any release of Hello Kitty Island Adventure?

No characters or outfits are hidden behind a paywall in Hello Kitty Island Adventure, and I just think that's neat (Image via Sunblink)

Sunblink: Apple Arcade has absolutely no microtransactions, and we aim for parity across platforms, so we never considered it for the game. We’ve had a few reviews that mention wanting to be able to buy certain in-game items with real money, which certainly surprised us. We’re glad players are finding value in the game!

Q. Hello Kitty Island Adventure featured a wealth of neat events — Friendship Festival, Spooky Celebration, et cetera. Will these still trigger in the new releases of the game?

Sunblink: Of course! All events are going to be synchronous across platforms. We actually had to develop half of 2025’s events almost a year ahead of time to ensure that all players would get to enjoy the same experience together. It was a chaotic load of work, but absolutely worth it.

Q. Hello Kitty Island Adventure is such a charming, relaxing game. What do you hope newcomers to the game take away from it?

Sunblink: We hope that Hello Kitty Island Adventure can be a nice, cozy place to calm down from the wild world around us.

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Hello Kitty Island Adventure is a charming, fun game, available on PC, Nintendo Switch, Apple Arcade, PlayStation 4, and PlayStation 5. You can learn more about it in our in-depth review.