It’s official, folks: Hello Kitty Island Adventure is heading to Nintendo Switch, PC, and PlayStation platforms next year! Having made a big splash on Apple Arcade in 2023 — it even won Apple’s coveted Arcade Game of the Year and Best Mobile Game at the Game of the Year Awards — it’s safe to say this adorable life sim is highly anticipated.
Luckily for us, during Summer Game Fest 2024, The Nerd Stash managed to conduct a sit down interview with Hello Kitty Island Adventure‘s Game Director, Tom Blind. Without further delay, let’s get the ball rolling, shall we?
Hello Kitty Island Adventure Interview with Tom Blind
Editor’s Note: The following interview has been lightly edited for clarity.
Dylan Chaundy, Editor of The Nerd Stash: Hello Kitty Island Adventure has been out for about a year exclusively on Apple Arcade. How did the initial launch go?
Tom Blind, Game Director: Fantastic! We couldn’t be happier with how it went. We immediately got very high — [the] number one spot in the Apple Arcade ranks — and we have been continuing to stay in those ranks. Within the top five or so since we launched.
Dylan: Really good to hear. Is it fair to say that Animal Crossing New Horizons has been a big influence on Hello Kitty Island Adventure? Or were there any other games that inspired you?
Tom Blind: I would say a lot of games inspired us. Animal Crossing is obviously a big influence. We were developing the game when Animal Crossing was kind of at its peak. And that was at a moment in time where — because of Covid, a lot of people were at home — and what we saw is people were looking for low stress games that, you know, didn’t add to the tension in their lives, but subtracted from it. Animal Crossing did that very well. And so we were looking at that in a number of other games, you know, to inspire what we were trying to build, which has a similar effect on our audience. One game that inspired us particularly was a small indie game called A Short Hike.
Dylan: Yes, I’ve played that. It’s a lovely game.
Tom Blind: Yeah, it really did a great job distilling down the idea of open world exploration without combat or any of those kind of tense types of gameplay that you typically see in other open world games. So, you know, we really thought that was a great place to take inspiration from for the design of our world.
Dylan: There are plenty of activities to take part in in Hello Kitty Island Adventure. From cooking, swimming and exploring to crafting, decorating, and bonding with the island’s many inhabitants. Are there any secret activities that not many players know about? Is there even more to discover?
Tom Blind: There are a lot of things to discover in the game, and so I’m trying to think of what would be considered more secret. There’s certainly tons of collectibles that you might not even know are there? Unless you really, really go digging for them. And we’re continuing to add more stuff like that. There are secret hidden mini games, which you have to get pretty far into the game and do a number of different quests in order to unlock, such as the crane game inside the Mary Meadows area. There’s a lot of abilities and powers you can acquire from the different characters in the game, which you can only do so if you get your friendship up to maximum level with them.
Dylan: Everyone’s favorite lazy egg, Gudetama, makes an appearance in the game, which makes sense given that he’s another popular Sanrio character. Will Gudetama be in the new, upcoming version of Hello Kitty Island Adventure at launch? Or will he be added in a future update?
Tom Blind: Oh yeah, he will be there from day one. Oh, Gudetama is a major part of the game because there are hundreds of incarnations of him across the island that you must find and take photographs of, and that is something that you’ll be able to do when it launches on Switch as well.
Dylan: Fantastic! My daughter will be happy. She absolutely loves Gudetama.
Tom Blind: Oh, excellent. And actually, we just finished our month of Meh, which is a month long celebration of Gudetama during the month of May. And that’s going to be a recurring event every May.
Dylan: A lot of love has clearly been poured into Hello Kitty Island Adventure. What would you say was the biggest challenge during its development? Looking back, is there anything that you would have changed if you could?
Tom Blind: Oh, I mean, with all games, you know, there’s always those things you look back and think you might have done things differently. But I think we made a lot of good decisions along the way. I think our original aspirations for the game were larger than what we actually shipped. But the places where we kind of trimmed down and the things that we focused on, I think were actually very good decisions. And the final product and its success, I think reflects that. So, you know, I always wish I could have put more into it, but I think we’re all pretty happy with where we actually ended up.
Dylan: Out of the huge roster of characters featured in Hello Kitty Island Adventure, who is your favorite character and why?
Tom Blind: I like Chococat. I feel like he doesn’t get as much love as he deserves. He’s a very logical, kind of, astute character. But deep down inside, all he really wants to do is always help his friends. And I can identify with that.
Dylan: That’s sweet and that’s wholesome. Good answer. What do you think was Sunblink Entertainment’s biggest success when it came to developing Hello Kitty Island Adventure? Was there anything that just clicked?
Tom Blind: I would say, the thing we often reflect on, actually, is just how much we are able to do with a small team. We are still a small team with big ambitions. And we’ve all worked incredibly hard to get everything that we wanted to into the game and make it this large, robust experience to keep players busy for dozens and dozens of hours. And we pulled that off and we’re happy we were able to do so, because sometimes it seems like we shouldn’t have been able to with the resources that we. Yeah.
Dylan: It’s a huge achievement what you’ve done with such a small team. Are you considering any post-launch support for the upcoming release of Hello Kitty Island Adventure? Will there be any DLC or expansions for your game?
Tom Blind: Yeah, that’s something that we are definitely looking at right now. You know, we love that we can continue to add content to the game on a regular cadence on iOS, and we’d like to see us do the same thing on other platforms.
Dylan: There’s quite a funny South Park reference that occurred many years before your game even came out. Specifically, a character in the show “Butters” says that he doesn’t want to play World of Warcraft, and instead declares that he’s off to play Hello Kitty Island Adventure. Was that just a weird coincidence, or is there some amusing story behind that factoid?
Tom Blind: Uh, I don’t know anything about South Park. I have a life.
Dylan: Fair enough. Yeah, just a bit of a funny little thing that I found out. [Looks a little confused and doesn’t get the reference]
Tom Blind: That’s actually a quote from that episode. [Laughs]
Dylan: Oh, really? Oh. Oh, that’s awesome. [Laughs] And yeah, sorry. Just one last question. If you had full creative control over what your team works on next, what would it be and what would be your dream project?
Tom Blind: The answer to that is more Hello Kitty. We absolutely loved working on this project. We’ve loved working with Sanrio. Not only the company, but also the brand and the game, you know, has so much potential still, in terms of what we could do with it and keep it going for years to come. So, yeah, I think we are we are very gung ho on continuing to see Hello Kitty thrive in the future.
Dylan: It was so awesome to speak to you. And it’s been an absolute pleasure.
Hello Kitty Island Adventure is available now on Apple Arcade and will debut on PC and Nintendo Switch in early 2025, followed by PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 4 in late 2025. Feel free to check out the latest announcement trailer down below:
