There will be new avatar types and cosmetics for Hello Kitty Island Adventure soon.

We just can't get enough of Hello Kitty Island Adventure, a really cozy Apple Arcade exclusive that lets you explore a colorful, open environment full of familiar characters from the Sanrio trademark. What will happen to the game now? Will it ever be available on other platforms other than Apple Arcade? And how will they maintain the novelty of the game?

We had the opportunity of speaking with Chelsea Howe, the Chief Product Officer of Hello Kitty Island Adventure, at GDC 2024 about a variety of topics, including the game's future, big challenges, and character customisation. Now let's get started.

I immediately asked Chelsea, "The game is about Hello Kitty having an adventure on an island, it's the perfect name, the name we gave it is the absolute perfect name," if the title was inspired by that South Park episode or if it was just a coincidence. I probed a little further to find out whether they had seen the program, saying, "So... Are we not game developers? It goes without saying that we are surrounded by gaming culture. However, I must state that we are in no way associated with South Park.

Take it what you will, but we believe Butters would most likely be an Apple Arcade subscriber just for Hello Kitty. We dug into the personalities after that question that served as a palate cleanser. I was curious about how they chose which of the many adorable characters, particularly the more specialized but adored ones like Big Challenges, to bring permanently to the island.Sanrio features a kind of top 50 list for the main cast. They aggressively promote these characters, and each year they have a global fan competition in which participants cast their votes for their favorite characters. Since there is a lot of overlap, we essentially integrated the two. Both our current cast and our next cast came from there.

She goes on to provide the backstory of our all-time favorite character, Big Challenges, saying that it was essentially an internal joke that needed an outside joke. The character was very depressing. The main figure was only ever drawn once, maybe in the 1970s, and then never again. We thought that someone must be in love with this little alligator. It will also be us. We're overjoyed that they did, and the little guy now has a special place in our hearts.

If you've studied HKIA, you'll be familiar with the regular occurrences. But we were curious to find out more about Sunblink's plans for maintaining that momentum in the face of upcoming events. Do they intend to host a fresh event every year for the holiday, or will certain activities be returning?

Chelsea informed me, "We don't want anything to be a "play right now or you miss it forever" situation; that's one of our major rules and kindness approaches. The goal is to bring the items back." Simply said, that's not our vibe. We at SmartRead like this strategy as it relieves a lot of our team members' weariness when they have to hurry through mobile games in order to get limited-edition goodies.

"Everything that was a part of last year's events will be returning," she says. The following time, for instance, you'll have access to all of the previous Spooky Celebration furnishings. However, we do want to make sure that we provide a little variation each year. Accordingly, some of the phrasing, some of the key mechanics, and even the theming itself may alter somewhat.

It's common practice for game developers to throw stuff against the wall in the first year of a game's existence in order to see what stays and tweak things; HKIA seems to be no different. Chelsea says they'd want to, "Keep experimenting with that," But ultimately, we want it to constantly feel like this little, delightful moment just when you first log in.

It's critical to keep things interesting to keep current players coming back, so I asked Chelsea how they want to avoid things becoming monotonous. "I believe one strategy is that a lot of the theming will be remixed and rematched. Thus, for example, when our first event, Summer's End, returns this year, things will be different. You know, lemons and having to manage your own stall selling lemonade or something.”

She goes on, For those who have some kind of cultural connection, I believe it's important to look at things from many perspectives. Clearly, the Give and Gather festival had a strong Western Christmas influence, don't you think? However, there are a ton of other holidays that fall around that time; I believe the key is to embrace some of them and give the larger audience a sense of recognition and presence.

The online community of Hello Kitty Island Adventure is rather vibrant. There are always fresh comments and player advice being shared on the subreddit. But did Chelsea expect the players to respond in that manner? We probably thought people would really like it. We knew they were already huge fans of the Sanrio brand, so our expectations for an engaged community were pretty high. We were also aware that not every accessibility feature we had hoped for will be included in the game at launch.

"There were certain things that weren't as clear as they should have been," she says. In games, when there are moments where details are a little unclear, the community generally makes up for it by exchanging more tribal knowledge on forums like Discord and subreddits. We sort of expected a lot of stuff, but I don't believe we expected the degree of compassion we've seen in those towns. It's not always the case that online groups encourage compassion. That's been one of the very great things, and it's been much more positive overall than we expected.

I was intrigued by the mention of accessibility features, so I inquired about any potential future developments. "There's always that endless backlog," the person said. Every update, we attempt to accomplish a little amount of "filling in the gaps." In order to clarify aspects that may not have received enough attention during the first release, we're introducing more missions. Character boxes are more of an endgame feature that we just never got around to describing as completely as we would have wanted. The most recent version, 1.5, has a quest that explains them.

But that's not all; we'd also want to provide additional handholding and systemic accessibility. There are several pop-up tutorials that teach you things, but after you shut them, there's no way to access that knowledge again. There are no in-game guides or references. We would really appreciate a method wherein continuous reference content is accessible. We hope this function becomes available soon since it's fantastic for both returning players and new players who are visiting the island for the first time and may need a little refresher.

We've discussed accessibility, forthcoming events, keeping things interesting, and South Park, but I was also wondering when we would get to see any additional character customization possibilities. The 1.7 update will include a lot of avatar-related content. It will be a thrilling experience. In addition to brand-new avatar varieties, we now provide a number of previously unreleased avatar modification categories. You'll notice sunglasses and facial accessories, as well as bags and back accessories.

We enjoy mobile gaming and the Nintendo Switch on SmartRead, so I asked Chelsea if there was any possibility we will see HKIA on the Switch or other platforms in the future. She said, "We are currently an Apple Arcade exclusive." There was a particular tone to the phrase right now, and I could see a glint in Chelsea's eyes, but regrettably I was unable to extract any more information from her.

I questioned Chelsea about the future of the Hello Kitty Island experience, and she gave me a slightly cryptic answer. We closed our conversation with that question, "So you've got Friendship Island, right? It's a big, fantastic spot where you may strengthen your bonds with people, but there are other islands. She gives a playful shrug of her shoulders.

"You have more characters that are bound to come," Chelsea goes on. There are more avatar and self-expression options available to you, and brand-new kinds of self-expression are in the works. It goes without saying that you have events that will only grow and, ideally, continue to provide enjoyable new gaming experiences. It is capable of evolving in very amazing and fascinating ways.

It seems like Hello Kitty Island Adventure is progressing steadily, so I'm expecting to hear soon about a Nintendo Switch port! I would want to express my gratitude to Chelsea for taking the time out of her GDC to talk with me. If you are a die-hard fan of HKIA, don't forget to visit our critter list and luggage locations.