🏆 Apple Arcade Game of the Year 2023

Hello Kitty Island Adventure

Platform:
Apple Arcade, Nintendo Switch 1/2, PC (Steam), PlayStation 4/5
Client:
Sunblink Entertainment
Engagement:
Jan 2022 - Present
Services:
Technical Art, Rendering Technology, Gameplay Engineering, UI Engineering

Overview

Runt partnered with Sunblink Entertainment to provide specialized rendering technology and engineering for Hello Kitty Island Adventure—one of 2023's biggest gaming success stories. The collaboration has spanned six platform launches and ongoing content expansions, supporting one of the industry's most successful live-service cozy games.

The game pioneered the "cozy adventure" genre, combining Animal Crossing-style life simulation with exploration-driven gameplay across diverse biomes. Our technical contributions enabled Sunblink to deliver console-quality visuals and performance across mobile, PC, and console platforms while maintaining an aggressive content release schedule.

Technology Stack: Unity 2021, Universal Render Pipeline (URP), custom HLSL shaders, forward rendering with custom render features

Technical Contributions

Terrain Pipeline & Biome System

Developed a custom terrain authoring pipeline enabling artists to rapidly create and iterate on diverse biomes while maintaining performance across all target hardware. The system allows lossless toggling between editable and finalized states, dramatically accelerating iteration under aggressive timeline pressure. This pipeline enabled rapid creation of distinct environments—from the Spooky Swamp's haunted mansion to Mount Hothead's volcanic caves to Rainbow Reef's underwater zones.

Dynamic Time-of-Day Lighting System

Architected a localized lighting system supporting seamless transitions during gameplay. Different biomes maintain distinct visual identities while players traverse the island without jarring transitions. Each region can define unique lighting parameters across the day/night cycle, blending naturally as players move between areas.

Underwater Rendering Technology

Created custom caustics and atmospheric fog shaders for underwater zones that gave artists precise control over atmosphere while maintaining target frame rates on older iOS devices like the iPad Mini 4.

Shader Effect System

Developed a material variant system supporting dynamic prop states—frozen, molten, crystalized, iridescent, and more. This enables the game's transformation mechanics without asset duplication or runtime complexity.

Impossible Geometry Rendering

Implemented clip shader technology supporting portal-like effects for the game's customizable home spaces. Players can place windows and doors that reveal interior spaces or exterior vistas through solid geometry, eliminating asset bloat from geometric cutouts.

Cross-Platform Optimization

Architected shaders to perform across radically different hardware profiles—from iPad Mini 4 to PlayStation 5. Implemented a tiered quality system with distinct shader variants, targeting visual quality first with graceful degradation paths for legacy hardware.

Target Performance

  • 30fps on older mobile devices (iPad Mini 4, iPhone X-era)
  • 60fps on newer mobile, PC, and all console platforms

Platform Support

  • iOS: iPhone, iPad, Mac (via Apple Arcade)
  • PC: Steam (Windows)
  • Console: Nintendo Switch 1/2, PlayStation 4/5

Results & Impact

Performance Metrics

40%
Framerate improvement on critical shaders
50%
Shader memory reduction via keyword management
85%
Texture memory reduction through compression
6 Platforms
Target frame rates maintained from iPad Mini 4 to PlayStation 5

Commercial & Critical Success

Hello Kitty Island Adventure defied industry expectations during one of gaming's most challenging periods (2024-2025 studio closures and contraction):

  • 1+ million units sold across all platforms as of November 2025
  • 500K units in first 30 days on Switch/PC
  • 4.9/5 rating on Apple Arcade (114,000+ reviews)
  • 93% positive user reviews on Steam
  • 80/100 OpenCritic score ("Strong" rating, top 21% of games)
  • 7th most-downloaded Apple Arcade title in 2023

The game's success strengthened Sunblink's relationships with key platform partners—Apple continues to feature the title prominently, Nintendo showcased it in a 2024 Nintendo Direct, and the partnership expanded to PlayStation in 2025.

Ongoing Partnership

Runt continues providing rendering support for regular content updates and major expansions, demonstrating the robustness of our technical foundation. Major releases include:

  • Wheatflour Wonderland (September 2025) - First paid DLC expansion
  • Friends, Furniture, and Frozen Peaks (May 2025) - Major free update
  • Seasonal events and ongoing content updates

What We Learned

Building rendering technology for a live-service game targeting six platforms with monthly content updates taught us the importance of artist-facing tools and flexible architecture. The terrain pipeline and lighting system succeeded because we prioritized iteration speed alongside visual quality—artists could experiment freely knowing finalization wouldn't lock them into irreversible decisions.

The cross-platform optimization challenge reinforced our philosophy: target visual quality first, then architect graceful degradation paths. By establishing the visual bar we wanted to hit, then creating shader variants that could scale down for legacy hardware, we ensured strong performance across all platforms without compromising the core artistic vision.

Most importantly, this partnership demonstrated the value of deep technical collaboration over transactional contractor relationships. Solving complex rendering problems requires understanding the creative vision, not just executing specifications. When clients treat you as a peer solving problems together, the work gets better—and the relationships last years, not months.

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