Cookie Run: Kingdom is the story of Cookies who continuously venture and take on challenges to find a better life outside the Witch's Oven. Since its debut in January, it has achieved remarkable results: reaching #1 Top Grossing in the Apple App Store, #2 Top Grossing in Google Play, ten million downloads worldwide, and more. So, in celebration of its 100th-day anniversary, we sat down with the key players who led its success, Kilhyeon Cho and Eunji Lee, the Co-Producers of Cookie Run: Kingdom, to ask about how they're feeling about the results and what plans they have for us in the future.

Co-Producers of Cookie Run: Kingdom, Eunji Lee (Left) & Kilhyeon Cho (Right)

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Next | #2. An Arduous Four-Year Journey

Next | #3. Rewriting the Cookie Run Craze

Introduction

Hello, we are Kilhyeon Cho and Eunji Lee, the Co-Producers of Cookie Run: Kingdom. Together we've been leading the growth of the Cookie Run IP since the beginning for about ten years.

Before we say anything, we want to thank all our users worldwide. We'll continue to strive for more joy and excitement in your gaming experience with our content.

We will discuss how the Cookie Run: Kingdom project started, the four-year development process, and our journey since its launch. We hope these stories showing our dedication and hard work can enhance everyone's experience with the game.

First Acquaintances with the Cookies

Cookie Run: Kingdom was developed under the same work principles as Cookie Run for Kakao. To understand the story of first creating Cookie Run: Kingdom, we must return to when it started in April 2013: Cookie Run for Kakao. That's when the universe of the Cookie Run IP began to take shape, and it was the first project we worked on from start to finish.

In 2012, when the development of Cookie Run for Kakao was in full swing, the company was going through a rough patch to the point where it was on the verge of shutting down. Despite the OvenBreak series receiving successful recognition for its potential in overseas markets, the company suffered financially. We even had to downsize by over half the employees.

Cookie Run IP’s past OvenBreak series

Project: Save the Company

Although it was always unclear if any of us would get paid the next month, the remaining ten members committed to our beliefs and worked with the determination to save the company literally. To save on as many expenses as possible, we even cooked rice together when it came to meals at work. So at the time, the smell of warm rice always filled our office's air.

Winter was tough. We were limited to how much we could turn up the heater. So, we had to do our best to work with stiff frozen fingers. There were so many things to get done that we set up tents in the office to spend days working overnight. It was undeniably challenging, but it feels meaningful because we were a group of people putting in a genuine effort to achieve the goal.

Cookie Run for Kakao, a project that began through all this hardship, was like the last spark of hope for Devsisters. We needed to get through the tough times and use KakaoTalk, one of Korea's most well-established messenger apps, and move on to a more stable and prosperous future. Hence the project's name: “Save the Company.”

Can Cookies Contain Everything in the Human World?

Cookie Run for Kakao, which started with a spark of hope and overcame many difficulties, is a game that holds our fundamental values and runs through the Cookie Run IP. The building process of those foundations began by meeting with Jihoon Lee, the founder of Devsisters. We still remember him asking this question to everyone in that meeting.

“Can Cookies contain everything of the human world?”

We felt the story was captivating - a Cookie who escaped the Witch's Oven changing his fate of being eaten and running for a better life. This Cookie could positively impact people. We felt the energy and saw great possibilities of where this could lead us.

The Fundamental Values of the Cookie Run IP

Since then, we have thought about how to blend all kinds of fun themes into the Cookies. Exciting ideas like zombies, angels, pirates, and many more filled the whiteboard. We spent days making sketches and turning these ideas into Cookies.

Through this process, we became fascinated by the significant messaging of this pleasant and approachable concept behind the Cookies. Cookies refuse their fate to escape to a vast world outside the Witch's Oven - an idea that could convey a message of hope and courage for a better life to many people going through unfair situations.

All the imaginations and ideas within this process are still valued throughout Cookie Run: OvenBreak and Cookie Run: Kingdom today. It's the willingness to pour everything in the human world into the Cookies, the desire to help these Cookies run further, and most of all - the vision to make the world more exciting through experiences of hope, courage, and love.

The Name: Cookie Run and the “National Running Game” in the Spotlight

When we first introduced the name Cookie Run, even the title had our hope and intent to give people joy. The term, OvenBreak, could easily be understood in Western cultures, such as the United States and Europe. However, it was not an intuitive term for Koreans. So, we came up with the name Cookie Run. It may be grammatically awkward, but by having the word "Run," we thought it became much more intuitive, friendly, and witty.

Not only did we make sure to reflect our values in the title but also in the game system itself. The old OvenBreak (and other running games) had a system where players could run indefinitely unless failing to avoid obstacles. This meant the playing experience level for users depended heavily on their game skills, and the fun varied greatly.

So, we devised a stamina-based system in which the Cookies run out of energy over time, with the game ending when they're exhausted. This new system allowed anyone to participate without overthinking it. It helped them relate more easily to the Cookies and their desperation to escape and encouraged them to get back up and continue running.

It also allowed the players to experience growing with the Cookies and running further out by repeating these challenges. In other words, the new system was designed not only to run but to experience the emotions and empathize with the Cookies, to overcome the difficulties together. It's a team effort in searching and running for a better life.

Created with sincerity, Cookie Run for Kakao was a success. Everyone enjoyed and talked about it in schools, companies, subways, and coffee shops. Social media platforms were flowing with game discussions and fan art.

Cookie Run for Kakao became a nationwide success and was considered the “National Running Game.”

Prioritizing User Experience

The vast success of Cookie Run for Kakao won the title of the "National Running Game," which was a grateful and overwhelming achievement for both of us. It meant our intentions and sincerity of spreading positive energy reached the users and resulted in something meaningful.

It taught us that understanding and empathizing with our users is essential for creating content enjoyable for anyone and everyone. In other words, it informed us to not only look at this from a business angle but to honestly think about what kind of experience and emotion we want to convey - and develop from there, considering each element.

Sharing memories and making the world more enjoyable with our users is also meaningful. These were the stepping stones to making the Cookie Run IP a highly loved game by many.

New Adventures of the Cookies

While focusing on operating Cookie Run for Kakao, we tried to expand our game and reach more people overseas by launching LINE Cookie Run. In addition, we released Devsisters' own platform-based running game, Cookie Run: OvenBreak.

Despite the success, the fire within us did not diminish. Our desire to open new possibilities for the Cookie Run IP, taking it to another level, was as strong as ever. We still had countless stories and messages that only the Cookie Run IP could convey, and we wanted to spread the possibilities widely beyond the form of running games. 

Soon after, we decided to take on new challenges to grow the Cookie Run IP further and open up the future we've been dreaming about.

Three-Day Camp to Expand the Cookie Run IP

In October 2016, the initial members of the project, including the two of us, left to lodge together on Jeju Island. As we were all members who played key roles throughout the project, we needed to isolate ourselves to focus.

This meeting had no limitations and was open to all possibilities. But only one goal was clear: the Cookie Run IP. We wanted to brainstorm on how we could tell more stories and expand through the Cookie Run IP.

The meeting was held for a total of three consecutive days. Except for mealtimes, idea meetings filled all of our schedules. Through this process, we came up with everything from the title Cookie Run: Kingdom to narratives, screen composition, and UI.

The early sketches of Cookie Run: Kingdom from the Jeju Island meeting.

Plowing the Kingdom from a Player’s Perspective

As both creators and players of Cookie Run, the meetings took place under the consensus of "Let's create a game that conveys the images of the Cookies we want and the experiences we want to enjoy." The project started by thinking about what kind of experience we would make from the user's perspective.

When discussing which direction to take this project, we first thought about what scenes and experiences we wanted to create with the Cookies. Next, we narrowed the focus by answering each concern that came up on the way. The result was something like, “I want to see the Cookies after they escape the Oven and finally gather at a peaceful land, but t it'd also be fun to have them go on a new adventure due to an unexpected problem. Of course, they'd have moments of hardships, but maybe people will enjoy seeing them move forward and feel positive emotions like courage, hope, and comfort.” 

Furthermore, we thought it would be good if this world where Cookies lived were not just a peaceful land but a place where exciting adventures await and the characters could grow with experience. We thought of somewhere like a kingdom, where, like the term alone, you get the feeling many mysterious stories are waiting to be discovered. In one episode of Cookie Run for Kakao, there was an element called "The Fall of the Cookie Kingdom," so we developed this idea and began shaping the game.

Through this three-day meeting, overflowing with endless ideas, we could design not only the title, “Cookie Run: Kingdom,” but also the playing experience of Cookies' expanding their homes, exploring the new world, and growing together. This is how the combination of social media games and the RPG format was naturally developed.

But who knew that the Cookie Run: Kingdom project, which everyone expected to go smoothly, would end up being a four-year journey?

The rough concept and early sketches of the kingdom from the Jeju Island meeting.

Next Episodes

Next | #2. An Arduous Four-Year Journey

Next | #3. Rewriting the Cookie Run Craze