Played by millions around the world every day, Candy Crush Saga has become a cultural touchstone. But this match-3 masterpiece hasn’t always crushed it. Sebastian Knutsson, cofounder of developer King, shares how Candy Crush grew from a sweet little idea into a gaming gobstopper.

Candy Crush started out as one of many casual games on King.com, the developer’s fun-focused web portal. Knutsson estimates the company had created a few hundred browser games before landing on Candy Crush—and these were far from King’s finest work.

“I designed over 100 of them myself,” Knutsson says. “Of the 10 worst games we ever did, I did eight of them! Candy Crush was probably the seventh match-3 game I made.”

Although a moderate hit when it launched, Candy Crush had a ways to go.

“I think the first version was three minutes of great gaming, but that three minutes didn’t really evolve,” says Knutsson. “It didn’t have any new mechanics coming in or any sense of progression.”

“The visuals were very intentional,” says Knutsson. “The art team really got into it, and we found that we could make candies look amazing. It somehow resonated with the audience.”

That audience blew up when King fortuitously moved the game over to Facebook and added the Saga map and social elements.

“It worked as a single-player journey,” Knutsson explains. “Players wanted to beat the next level, they felt good about their progress, and they asked others, ‘What level are you on?’”

Thanks to the social layer, the game spread like sugary-sweet wildfire. But Knutsson had ambitions for Candy Crush Saga to be playable on as many platforms as possible.

When attention turned to the App Store, Knutsson was hesitant. “I was super-unsure before launching the game on mobile,” he says. “A few weeks before launch I was like, ‘You have so many games on your phone. If you run out of lives, why wouldn’t you just go to the other games you have? Why would you come back?’”

Players answered that question resoundingly when the game launched on the App Store in 2012.

“Over Christmas it just took off. We weren’t really prepared for it,” says Knutsson. “Our mind-set was that this game is going to be gone in six to nine months, so we needed to have the next game ready. Over time, we realized that’s not the pattern at all. We misjudged the longevity of a game like this.”

Knutsson credits that longevity to the game’s deep, complex mechanics.

“A lot of players appreciate that it’s actually a damn hard game,” says Knutsson. “The feeling you get when you’ve beaten a hard level—that euphoria—is part of why you keep sticking with the game year after year.”

He also chalks up its appeal to the way the team continues to respond to whatever players are looking for.

“We haven’t stopped learning how to do that,” he adds. “Whatever business plan we had to start with, it has not come true. It’s been about adapting and evolving.”

Candy Crush Saga

Match 3 & Blast Puzzle Game

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