10 years of sweet success: The evolution of Candy Crush Soda Saga

King’s Candy Crush Soda Saga recently celebrated its 10th anniversary. Since its release a decade ago, the title has attracted millions of players, been a leading mobile puzzle game, and has helped supercharge tohe Candy Crush franchise into a $20 billion+ IP.

To gain insights on how the team created and maintained a multi-billion dollar hit, we spoke with Candy Crush Soda Saga’s VP, head of creative Abigail Rindo about the evolving strategy which has shaped the game, from new accessibility features to events.

PocketGamer.biz: Candy Crush Soda Saga is celebrating its 10th anniversary. How long have you been working on the game and how do you reflect on its journey? 

Abigail Rindo: I joined King just over five years ago and have been VP head of creative for Candy Crush Soda Saga for the last year and a half, leading a talented team that’s responsible for the game’s creative development.

This includes art, UX/UI, game and level design, narrative, and sound. We recently hit our 10th anniversary, and it’s been a delight to celebrate a game that originally began with 150 levels and now offers over 15,000 for players around the world to enjoy.

The continued success of Candy Crush Soda Saga is fantastic to see and a testament to the hard work, creativity, and innovation that go into the game. I’m already looking forward to what the next 10 years will bring for the game.

Originally, the game was expected to replace Candy Crush Saga. What stopped the team from going down that path and instead running Soda Saga as a separate game alongside it?

The games industry was traditionally all about the launch cycle – you launched a new game, it peaked, and then you had to come up with the next best thing.

We launched Candy Crush Soda Saga with the idea of building on the success of its sibling, but we quickly saw that both were thriving side by side. Lots of players were choosing to play both games, which was really exciting to see.  

How does the team work to set Soda Saga apart from other games in the franchise, what makes it unique and different? 

While match-3 gameplay is at the heart of both Candy Crush Saga and Candy Crush Soda Saga, each has unique features and design quirks that really set them apart.

One key element that sets Candy Crush Soda Saga apart is the soda bottles that fill the game board with soda when matched. These provide a more fluid feel to the game, causing candies to float upwards instead of falling down, which can add a really interesting dynamic to the various levels. 

We’ve been leaning into this fluidity and our charming gummy bears to make it a playful and surprising experience. Players love the fact that the game has this quirky sense of humour throughout. We often say Candy Crush Saga makes people smile – but we want to make them laugh when they play Candy Crush Soda Saga.

Do teams share learnings between titles? If so, is there an example of this? 

At King, game development is really collaborative, and we are lucky to have a broad range of talent and titles. But we also want to make sure that all of the features, events, and game mechanics in the game feel fundamentally ‘Soda’ and that they meet the unique needs of our players. 

In Candy Crush Soda Saga, for example, players are given the opportunity to “Grow a Bear” by collecting candies to feed and nurture their cute soda gummy bear in exchange for rewards.

In Farm Heroes Saga, there is a similar event called 1-2-3 Grow, where players are able to collect seeds to grow their Cropsie. While the mechanics behind these features are similar, the characters and game feel are synonymous with the individual titles.  

Another area where we are sharing learnings across the business is our work around accessibility. We led on this work by launching an ‘Audio Accessibility Panel’ earlier this year, which is a new feature allowing players to adjust their settings with unprecedented granularity.

This includes volume sliders for music and sound, options for forced mono, and sliders to adjust frequency. The positive feedback received and lessons learned have been shared across the business, and we’re looking at how we can roll these accessibility features out to other games in the portfolio.

Ensuring our games are inclusive and accessible lies at the heart of our mission, ‘Making The World Playful,’ and it allows us to create moments of fun for a diverse audience.

How do you maintain Candy Crush Soda Saga’s performance alongside other titles in the King portfolio after a decade of the game? 

Candy Crush Soda Saga has had an incredible 10-year journey and continues to perform really well. It started with just 150 levels and now has over 15,000 for people to enjoy. We have incredibly loyal fans around the world, with many waiting eagerly each week for new levels to be released. 

One of the key elements behind this success is that we never stay still. We’re constantly evolving and iterating the player experience, delivering exciting new levels, content, and challenges.

We also put player feedback at the heart of everything we do, talking to players and hosting events so we can test new features. We’re always looking to understand our players’ needs and deliver more of what they enjoy and less of what they don’t.  

We’re also examining the potential of new technology like machine learning and AI to enhance the gameplay experience. One key area has been level design, where it is being used to test and optimise our levels. This allows us to identify issues faster and create even better puzzles for players to solve.

How has the game evolved over the years with the likes of events and new challenges for players? 

The benefit of working on a live game, means we’re always looking at how we can evolve and introduce new features and experiences that surprise and delight players.

This can be seen in our quirky graphics, new in-game activations or tournaments and even in our sound and music. We recently revamped the audio in Candy Crush Soda Saga to create a funk-inspired identity in celebration of our 10th anniversary.

This captured inspiration from music all around the world using instruments like a Sitar from India, a Koto from Japan and many more. The soundscape was recorded with a live orchestra, which included 32 musicians, to really help boost the quality and help players feel immersed in the game.

We have also developed an interactive music system for Candy Crush Soda Saga, which isn’t commonplace for a casual mobile game. This will help us to provide a more immersive experience to our players because the music will be responding to the gameplay, providing an even greater sense of fun and feedback.  

The Soda Cup is another fun event that our players love. It’s a month-long in-game tournament where players compete for exclusive rewards, and this year’s 10th anniversary Soda Cup offers the biggest rewards yet.

Many market changes have occurred over the years. Have any of those changes impacted Soda Soga? Mobile privacy changes? Or even changes in design over the years?

There’s so much opportunity in the mobile gaming industry. Mobile is one of the most popular ways to play games, and the industry keeps growing, with new players entering the market every year.

That means there’s lots of opportunity to get Candy Crush Soda Saga into the hands of players, but it’s also a very competitive market. There’s a daily fight for people’s attention.

At King and also in our Candy Crush Soda team, the need to constantly challenge ourselves to iterate and innovate is in our DNA. It’s not just about core gameplay anymore; it’s about creating an immersive experience, from competitions to visuals to audio. We also need to make sure we’re listening to our players and evolving to meet different behaviours, trends, or preferences.

Regarding change, what would you say in the past 10 years has been one of the game's most significant changes? 

It’s been fun to work on the new soundscape and really look at how we can elevate this experience for players and bring more cheekiness and fun into it. We even created our own water-inspired custom instruments to capture a distinct, fizzing soda-inspired sound.

I’m also proud of the work we have achieved to make Candy Crush Soda Saga more accessible. We've looked at how we can make the sound more accessible but also the visual and dexterity aspects too. For example, players can choose to play with a grayscale background, which originates from player feedback and aids those with visual disabilities by increasing the contrast of the candies. 

We’ve also launched a feature called Precision Help, which was informed by research that looked at why some players move the wrong Candy. This allows users to return the unwanted Candy to the original position, ensuring the move isn’t completed until the finger releases the screen.

Thinking about this level of care and craft while finding interesting ways to innovate has helped keep the game relevant and fun for players over the past decade.        

How was the recent milestone celebrated, and are there any new changes that we can anticipate going into 2025?

This milestone has been all about the players. To mark the occasion, we packed the game with tons of fun, from the whimsical Grow-a-Bear and Bake a Cake events to exclusive themed candies, there’s a treat for everyone.

Players also had the chance to take part in ‘11 Days of Gifting’, where daily rewards like boosters, gold bars, and extra lives were up for grabs as our way of saying thank you for being part of our journey. Plus, we brought back the fan-favourite Soda Cup.

To top it all off, we refreshed the game’s soundscape for a fresh, exciting vibe. With so much happening, there’s never been a better time to jump in and celebrate with us.