🌟 Meet our Kingster: Natalia7

Hi Sodalicious friends!

Wanna meet our Kingster @Natalia7 and get to know her a bit better? This is your chance to find out more about one of the minds behind the Soda Magic!

Role at King: Level Designer / Content Designer

Level in your favorite King game: 1643 in Candy Crush Soda Saga

Personal fun fact: When I was a kid I used to play with Crash Bandicoot for the PS1. I was so inspired by those levels that I used to build them in real life in my garden with things that I would find laying around like chairs, stone benches, ladders, and tools for construction sites! And now, I´m creating levels again!

🔶 How long have you been working at King? 

I started in September 2019 so almost 3 years.

🔶 Do you like being a Kingster? Why?

Yes, I do for many reasons: people are very friendly, easy to approach, and to talk to. Even if you consider yourself shy, the environment in the office really helps you to connect with people and I really love that. Another reason is that I can contribute with new ideas and improvements to the game together with my teammates and that makes me feel rewarded and helpful.

🔶 How are new levels tested before they are released?

In the Content team, we playtest every single level before it is released for the players, multiple times, and by different people. We want to make sure that the levels are fun and they have a balanced level of difficulty in the overall progression to provide the player with a great experience. They are also checked again by other Candy Crush Soda Saga team members before they get released to players.

🔶 Where do you get the inspiration to make new levels from?

It can be different things: sometimes I want to focus on the shape of a level because I want to represent something specific (like a Christmas tree, a heart, etc.). Or I can play with the candy colors that I use to convey a specific mood (using cold or warm colors or playing with contrast).

🔶 What are your tips for someone who has recently started playing the game?

Focus on the objective of the level: sometimes some choices/moves look like they are going to be useful but they will have a small impact on the goal.

🔶 Do you ever get stuck in a level? If so, what do you do?

Yes definitely! I try the level multiple times and play with different strategies to see if I can get a faster progression, for example creating more fish or hitting specific blockers that can blast other areas. If I get frustrated then I focus on other parts of the game, like the events of “Bake a cake” or “Kimmy's Arcade” and try to go back to the level with more rewards!

🔶 What’s your favorite game mode and why?

Hard to pick between Frosting and Jam! The levels with the jam can be very rewarding if I manage to spread the jam with candy canes and jelly cakes! Often jam levels are also scrolling so it can be fun to see how multiple boards are connected together! I like the Frosting game mode because levels are usually easy to read: just clear everything and you will find the gummy bears!

🔶 Can you tell us if there will be any surprises regarding levels, blockers, and modes in the future?

Recently we released a new blocker in the latest levels (around level 8000). It is a Color blocker, very nice and colorful! We have some other ideas ready to be implemented and we are always trying to improve existing levels, especially the initial levels that have been created many years ago and need some revisitation!

🔶 What does Community mean to you?

Passion. A group of people that are very passionate about something and they can share their thoughts with other people that are engaged in the same way! They can open up and feel included.

🔶 What else would you like to tell your players?

I would invite them to share more about what they like or dislike in the levels. Also, post some screenshots of levels they really enjoy or not and what they think about the specific features in the core game. We always try to improve the experience for them and having specific examples can help us identify what we could change. Last year we revamp the chocolate game mode taking into account the comments from the players and I am very proud of how the game mode looks now, definitively more fun!

Thanks a lot, @Natalia7 , for sharing all these wonderful insights with us 😍. Now it's YOUR turn, dear players! Is there anything you want to share with our Kingster?