User Interview: Riley & Mads – Creators of the Popular Game ‘ABC Runner’ from Denmark Developing New Puzzle Game

We’re from Copenhagen, Denmark.
There are 1 million people in Copenhagen and about 5 million people in Denmark.
We live in a little place called Nørrebro, which means “Northern bridge” in English.

Because that bridge leads to Sweden.
There are older, smaller bridges as well. I think it was just how they divided things, like how you have prefectures here.

Too much info!

It’s very beautiful but very old. You have a lot of old culture in Japan as well, there are also many old castles and some stuff there. But it feels very different from the castles here. Royal people live there as well in Copenhagen.

We can keep talking about that!

We have a game company. We make mobile software and mobile games. It’s a mix of programming, design, and also marketing. We run marketing campaigns through Google Ads, Facebook, and so on.
We show ads, analyze data, and add ads to our games, then analyze the results.

Yes, of course!

Yes, ABC runner is the game which you can enjoy learning English language. Our game is inspired by the “Battle Royale” of Fortnite. In the game, there are a lot of people, and the new goal is to be the last one standing, just like in Fortnite where 100 players compete.

We brainstormed by looking at the market—what’s doing well, what games do people like to play? We also looked at data, but a lot of it was brainstorming. We wrote down ideas on a whiteboard and thought this could be a good one.

The game is based on an old children’s game. The rules are similar to a game where you have a paper, a timer, and everyone starts at the same time. The first winner gets some points.

We made a digital version of it. You can still think of nostalgia. Games for kids tend to work well, like Pokémon cards and Lego, for example.
Our game is a famous children’s game in Denmark and also in the USA.

Yes! It was #1 on the download charts in both the USA and the UK, and many other countries!

I felt like, “Wow, really? Is this real?” I was happy!

I also thought, “Wow!” It was amazing to see so many people love our game.

We’re trying to chase that same thrill again because it’s been a few years. We want to do it again, but it’s hard to replicate.

Now we’re working on a new game, a jigsaw puzzle game.

It’s a game where you have smaller tasks, and the more pieces you collect, the more money you get. You can get more helpers to speed things up, and as you upgrade, the game gets faster. The game will likely be played by a younger demographic.

Not yet. It’s not out yet, maybe in January?
We create small prototypes, then send them out with Google Ads to see things like, “What does it cost to download?” and “How much money do we make compared to the cost?”

Yeah, but that’s kind of what we’re trying to replicate.
People have fun memories of putting together jigsaw puzzles. It’s not 3D because it’s an app, but we can still tap into that real-life experience, which is really fun. But we need to test it and see if it has an audience. The target audience for jigsaw puzzles tends to be older people, so we’re not sure how it will go.

But it’s a lot about creating a playful, digital version of memories, emotions, and feelings.

First, we searched for the best coworking spaces in Japan, and we found your coworking space listed on a website called “Gaijin Friendly.” We spent a day visiting five different places.
We thought this one was the best, as it’s close to where we live and we really like the atmosphere.

It’s nice and cozy here. There’s also a work-centric area with screens.

There are lots of things like monitors, which is nice, and chairs where we can sit for hours. Also, there are good lunch options.

Yeah, we went to Hiroshima, Kyoto, Osaka, Nara, and Nagano by Shinkansen with a 1-week Shinkansen pass.

In Nagano, we saw snow monkeys.

In Hiroshima, we went to the Peace Museum. It was interesting to see, and very touching.

And very sad.

We also went to Universal Studios in Osaka, fed crackers to deer in Nara, and visited Fushimi Inari Taisha in Kyoto.
Actually, we had planned to go to Hokkaido, but it would take 10 hours by Shinkansen. From the Shinkansen, we saw Mt. Fuji. It was very beautiful. Tokyo is also beautiful. We’ve seen a lot of funny things, like the small pig café and the Sky Tree. I think we’ve seen a lot in Tokyo, right?

We want to do more in our last week here.

I’ll show you a funny photo of pigs. They love Mads.

It’s a pig café in Harajuku.It was a lot of fun, but a bit disgusting, though.

We’ve also been to Akihabara and bought Pokémon cards. I really like Pokémon.
Tomorrow, we’re taking a cooking class to learn how to make ramen. The class is 2 hours long.

I really like ramen. I’ve found some great ramen spots here in Japan. Really good ramen!
You’re probably not the biggest fan of ramen, though? (to Riley)

Oh yeah, we’ve already been there for lunch!

We’ve tried many different restaurants, trying to find our favorites.

In Denmark, lunch is almost always bread—rice bread, corn on it, and you make your own sandwiches. It’s rare to go out for lunch. It’s interesting here in Japan.

I really liked Hiroshima.

And I really liked okonomiyaki.

There was also a light festival, like a Christmas event with decorations. It was great. The food around our hotel was cheaper than in Tokyo.

That worked out well for us! We also ate fried oysters.

I’d say to people, if you’re sitting at home wondering, “Should I do this or not? Is it going to be difficult?” Just do it and try it out. In CASE, the people are friendly, and even though the language can be a little hard, it’s really easy to figure things out here. There’s good transportation, Wi-Fi, shared desks, and monitors. It’s easy to work from here.

I thought it might be scary at first, especially coming alone. You think about the language barrier, but actually, it’s really nice. It’s easy to get around because there are English translations at the stations and everywhere. It’s much easier than I expected.

And the events are cozy and fun. I enjoyed the rice festival dinner at CASE.

We went to other places before this, but some of them felt more like small rooms with a few tables, not as cozy. I felt lonely.　But here, it’s more open.

We work at a startup coworking space in Copenhagen, and a lot of people there go to other places for one or two months. A lot of them choose places like Delhi or Thailand, but it’s too hot for us.
And we were talking about it, and we thought that when we were young and we’re older now, if it’s a once-in-a-lifetime experience, we should try it. Then Mads suggested Japan because of the culture. It fits very well with our interests in gaming and technology. Also, Japan is very safe, which is a big plus.