Over 18 billion rounds of Candy Crush Saga are played each month. Everyone (or at least Everyone’s Mother) plays. It’s something so-called ‘real’ gamers can’t wrap their minds around and now it’s going to be a TV show. CBS partnered with Candy Crush to make the all-mighty game a series, and they built two 30 x 20 foot wide, Guinness World Record-breaking touch screens to do it.
“The biggest challenge was the technology, because we needed to take this game off of your phone and translate it onto what we wanted to be the world's largest touch sensitive walls,” Executive Producer Matt Kunitz told Player.One.
It took two years of research and development into touch screen sensitivity to make the Candy Crush game show a reality. Smart walls at airports and train stations were no match for what Kunitz had in mind, especially considering physically demanding shows such as Fear Factor and Wipeout in his resume. These walls needed to be resilient, designed for people to jump on and slam into.
“I didn't want the audience to just sit and watch people swiping on small tablets. That felt very small and didn't feel like a big network primetime show, so we knew that we wanted to make these walls gigantic. We also knew that our show was going to have a physical element where people would be scaling the wall or running across the wall, so we had to figure out how can we make a giant wall interactive,” he said. “The only way you could swipe on those walls, because they are so big, would be to get harnessed up and be flying over the wall. So that was sort of a natural course for the show because we wanted it to be huge.”
Once the gigantic walls were built, Kunitz asked himself how he could get the audience involved. If you are sitting at home and watching someone play a game that you can’t follow or participate in, why bother? Especially when you can just take out your phone and play a game yourself.
“We did think of esports, but the biggest thing we were thinking of is how do we make the show so it's fun to play, but most importantly fun to watch. One of the things that worked out very well for us is that the contestants are pretty close to the wall when they are playing and the audience has a better perspective. So there’s play-along because the live and home audience is able to see maybe before the contestants sees the match,” he said.
“They have a better sense of the game than perhaps the people that are actually playing it.”
Kunitz said that’s the same strategy as successful shows like Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? which doesn’t give you the answers right away. The audience members see all the potential answers and scream at the TV before the host reveals the answer.
“That play along is what makes game shows popular. We needed to make sure we had that play-along. I know we have it because when were were shooting the show with the live audience as they were watching the game, they were standing up and screaming and yelling and pounding their feet and pointing so we knew right then this is working,” Kunitz said.
There’s also another layer to the show. Viewers can go into the Candy Crush app while watching to get boosters and added bonuses specific to the TV show.
“They gave us the freedom to stretch the boundaries as much as possible yet still be a familiar game to Candy Crush fans,” he said. “This is a rare opportunity to launch a show where we don't have to educate the audience. That can work against you too, but I think that for us, if you're a fan of Candy Crush and you play it on your phone or tablet or computer, you are going to love seeing it in such a grand scale.”
This cross-promotion will give Candy Crush players yet another reason to whip out their smartphones in more places than just their work commute or lunch break.
“I just met someone this weekend and he’s a surgeon and he is on level 2500, which is about as high as you can get playing Candy Crush and I asked him, ‘What is it about Candy Crush that you like so much? Why have you spent so much time playing Candy Crush ?’ He said he can play Candy Crush and everything else just goes away. He’s focused on Candy Crush, he's not thinking about the next surgery. That to me is a perfect analogy. When you watch our show, just like when you play the game, everything else goes away, it’s stress free, it's a just good summer fun,” he said.
The premiere of Candy Crush is a competition between past Big Brother and Survivor contestants. Each episode will feature four teams of two players each battle in the Candy Crush arena. Two teams move to the final round where they race to score 50 matches and a chance to win $100,000.
Candy Crush airs on CBS July 9 at 9 p.m. EDT.
