[숲속의 작은 마녀] 개발사 써니사이드업 박은현 대표 인터뷰

Business Summary

Sunny Side Up CEO Park Eun-hyun describes how the studio grew from a three-person founding team into a 15-person company while developing Little Witch in the Woods. The game’s early crowdfunding campaign on Tumblbug helped the team continue development and ease immediate cash-flow pressure, including paying an employee’s salary. The founders initially worked without regular salaries, relying on savings and part-time jobs.

Strategy and Product Differentiation

• Make a distinctive core experience the selling point. The team centered the game on collecting magical creatures. Players must observe creatures, understand their behavior, and solve mechanics to collect them, rather than simply completing an easy checklist.
• Put exploration and scenarios up front. Sunny Side Up aimed to make these elements central to the experience, rather than secondary as they can be in cozy life-simulation games.
• Use feedback without losing the game’s identity. The team incorporated feedback on areas such as UI usability, production, and the affinity system while trying to preserve the game’s distinctive gameplay and fantasy setting.
• Develop the next project from accumulated learning. The team is still brainstorming and has not committed to a specific next game. Its aim is to apply lessons from its debut, avoid repeating preventable mistakes, and appeal to both existing fans and a broader audience.

Operations and Management

• Build processes early, then revisit them as the company scales. Park says establishing systems when the team was small helped new hires integrate as the studio grew. However, processes suited to a team of roughly five or ten may no longer work for 13–15 people, so the studio is reviewing its practices and considering more substantial changes.
• Hire incrementally where possible. The studio expanded in small steps, adding a couple of people at a time rather than growing all at once. This helped the team adapt.
• Protect a low-stress team environment. Park tries to make room for rest during less demanding periods, encourage harmonious communication, and reduce avoidable sources of workplace stress.
• Recognize the costs of leadership. As CEO, Park has had to give difficult feedback, evaluate employees, and sometimes push the team to meet schedules. He also says that playing games for work increasingly means analyzing them rather than enjoying them, and that the strain has affected his health.

Funding, Growth, and Business Milestones

• The founders initially funded their work through savings and part-time jobs. Development support was largely used for essential equipment and employee pay.
• Tumblbug crowdfunding provided critical runway when funds were running low. Park particularly credited early backers who supported the game when only a demo existed.
• Team size: Grew from three founders to 15 employees.
• Sales: The interview states that the game had surpassed 500,000 units sold.
• Current priorities: Major game updates and console preparations.

Practical Takeaways

• Treat crowdfunding as both a funding source and a way to earn early supporters’ trust. Plan carefully for the payroll and development runway it needs to support.
• Define the game’s core player experience before incorporating feedback, so improvements do not dilute what makes it distinctive.
• Put explicit systems in place early, but reassess them as the team grows rather than assuming they will scale indefinitely.
• Build the next product around lessons from the first, while balancing the needs of existing fans with broader market appeal.
• Support team sustainability through communication and rest, while recognizing that overtime expectations and leadership workload can create risks for both employees and management.

Presenters and Source

• Park Eun-hyun, CEO of Sunny Side Up and developer of Little Witch in the Woods
• Rumo, interviewer from Game Diggers, identified in the subtitles as the Game Excavation Team