Coming seemingly out of nowhere, Hollow Knight released in 2017 and quickly took the world by storm. A phenomenal indie Metroidvania game with a joyously dark art style and a handful of Soulslike elements to boot, it didn't take long for word to spread throughout the wider gaming ecosphere. Now just a month away from its seventh birthday, Hollow Knight holds up remarkably well, though that hasn't satiated fans' desire for a brand new Hollow Knight experience, with Hollow Knight: Silksong still very much on the minds of many.

Announced back in February 2019, the fervor surrounding Hollow Knight: Silksong has only continued to grow exponentially over the last five years, now reaching a point where the game has become somewhat of a phenomenon. Somehow, this little indie sequel has become one of the most anticipated games of all time, and while eagerness and excitement are always great to see, there are two big things that fans need to remember about Silksong's developer, Team Cherry.

3:20

Related

What to Expect from Hollow Knight: Silksong in 2024

Hollow Knight: Silksong's still adrift five years after its initial announcement and there's currently no reason for that to be any different in 2024.

Fans Need to Be Patient with Hollow Knight: Silksong's Developer Team Cherry

Team Cherry Only Consists of Three People

An indie developer based in Adelaide, South Australia, Team Cherry currently consists of just three full-time employees. Ari Gibson is one of Team Cherry's co-directors, alongside William Pellen. The first Hollow Knight originally stemmed from a game jam that Gibson and Pellen participated in, with Gibson taking on the role of developer and Pellen taking on the role of artist. From there, Gibson and Pellen joined forces with Jack Vine, the studio's lone coder, and Dave Kazi, the studio's former technical director who left the company in 2017.

Of course, Team Cherry had a little help along the way with the first Hollow Knight, with Shark Jump aiding in distribution and PR for the game, and composer Christopher Larkin forging Hollow Knight's incredible soundtrack. But now, just Ari Gibson, William Pellen, and Jack Vine are working on Hollow Knight: Silksong, meaning that one of the most anticipated games of all time is being worked on by a team of just three people. Therefore, development time is understandably longer than it might be for a larger team.

Hollow Knight: Silksong Is Only Team Cherry's Second Game

There's a ridiculous amount of pressure on Hollow Knight: Silksong right now, and it can be largely separated into a few key layers. The first layer of pressure comes from the simple fact that Silksong is a sequel to one of the most beloved indie games of all time, and that comes with an expectation that the next game will inherently be bigger and better. While this is a fair assumption, it's imperative to remember that Hollow Knight was Team Cherry's first game and that Silksong will only be its second.

Then a whole other layer of pressure comes from this notion of fan hype. For every year that Team Cherry stays radio silent, the more and more fans build up Hollow Knight: Silksong in their mind, and the more difficult it becomes to reach those standards. While huge AAA games like GTA 6 and Elder Scrolls 6 can take that pressure on and often deliver experiences that live up to the long-running hype, Hollow Knight: Silksong is still very much a small indie project, and no matter how much hype surrounds it, it can't be held to the same standards as developers whose franchises have been around for decades.

Hollow Knight: Silksong

Franchise

Hollow Knight

Platform(s)

PS4 , PS5 , Xbox One , Xbox Series S , Xbox Series X , PC , macOS , Linux

Developer(s)

Team Cherry

Publisher(s)

Team Cherry

Genre(s)

Metroidvania