WEBVTT 00:00:00.685 --> 00:00:03.075 * Seer's voice * 00:00:04.575 --> 00:00:07.095 William Pellen and Ari Gibson. 00:00:07.600 --> 00:00:09.740 If you are regular to my channel 00:00:09.740 --> 00:00:12.100 the names probably sound familiar. 00:00:12.120 --> 00:00:15.360 These are the two man responsible for the creation of Hollow Knight. 00:00:16.080 --> 00:00:18.500 But how well do you really know the members of Team Cherry? 00:00:19.140 --> 00:00:22.140 What skeletons take up residence in their closets? 00:00:22.375 --> 00:00:25.225 It's time we stop pretending that Team Cherry is harmless. 00:00:25.400 --> 00:00:27.620 As the Knight of Great Renown once said, 00:00:27.980 --> 00:00:29.840 "Nothing...is harmless." - Zote 00:00:53.280 --> 00:00:56.420 There are many places we could start with the story of Team Cherry. 00:00:56.420 --> 00:00:59.080 Like four hundred and twelve million years ago 00:00:59.080 --> 00:01:00.720 when bugs first walked the Earth. 00:01:00.720 --> 00:01:06.080 Or even 1901, when Australia gained independence from Great Britain. 00:01:06.080 --> 00:01:10.120 Or maybe 1945, when Great Britain gained independence from Austrail... 00:01:10.120 --> 00:01:11.560 Or maybe 1945, when Great Britain gained independence from Australian exports. 00:01:11.560 --> 00:01:13.600 Instead we're going to start here. 00:01:14.500 --> 00:01:17.060 This is Return to Booty Grotto. 00:01:17.200 --> 00:01:20.860 It was posted to Newgrounds on October 12th, 2012 00:01:20.960 --> 00:01:23.220 by a man named William Pellen, 00:01:23.400 --> 00:01:26.360 making this his first game ever published on the Internet. 00:01:26.705 --> 00:01:29.805 Return to Booty Grotto revolves around Finn the Fish 00:01:29.805 --> 00:01:31.520 a goldfish with a bowler hat 00:01:31.720 --> 00:01:34.160 who is given a treasure map by his grandpa. 00:01:34.400 --> 00:01:37.860 The game itself isn't terrible. You basically navigate through Booty Grotto 00:01:38.020 --> 00:01:40.880 collecting fish and avoiding enemies and traps. 00:01:41.020 --> 00:01:44.920 Unfortunately, Finn is the most pathetic protagonist ever to be featured in a game 00:01:45.300 --> 00:01:48.620 on account of the fact that bumping into walls kills him, instantly. 00:01:48.780 --> 00:01:51.580 The lore explanation for this is that Finn JUST ATE. 00:01:52.020 --> 00:01:52.940 Seems legit. 00:01:53.220 --> 00:01:56.120 Now you might be wondering if this game has any similarities to Hollow Knight. 00:01:57.040 --> 00:01:58.240 Well yes, actually. 00:01:58.560 --> 00:02:00.560 First off the game has a bestiary, 00:02:00.940 --> 00:02:04.100 filled with deep and rich lore, about each of the characters. 00:02:04.345 --> 00:02:07.595 On top of that the game also features jellyfish, as well as, 00:02:07.945 --> 00:02:08.975 bees? 00:02:09.600 --> 00:02:11.420 And then there's, oh god. 00:02:11.740 --> 00:02:14.380 * Sound of Silence plays * 00:02:14.380 --> 00:02:15.120 * Finn dies * 00:02:15.120 --> 00:02:17.580 Return to Booty Grotto has multiple endings 00:02:17.580 --> 00:02:18.540 much like Hollow Knight. 00:02:19.020 --> 00:02:21.820 In one ending, Finn rescues a random fish named Gilly 00:02:21.840 --> 00:02:25.040 that was locked up inside a treasure chest by a giant angler fish. 00:02:25.040 --> 00:02:29.160 In another ending, he becomes a king because he found some random orbs in a temple. 00:02:29.640 --> 00:02:31.720 And in the last ending he goes to outer space, 00:02:31.720 --> 00:02:32.975 reaches the end of the universe, 00:02:32.980 --> 00:02:35.100 experiences a cosmic event 00:02:35.240 --> 00:02:37.420 reawakens in the ocean, opens an ancient chest 00:02:37.820 --> 00:02:38.740 finds a piece of bubblegum 00:02:38.740 --> 00:02:43.440 blows a bubble big enough to encase his entire body and then flies off into space, never to be seen again. 00:02:44.060 --> 00:02:46.060 I'm pretty sure this is the canonical ending 00:02:46.060 --> 00:02:49.580 Anyway, Return to Booty Grotto was actually a sequel to Booty Grotto, 00:02:49.580 --> 00:02:51.860 a game made by another one of William's friends: 00:02:51.860 --> 00:02:53.520 some guy named Brad. 00:02:53.680 --> 00:02:57.880 At the time, William was making video games as a hobby, while working as a web designer. 00:02:57.880 --> 00:03:00.400 William had been in love with video games ever since 00:03:00.500 --> 00:03:04.440 his dad showed him how to find the boots in Zelda 2: The Adventure of Link. 00:03:04.840 --> 00:03:08.540 Because despite popular belief, Zelda 2 isn't actually terrible. 00:03:09.340 --> 00:03:11.340 On May 12th, 2013 00:03:11.720 --> 00:03:15.060 William posted a demo for his new game, Lulanda 00:03:15.065 --> 00:03:16.345 on stencil.com. 00:03:17.120 --> 00:03:21.160 Stencil is a program that allows users to develop small flash and mobile games 00:03:21.160 --> 00:03:23.420 without having to have an insane knowledge of code. 00:03:23.995 --> 00:03:27.095 Lulanda is a 2D platformer that takes inspiration from Super Mario World, 00:03:27.100 --> 00:03:29.940 Alex Kidd, and Zelda 2. 00:03:29.940 --> 00:03:33.420 The game revolves around a little deer, girl thing 00:03:33.440 --> 00:03:37.460 trying to collect some, other, things for some reason. 00:03:38.240 --> 00:03:40.620 The first level takes place in Onion Valley 00:03:40.620 --> 00:03:42.600 where everyone is made of onions. 00:03:43.020 --> 00:03:45.720 And of course, there are buzzsaws. 00:03:45.720 --> 00:03:49.140 I'm starting to think that William has an unhealthy obsession with these things. 00:03:49.625 --> 00:03:52.555 There's also a shop in the game that features a plush toy of Finn, 00:03:52.555 --> 00:03:54.965 along with some other random characters. 00:03:55.215 --> 00:03:58.225 Are these from other games that William had ideas for? 00:03:58.225 --> 00:04:03.260 I for one would love to play as a floppy ear dog or an angry... booger. 00:04:03.600 --> 00:04:05.440 William put a lot of time into Lulanda 00:04:05.620 --> 00:04:08.140 posting another demo to Newgrounds in October. 00:04:08.480 --> 00:04:13.420 At this point, William was experiencing issues with Stencil being unable to handle the size of his game. 00:04:13.600 --> 00:04:15.840 Lulanda would need to be developed in a different engine 00:04:16.295 --> 00:04:19.185 if William wanted to keep working on it. 00:04:19.185 --> 00:04:22.545 Buuut that's enough about William Pellen. We all know why we're here. 00:04:22.580 --> 00:04:26.080 You wanna hear about Ari Gibson, and his beautiful sweater. 00:04:26.080 --> 00:04:28.960 Before Hollow Knight, Ari was working in animation 00:04:29.140 --> 00:04:32.200 While both William and Ari had experienced animation 00:04:32.200 --> 00:04:35.060 Ari had worked on several animation projects by this point. 00:04:35.580 --> 00:04:38.020 Ari worked for The People's Republic of Animation 00:04:38.020 --> 00:04:40.820 working on animation for a wide variety of mediums, 00:04:40.820 --> 00:04:45.280 from TV specials and short films, to commercials and even video games. 00:04:45.280 --> 00:04:49.980 Remember that breathtaking ending cutscene in the 2008 Nintendo Wii game De Blob? 00:04:50.340 --> 00:04:53.935 Well, that animation was produced by The People's Republic of Animation 00:04:53.935 --> 00:04:56.305 and directed by Ari Gibson himself. 00:04:56.620 --> 00:05:01.180 Ari also worked on such amazing titles as Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen 00:05:01.180 --> 00:05:03.660 and Megamind: Mega Team Unite. 00:05:03.800 --> 00:05:07.800 In 2012, Ari founded Mechanical Apple with Jason Pamment. 00:05:08.000 --> 00:05:10.820 Together, the two worked on a number of animation projects 00:05:10.820 --> 00:05:13.740 including music video for The Audreys and 00:05:13.740 --> 00:05:17.320 Go yeet? Go - Tie? Agh, Jesus... 00:05:17.320 --> 00:05:19.320 * mossbag typing * 00:05:19.635 --> 00:05:20.845 Go-Tea-Ah 00:05:21.395 --> 00:05:22.935 There's a playlist in the description below 00:05:23.445 --> 00:05:26.325 of all the animation Ari's worked on that I can find 00:05:26.495 --> 00:05:27.865 so go check that out. 00:05:28.535 --> 00:05:31.655 Ari's love for video games began with Faxanadu 00:05:31.655 --> 00:05:34.215 which plays very similarly with Zelda 2 00:05:34.220 --> 00:05:36.700 but it isn't a Zelda game so no one has heard of it. 00:05:36.700 --> 00:05:40.620 William and Ari eventually started talking about the idea of working on games together. 00:05:40.620 --> 00:05:43.600 The two had met through friends, several years ago 00:05:43.600 --> 00:05:47.840 but it wasn't till mid-way through 2013 that they began making games together. 00:05:47.840 --> 00:05:50.160 William sent Ari a copy of Lulanda 00:05:50.160 --> 00:05:52.960 and the two decided to start participating in game jams. 00:05:52.960 --> 00:05:55.560 Rohan Fraser, a friend that Ari had met through work, 00:05:55.560 --> 00:05:57.720 also joined in on the fun. 00:05:57.765 --> 00:06:00.855 These were the three original members of Team Cherry 00:06:00.855 --> 00:06:03.575 and in August, they entered their very first game jam: 00:06:03.720 --> 00:06:05.820 Ludum Dare 27. 00:06:05.820 --> 00:06:09.500 Ludum Dare is a game jam event that occurs multiple times a year. 00:06:09.505 --> 00:06:13.720 In a game jam, participants are given a short amount of time to put together a game from scratch. 00:06:13.720 --> 00:06:17.060 It's basically a way for developers to flex their creativity, 00:06:17.060 --> 00:06:19.180 and practice working together under stress. 00:06:19.180 --> 00:06:23.140 Ludum Dare 27 began on August 23rd, 2013, 00:06:23.140 --> 00:06:27.580 and gave teams 72 hours to make a game based on the theme of "10 seconds". 00:06:27.700 --> 00:06:29.280 Over the course of three days 00:06:29.400 --> 00:06:33.260 William, Ari and Rohan, created a game called Hungry Knight. 00:06:33.580 --> 00:06:36.840 In Hungry Knight the player plays as this... thing, 00:06:37.240 --> 00:06:39.520 and is tasked with killing 3 masked... 00:06:39.520 --> 00:06:40.260 and is tasked with killing 3 masked... bears? 00:06:40.260 --> 00:06:42.600 in order to revive the player character's friend. 00:06:42.860 --> 00:06:46.720 However, if the Knight doesn't eat a cherry every 10 seconds, they die, 00:06:46.720 --> 00:06:49.740 also their friend is revived as a skeleton? 00:06:49.915 --> 00:06:52.135 T-that doesn't make sense. 00:06:52.135 --> 00:06:55.365 Hungry Knight was the inception for a lot of what Team Cherry has become. 00:06:55.640 --> 00:06:59.380 The name Team Cherry actually comes from the cherries found in this game 00:07:00.000 --> 00:07:03.640 and obviously, they reused the design of the Hungry Knight in this game 00:07:03.640 --> 00:07:05.820 for Dung Defender in Hollow Knight 00:07:05.820 --> 00:07:09.680 Hollow Knight also borrow the idea of killing 3 masked beings from Hungry Knight as well. 00:07:10.420 --> 00:07:12.900 So it-it's basically the same game, guys. 00:07:13.040 --> 00:07:15.180 Less than a month after creating Hungry Knight, 00:07:15.180 --> 00:07:17.480 Team Cherry participated in another game jam: 00:07:17.480 --> 00:07:19.600 Indie Speedrun 2013. 00:07:19.795 --> 00:07:22.345 While they missed the deadline for the game jam, 00:07:22.345 --> 00:07:24.955 Team Cherry still put together a game: Tomb Cat. 00:07:25.140 --> 00:07:27.660 Tomb Cat is about a mother of three kittens 00:07:27.660 --> 00:07:30.200 that makes money by grave robbing Egyptian temples. 00:07:30.200 --> 00:07:33.295 There are three different temples with a varying number of rooms. 00:07:33.300 --> 00:07:36.140 The goal is to collect as much money as you can 00:07:36.140 --> 00:07:38.620 without running out of time in any room or dying. 00:07:38.620 --> 00:07:42.720 This would be Team Cherry's last game before development on Hollow Knight finally began. 00:07:42.720 --> 00:07:46.760 During this time, Ari continued to work on animation for Mechanical Apple. 00:07:47.200 --> 00:07:50.520 In March of 2014, Mechanical Apple released Motorbike 00:07:50.525 --> 00:07:53.615 a short film about a kid who's trying to make it to a date on time. 00:07:53.740 --> 00:07:56.920 What's interesting about this film is that the music was done by none other 00:07:57.040 --> 00:07:58.400 than Christopher Larkin. 00:07:58.700 --> 00:08:01.220 Chris and Ari had worked on a few projects together, 00:08:01.220 --> 00:08:04.740 but Chris would later go on to produce the beautiful score found in Hollow Knight. 00:08:04.940 --> 00:08:09.000 Another cool thing about this film is that it was actually selected as a Disney favorite, 00:08:09.000 --> 00:08:11.140 and was featured on Disney's Youtube channel. 00:08:11.640 --> 00:08:16.135 So there's a nice bit of riveting Hollow Knight trivia for you to share on your next social gathering. 00:08:16.140 --> 00:08:19.940 Ari also continue to hold a fascination towards the character from Hungry Knight. 00:08:20.260 --> 00:08:24.780 Ari even drew concept art featuring the "Hungry bug" as it was called at this point. 00:08:25.340 --> 00:08:30.900 Ari named the 1985 OVA "Angel's Egg" as one of his main inspiration of the art in Hollow Knight, 00:08:31.380 --> 00:08:33.620 and you can definitely see the connection: 00:08:33.620 --> 00:08:37.140 the dark colors, the faded cities, shells in the walls. 00:08:37.780 --> 00:08:40.580 This also means that Ari is canonically a weeb. 00:08:40.580 --> 00:08:44.500 Hollow Knight finally began to take shape in April, 2014. 00:08:44.880 --> 00:08:46.600 It was Ludum Dare 29 00:08:46.880 --> 00:08:49.620 and the theme was "Beneath the Surface". 00:08:49.620 --> 00:08:52.480 Team Cherry came up with the idea of a ruined bug kingdom 00:08:52.480 --> 00:08:56.780 where players would start in town, and then head down a well into the darkness below. 00:08:57.240 --> 00:08:59.860 This is the first piece of art ever made for Hollow Knight. 00:09:00.280 --> 00:09:03.420 Using bugs for characters made it easier to draw and animate them quickly. 00:09:03.540 --> 00:09:06.340 Dark colors also help to obscure rushed artwork. 00:09:06.340 --> 00:09:11.100 In other words, many of the inspirations of Hollow Knight were born out of convenience. 00:09:11.320 --> 00:09:14.295 Team Cherry didn't submit anything for Ludum Dare 29, 00:09:14.300 --> 00:09:18.320 but they held on to this game, deciding it was time to take the next step. 00:09:18.320 --> 00:09:20.620 Team Cherry ripped the Knight's sprites from Hungry Knight, 00:09:20.760 --> 00:09:25.220 and gutted the code from Lulanda to begin development on Hungry Knight 2. 00:09:25.920 --> 00:09:28.180 Of course, this name didn't stick around for long. 00:09:28.420 --> 00:09:33.020 Team Cherry decided to change it after realizing that the Knight doesn't really eat anything anymore. 00:09:33.340 --> 00:09:35.780 They decided on Hollow Knight, because 00:09:35.780 --> 00:09:38.240 well, the Knight looked hollow, 00:09:38.240 --> 00:09:39.280 I guess. 00:09:39.520 --> 00:09:44.860 During the original game jam, Team Cherry came up with the idea that some of the rooms would shift positions 00:09:45.120 --> 00:09:46.600 sort of like a roguelike. 00:09:46.820 --> 00:09:50.340 This would change the order in which players would collect upgrades and items. 00:09:50.340 --> 00:09:52.540 Team Cherry gave it up because it was confusing, 00:09:52.545 --> 00:09:55.495 and really screwed up any kind of narrative they tried to make 00:09:55.635 --> 00:09:58.615 and trust me, the narrative is already confusing enough 00:09:58.615 --> 00:10:01.425 without the world changing shape every playthrough. 00:10:01.580 --> 00:10:05.480 For about 5 or 6 months before the Kickstarter in November, 2014, 00:10:05.480 --> 00:10:07.680 William and Ari worked on their new game 00:10:07.680 --> 00:10:11.920 At some point during all of this, Rohan Fraser made his exit from Team Cherry. 00:10:11.920 --> 00:10:15.440 From what I can tell, Ari and William had both quit their jobs 00:10:15.700 --> 00:10:18.040 and dedicated most of their time to working on Hollow Knight. 00:10:18.340 --> 00:10:21.120 Rohan might not have been willing to take that plunge, 00:10:21.240 --> 00:10:22.280 and who could blame him. 00:10:22.700 --> 00:10:26.780 I assume living in Australia is scary enough without being unemployed too. 00:10:26.780 --> 00:10:29.780 Like I said earlier, Rohan worked with Ari in animation 00:10:29.780 --> 00:10:32.960 and he has been working on his own comic book series called Blokkan. 00:10:33.440 --> 00:10:38.180 November 18, 2014 was the day Hollow Knight finally landed on Kickstarter. 00:10:38.820 --> 00:10:43.100 What's interesting is that Team Cherry never consciously labelled their game as a metroidvania. 00:10:43.240 --> 00:10:46.940 Regardless, Hollow Knight does draw a lot of inspiration from the genre. 00:10:47.200 --> 00:10:53.320 Team Cherry openly admits that Metroid and Castlevania: Aria of Sorrows inspired them when creating Hollow Knight. 00:10:53.660 --> 00:10:56.780 But they also list other games as well, such as Zelda 2 00:10:56.780 --> 00:10:57.860 and Faxanadu. 00:10:58.280 --> 00:11:01.700 They also cite Megaman X as an inspiration for the movement and controls. 00:11:02.100 --> 00:11:05.700 The charm system was based on the badge system from Paper Mario. 00:11:05.700 --> 00:11:07.420 They also cite Pikmin at some point, 00:11:07.540 --> 00:11:09.680 but I don't really know how? or um... 00:11:10.560 --> 00:11:11.240 Why? 00:11:11.620 --> 00:11:14.840 And yes, there is a bit of Dark Souls in there as well. 00:11:15.100 --> 00:11:20.020 They have implied that the corpse run mechanic is at least somewhat inspired by Dark Souls 00:11:20.020 --> 00:11:22.680 While Dark Souls isn't the first game to do this, 00:11:22.680 --> 00:11:25.120 they definitely brought the mechanic into the mainsteam. 00:11:25.585 --> 00:11:28.655 In terms of story and lore, Team Cherry has never said 00:11:28.655 --> 00:11:30.875 anything about being inspired by Dark Souls, 00:11:31.240 --> 00:11:33.360 which is suspicious. 00:11:33.360 --> 00:11:38.840 I mean, the White Lady is basically one giant pair of tits away from basically being Gwynevere, but whatever. 00:11:38.840 --> 00:11:44.280 Team Cherry also said that the soul mechanic in Hollow Knight took inspiration form the rally mechanic in Bloodborne. 00:11:44.520 --> 00:11:46.215 After taking hit in Bloodborne, 00:11:46.215 --> 00:11:49.175 the player has the opportunity to regain their lost health 00:11:49.175 --> 00:11:51.745 by dealing damage to an enemy. 00:11:51.745 --> 00:11:54.955 But after a short period of time, this opportunity vanishes. 00:11:55.540 --> 00:11:58.380 So yeah, when it comes to inspiration for Hollow Knight, 00:11:58.480 --> 00:11:59.760 I think William said it best: 00:11:59.760 --> 00:12:01.760 William: "We've stolen a lot of ideas" 00:12:02.060 --> 00:12:03.460 Dude: "Hey, well that's the way to do it" 00:12:03.800 --> 00:12:08.220 The Kickstarter goal for Hollow Knight was $35,000 Australian. 00:12:08.255 --> 00:12:11.205 Pledge rewards included stuff like signed artwork, 00:12:11.205 --> 00:12:14.255 dream characters, dream warriors 00:12:14.255 --> 00:12:16.905 NPCs, bosses, dungeons 00:12:16.905 --> 00:12:19.525 and there was even a slot for a backer village. 00:12:19.525 --> 00:12:23.480 Some of this content is still waiting to be added in the Hornet DLC. 00:12:24.000 --> 00:12:27.460 Hollow Knight didn't get officially funded until December 15, 00:12:27.740 --> 00:12:29.680 just three days before the Kickstarter ended. 00:12:29.820 --> 00:12:32.860 There was a huge ramp up right at the end, closing out the 00:12:32.860 --> 00:12:36.200 final funding figure at over 57,000 dollarydoos. 00:12:36.505 --> 00:12:37.645 After the dust settled, 00:12:38.040 --> 00:12:39.800 and late Paypal payments were added up, 00:12:40.420 --> 00:12:43.335 five Kickstarter stretch goals had been reached, 00:12:43.340 --> 00:12:44.340 including a Wii U port 00:12:44.460 --> 00:12:46.500 and an additional playable character. 00:12:46.520 --> 00:12:51.660 With their new piles of cash, Team Cherry got themselves a nice little office in downtown Adelaide. 00:12:51.660 --> 00:12:55.700 It was time to get serious about developing Hollow Knight into a fully fledged game. 00:12:56.240 --> 00:12:58.140 That meant ditching Stencil once and for all. 00:12:58.800 --> 00:13:01.620 If Hollow Knight is going to be ported to the Wii U, 00:13:01.620 --> 00:13:04.460 the game was going to need to be built in a new engine. 00:13:04.460 --> 00:13:05.940 Team Cherry decided on Unity, 00:13:06.280 --> 00:13:08.520 bringing in Dave Kozi to help them out. 00:13:08.920 --> 00:13:12.340 Dave was an experienced programmer and knew his way around Unity, 00:13:12.460 --> 00:13:14.940 and when comparing the game in both engines 00:13:14.940 --> 00:13:17.560 it's pretty obvious that they made the right choice. 00:13:17.760 --> 00:13:23.120 Around March, 2015, Team Cherry commissioned Christopher Larkin to compose the soundtrack for Hollow Knight. 00:13:23.560 --> 00:13:27.140 Everything was coming together, but there was a lot of work left to do. 00:13:27.660 --> 00:13:31.500 The original plan was to release Hollow Knight in June, 2015. 00:13:31.880 --> 00:13:35.420 The game was originally intended to only be two or three hours long. 00:13:35.520 --> 00:13:39.160 Needless to say, the game ended up being a TAD bigger than that. 00:13:39.160 --> 00:13:41.840 It wasn't that Team Cherry had to redo the whole game 00:13:41.840 --> 00:13:44.340 or scrap a whole bunch of stuff or anything like that. 00:13:44.560 --> 00:13:48.560 The base idea was that there would be three guardians that the player would have to defeat 00:13:48.560 --> 00:13:50.625 in order to fight the final boss. 00:13:50.625 --> 00:13:53.300 And we can see this design in the final game 00:13:53.300 --> 00:13:55.920 but Team Cherry just kept adding more and more. 00:13:55.920 --> 00:14:00.920 There were originally going to be only three areas that branched out of the Forgotten Crossroads: 00:14:00.920 --> 00:14:02.360 the Fungal Wastes 00:14:02.360 --> 00:14:03.440 the Ruined City 00:14:03.520 --> 00:14:04.560 and the Bone Forest 00:14:05.240 --> 00:14:08.020 They wanted to add another section to the Forgotten Crossroads, 00:14:08.040 --> 00:14:09.520 so we got the Crystal Peaks. 00:14:09.760 --> 00:14:11.960 The Fungal Wastes was broken into several different areas, 00:14:11.965 --> 00:14:14.845 such as Greenpath, the Fog Canyon. 00:14:14.845 --> 00:14:16.540 and the Queen's Gardens 00:14:16.540 --> 00:14:19.240 The Bone Forest was moved down to the bottom of the map, 00:14:19.320 --> 00:14:22.855 so Team Cherry created Deepnest to connect it better to the world. 00:14:22.860 --> 00:14:25.300 Unfortunately, the Forest of Bones was cut, 00:14:25.340 --> 00:14:27.340 but was replaced with the Ancient Basin. 00:14:27.620 --> 00:14:31.920 The Blue Lake was added at some point so that the rain in the City of Tears actually made sense, 00:14:31.920 --> 00:14:36.480 and Kingdom's Edge was added to contain the Hive and other loose ends that were left over. 00:14:36.480 --> 00:14:37.565 By the end, 00:14:37.565 --> 00:14:41.760 The map was HUGE, with a huge variety of locations and enemies. 00:14:41.760 --> 00:14:45.480 The entire map of Hollow Knight is comprised of black squares 00:14:45.660 --> 00:14:48.260 that are dressed up with 2D hand-drawn artwork. 00:14:48.260 --> 00:14:51.800 The art and animation was done almost exclusively in Photoshop. 00:14:51.800 --> 00:14:55.360 Ideas for enemies usually began on a whiteboard, or on paper, 00:14:55.365 --> 00:14:58.015 and it didn't take long to bring those drawings to life. 00:14:58.020 --> 00:15:00.640 A boss could be conceived and animated in about a week, 00:15:00.960 --> 00:15:04.100 and a regular enemy could be animated in as fast as 40 minutes, 00:15:04.435 --> 00:15:06.625 and programmed in another 40 minutes. 00:15:07.040 --> 00:15:11.400 Unity allowed Team Cherry to layer artwork to make it look more dynamic as well. 00:15:11.400 --> 00:15:15.380 William used Playmaker as a way to program the AI for enemies in the game. 00:15:15.900 --> 00:15:17.920 Apparently this came with some headaches 00:15:17.920 --> 00:15:20.180 as variables would randomly switch on enemies. 00:15:20.600 --> 00:15:23.840 According to Ari, this happened constantly throughout the game's development. 00:15:24.500 --> 00:15:27.240 This image shows the programming for the Hollow Knight boss battle, 00:15:27.240 --> 00:15:29.880 showing how complicated these things can get. 00:15:30.400 --> 00:15:35.280 I think most everyone can agree that the music in Hollow Knight is absolutely amazing, 00:15:35.540 --> 00:15:39.320 but it took a lot of work from Chris Larkin and Team Cherry to make this happen. 00:15:39.380 --> 00:15:43.080 The majority of the music was based around a viola and a piano, 00:15:43.500 --> 00:15:46.260 and Larkin implemented leitmotifs into the game 00:15:46.265 --> 00:15:49.235 by using certain melodies in multiple parts of the game, 00:15:49.240 --> 00:15:51.540 to strengthen narrative connections. 00:15:51.540 --> 00:15:55.320 The soundtrack was refined over the course of Hollow Knight's two year development, 00:15:55.320 --> 00:15:57.820 giving Team Cherry plenty of time to work with Larkin, 00:15:57.820 --> 00:16:01.520 to make sure that each area of the game had the perfect music to match. 00:16:01.520 --> 00:16:06.260 Most of the voices were done by William, Ari and Makoto Koji. 00:16:06.480 --> 00:16:08.820 Makoto Koji shares an office with Team Cherry 00:16:09.160 --> 00:16:12.740 where she runs her own art and animation studio, Paper Rabbits 00:16:12.740 --> 00:16:15.720 and her animation is really good, guys. 00:16:15.720 --> 00:16:18.940 It may not be as good as my brief foray animation, 00:16:18.940 --> 00:16:21.400 but you have to start somewhere, I guess. 00:16:21.720 --> 00:16:26.420 Makoto did about 90% of the female voices in Hollow Knight, including Hornet, 00:16:26.860 --> 00:16:28.920 the Mantis Lords, Seer, 00:16:28.960 --> 00:16:31.240 and uh, Flukemarm. 00:16:31.905 --> 00:16:34.875 Many other voices were provided by friends and family. 00:16:35.120 --> 00:16:39.860 I've included a list in the description of all the known voices that Team Cherry has confirmed. 00:16:40.460 --> 00:16:43.960 The lore for Hollow Knight was something that developed organically. 00:16:43.960 --> 00:16:47.055 Team Cherry always knew the basic structure of the plot, 00:16:47.060 --> 00:16:50.800 but they left a lot open so that the lore didn't dictate the contents of the game. 00:16:51.040 --> 00:16:54.320 The script is written in a google spreadsheet by both William and Ari, 00:16:54.320 --> 00:16:55.760 towards the end of development. 00:16:55.960 --> 00:16:59.900 With all the extra work Team Cherry put into expanding the world of Hallownest, 00:16:59.900 --> 00:17:04.340 the game didn't actually come out until February 24, 2017. 00:17:04.660 --> 00:17:10.280 This was two years after the Kickstarter, and overshot Team Cherry's planned release date by over 18 months. 00:17:10.720 --> 00:17:14.220 They ended up having to take a loan to help cover the cost of making the game. 00:17:14.345 --> 00:17:17.145 After all was set and done, the game took about ninety 00:17:17.145 --> 00:17:19.400 to a hundred thousand dollars to produce, 00:17:19.400 --> 00:17:22.000 which is an insanely small amount of money to make a game on. 00:17:22.335 --> 00:17:25.635 I mean, I don't even get out of bed for a hundred thousand dollars. 00:17:25.740 --> 00:17:27.820 As Hollow Knight's launch crept closer, 00:17:27.980 --> 00:17:30.820 Team Cherry hired Matthew Griffin, or Leth, 00:17:31.000 --> 00:17:33.100 to handle PR and Marketing. 00:17:33.100 --> 00:17:36.440 Leth's primary method of marketing Hollow Knight was to send it to streamers, 00:17:36.440 --> 00:17:39.140 allowing the game to spread through word of mouth. 00:17:39.140 --> 00:17:42.400 He also worked with Fan Gamer to release Hollow Knight merch, 00:17:42.400 --> 00:17:44.820 and scheduled interviews with news outlets. 00:17:44.945 --> 00:17:46.275 So if you're watching this Leth, 00:17:46.600 --> 00:17:48.100 please get in touch with me, 00:17:48.100 --> 00:17:51.160 because I have a few questions for Team Cherry that I would like to ask. 00:17:51.160 --> 00:17:53.160 Hollow Knight was a sleeping success. 00:17:53.420 --> 00:17:58.900 Unfortunately, the game released right before Horizon Zero Dawn and Breath of the Wild, 00:17:58.900 --> 00:18:01.140 the two biggest games of the year, 00:18:01.340 --> 00:18:04.020 so it got a little lost in the shuffle. 00:18:04.020 --> 00:18:06.660 I didn't even know about Hollow Knight until I saw it in a video by 00:18:06.660 --> 00:18:10.640 some obscure Youtuber going by the name "videogamedunkey". 00:18:10.660 --> 00:18:15.680 But as time has gone on, more and more people have realized how amazing this game is. 00:18:15.700 --> 00:18:19.080 The Hollow Knight subreddit now has almost 40,000 members. 00:18:19.080 --> 00:18:21.240 When the game released on Switch, 00:18:21.240 --> 00:18:24.180 it sold a quarter of a million copies in two weeks. 00:18:24.360 --> 00:18:28.400 The game also passed a million sales on steam back in July, 2018. 00:18:28.400 --> 00:18:31.540 And it's really popular in Utah, I guess. 00:18:31.540 --> 00:18:33.360 That's when you know you've made it. 00:18:33.360 --> 00:18:36.420 And before long, Hollow Knight will be taught in schools, 00:18:36.500 --> 00:18:39.020 alongside other great classics such as the Odyssey, 00:18:39.020 --> 00:18:41.320 and Superman 4 The Quest for Peace. 00:18:41.320 --> 00:18:43.060 Since the release of Hollow Knight 00:18:43.060 --> 00:18:45.900 Team Cherry has seen a few small changes. 00:18:45.900 --> 00:18:48.740 Dave Kazi left to work at some big company, 00:18:48.740 --> 00:18:51.940 and Team Cherry picked up Jack Vine to fill his role. 00:18:51.940 --> 00:18:56.340 There are no actual photos of Jack, and he's not even in Team Cherry's "About" page. 00:18:56.980 --> 00:18:59.800 I have a theory that he doesn't actually exist, 00:18:59.800 --> 00:19:02.440 and that Team Cherry made him up for tax purposes. 00:19:02.440 --> 00:19:05.400 Work on Hollow Knight has continued since its initial release. 00:19:06.000 --> 00:19:09.375 Team Cherry worked with Jump Shark studios to rework the game's code 00:19:09.380 --> 00:19:12.080 so that it could run on the Nintendo Switch. 00:19:12.080 --> 00:19:15.200 The game was also released on Switch at E3 2018, 00:19:15.205 --> 00:19:18.185 and on PS4 and Xbox One, later that September. 00:19:18.385 --> 00:19:21.185 Team Cherry has also released three content packs, 00:19:21.185 --> 00:19:24.165 or four if you count Lifeblood as a content pack, 00:19:24.480 --> 00:19:26.280 which Team Cherry does, 00:19:26.280 --> 00:19:30.340 but they still haven't updated it in the game, so I have to say 'three'. 00:19:30.340 --> 00:19:32.800 Team Cherry is currently working on the Hornet DLC, 00:19:32.880 --> 00:19:36.160 and then after that, Hollow Knight will finally be complete, 00:19:36.160 --> 00:19:39.200 and this channel will pivot to the next logical step: 00:19:39.200 --> 00:19:40.420 Teletubbies lore. 00:19:40.420 --> 00:19:42.420 And that's the story of Team Cherry. 00:19:42.440 --> 00:19:45.020 I hope this video was enlightening for you, 00:19:45.020 --> 00:19:47.000 or maybe even a little inspiring. 00:19:47.480 --> 00:19:51.280 To think that such an amazing game was put together by just three people. 00:19:51.280 --> 00:19:54.920 It really is amazing how much indie developers can do nowadays. 00:19:54.920 --> 00:19:57.000 All that matters is that you have talent, 00:19:57.000 --> 00:19:59.940 willpower and maybe a little luck. 00:20:00.655 --> 00:20:03.655 And I'm so glad Team Cherry met those requirements. 00:20:03.655 --> 00:20:06.585 Thank you Team Cherry, Thank you 00:20:07.675 --> 00:20:10.335 Now hurry up and release the Hornet DLC you lazy firemen