Ari Gibson

2005–2010: People's Republic of Animation

In 2005, Ari Gibson joined The People's Republic of Animation (PRA), an animation studio based in Adelaide.^[4] At the studio, he collaborated with its co-founder Eddie White on numerous projects. Gibson's first credit is for Carnivore Reflux, a 2006 Tropfest finalist, as a production designer and art director.^[8][9][10] Also in 2006, he worked on the first two episodes of Dust Echoes—an educational twelve-part animation series published by ABC News Australia^[11]—"Whirlpool" and "Mermaid Story".^[4][11] He was an art director for the former and a character designer for the latter.^[4][11]

Later that year, he began working on Sweet and Sour as an art director,^[7][8] which was a collaboration between the PRA and the Shanghai Animation Film Studio. The PRA worked on its 3D Animation.^[12][13] It was the first time Gibson worked with Jason Pamment, whom he went to university with.^[7] The animation released in 2007 and won awards.^[14][15] His next project was I was a Teenage Butterfly (2007), a short comedy animation. He was a co-director alongside White, and the animation won a Nickelodeon Australia "short animation competition".^[16] Gibson continued as a co-director alongside White with The Cat Piano (2009), a short film narrated by Nick Cave.^{[17][18][19][20]} It received many awards,^[21][22] and was shortlisted for an Oscar.^[19][23] The PRA had also done work in the field of video games, specifically assisting in their cinematic cutscenes.^[24] With the PRA, Gibson worked on games such as Megamind: Mega Team Unite (2010); his first credited commercial work on video games.^[5]

2010–2014: Mechanical Apple and music videos

Gibson worked on animation projects such as music videos for the band The Audreys (singer pictured; left), and Gotye (right)

In 2010, after leaving the PRA, Gibson began working independently, forming the animation studio Mechanical Apple with Pamment.^[7][25][26] Their first production was a music video for The Audreys' 2010 album Sometimes the Stars's title track. They began working on it when a friend of The Audreys contacted Gibson and Pamment, who was impressed with The Cat Piano, and released it in early 2011 after around 3 and a half months of development.^{[7][27][20][28]}

Near the end of the music video's production, they were contacted by Australian singer-songwriter Gotye—best known for "Somebody That I Used to Know" (2011)— about the opportunity to make a music video for an "upbeat song". They turned down the offer due to the song's theming not "fitting their style", but they felt that a later song by him, "Bronte", from Making Mirrors, did fit, leading them to develop and release a music video animation for it in late 2011.^[29][30][31] The animation was lauded by ScreenAnarchy, who said it "can only skyrocket Gibson into the stratosphere and cement him as one of the premier indie animators".^[31]

In 2012, following both music videos, Mechanical Apple released their first full independent short animation, Winter Fox.^[32][33] In 2014, they released Motorbike;^[34] it was featured on the official YouTube channel owned by Disney as a "favorite".^[35] It was the studio's final released animation. Throughout its activity, Mechanical Apple also did other commercial work, producing animation content for video games, advertisements, and television.^[36][37] In a 2018 interview after the release of Hollow Knight, Gibson described the studio as having been "quite successful", and stated that it helped fund his pivot to game development in 2014.^[38]

2013–present: Team Cherry and game design

In 2013, Gibson, reconnecting with his longtime friend William Pellen, who at the time was making small platformers as a hobby, suggested that they enter the 27th Ludum Dare. Its theme was 10 seconds, leading them to develop Hungry Knight under the team name "Team Cherry". It was badly received by the public.^[39][40] Later in 2013, they released the small game Tomb Cat.^[36][41] In 2014, a game jam with the theme of "Beneath the Surface" began, with Gibson and Pellen planning to use some ideas from Hungry Knight, alongside new ones, for a game developed for the jam; they missed the deadline.^[40][42]

Despite this, they were invested in the idea, resulting in the development of a full game, Hollow Knight, starting. They legally founded Team Cherry that year, and started a Kickstarter project for Hollow Knight; it was a success. The game was released in February 2017 to critical acclaim. Gibson worked on the game's art, animation, and writing, while also co-directing its development.^[40][43]

Prior to the release of Hollow Knight, Gibson and Pellen began early work on a piece of downloadable content starring Hornet as the protagonist, which eventually evolved into a sequel, Hollow Knight: Silksong.^[44][45] The game's development took over seven years, though Gibson described the process as enjoyable.^[46] Silksong released in September 2025, also to critical acclaim.^[47] Both titles' large success has given Gibson substantial wealth, with Hollow Knight having sold roughly 15 million copies by August 2025, and Silksong having sold over 7 million as of December 2025.^[46][48]

In a 2020 interview with Edge, Gibson confirmed that he and Pellen were in the very early stages of developing a non-Hollow Knight game, one then only existing through ideas shared in a Google Doc, which he described as being "expanded as each new idea comes in".^[44] In a 2025 Bloomberg interview, Gibson implied that his and Pellen's next game would not be a Hollow Knight one.^[43] In 2019 and 2023, Team Cherry filed trademarks for "Fearless Fox", which gaming news journalists took as a likely indication of an upcoming non-Hollow Knight game project by Gibson and Pellen with this title.^[49][50][51]