Draft:Team Cherry

The team started off with game jam titles, with the Ludum Dare 2013, having the company's later founders, artist Ari Gibson and web designer William Pellen, alongside Rohan Fraser, develop the small title Hungry Knight under the name "Team Cherry", Its main character, who kills bugs to starve off starvation, had its design reused for the Hollow Knight protagonist.^[2][3] The game, considered "not very good", used to hold a 1/5 star rating on Newgrounds.^[2] Another game developed by trio, Tomb Cat, was released on 23 September 2013.^[4][5]

The developers decided to work on another game jam with the theme "Beneath the Surface", but missed the deadline. However, the concept gave them the idea to create a game, spawning the underground-set Hollow Knight.^[2][6] It was revealed on Kickstarter in November 2014, with a goal of A$35,000. The game greatly passed this goal, allowing its scope to be expanded, with them hiring David Kazi as a technical director, and contracting Matthew Griffin for marketing and publishing, and Christopher Larkin for its soundtrack.^[2][7]

It released in February 2017 to positive reviews,^[2] and sold over 65,000 copies by the end of March 2017.^[8] Kazi later left the team,^[9] with his role replaced by Jack Vine.^[10] Free downloadable content was released throughout 2017 and 2018,^[11][12] and console ports were released for the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One throughout 2018.^[13][14]

Hollow Knight: Silksong began development as downloadable content for Hollow Knight, but it greatly grew in scope, leading Team Cherry to announce in 2019 that it would become its own fully-fledged sequel.^[15] Development continued for over 6 years, though the team described the process as enjoyable. Throughout its development, Hollow Knight continued to grow in popularity; it had sold 2.8 million copies when Silksong was announced, while it sold roughly 15 million by August 2025.^[16] Silksong was a success, selling over 7 million copies by December 2025; free DLC is in development, with one expansion scheduled to release in 2026.^[17]

A December 2020 interview showcased Gibson stating that a non-Hollow Knight game that was in the early ideas phase, with him noting that it was similar to Hollow Knight, but had differences like the weapon used during combat.^[18] In a November 2025 interview, Gibson stated that while Team Cherry "won’t [never] return to these Hollow Knight worlds", they "don’t want to be exclusively people that make Hollow Knight." He stated that they instead wanted their next game to be "maybe in a slightly different genre, [and have a] slightly different theme".^[19] Outlets have reported that Team Cherry filed video game-related trademarks for "Fearless Fox" in 2019 and 2023.^[20][21]

While their initial flash games were met with poor reviews,^[2] both of Team Cherry's commercial games have been given critical acclaim,^[26] both winning and getting nominated for multiple awards,^[27] including a Silksong nomination for The Game Award for Game of the Year.^[28] Their development process has been praised, with Shacknews ranking them as the best developer of 2025; writer Sam Chandler wrote that "in an industry full of crunch and microtransactions, it's refreshing to see a studio like Team Cherry win despite only doing it for the love of the craft."^[29] Austin Wood of GamesRadar+ was "glad" that they enjoyed development without issues, contrasting the industry at large.^[30] Eurogamer's Ed Nightingale noted that they are "in stark contrast to [the] so many other studios at the moment hell-bent on chasing trends and generating cash in the face of rising development costs".^[31]

Their communication throughout Silksong's development was met with mixed opinions, as they would often go "radio silent".^[32] While Griffin would occasionally reconfirm its development, critics like John Walker of Kotaku stated that while "it’s better than nothing", "it’s not exactly useful information" and "are not exactly comforting words".^[33] The lack of bigger updates caused some to believe it was in development hell.^[34] Anthony Franklin II of Vice was "fine" with their silence, stating "I prefer to simply know [something] is coming ... when it gets here, it gets here."^[35] The founders have stated that they did not provide many substantial updates to avoid spoilers, and to avoid "sour[ing] people on the whole thing".^[16] PC Gamer writer Harvey Randall disagreed with Team Cherry,^[36] while The Gamer's Tessa Kaur wrote that "I wish more dev teams could disappear off the map to work on what they want to, too."^[37]

The low pricing of Silksong caused some controversy, as some critics and developers believed it would force other developers to also lower their price to match Silksong despite Team Cherry having more financial freedom.^[38][39][40] Others, including critics and software pirates, praised it, finding it to be a good contrast to the commonly high-priced titles in the industry,^[41][42] with praise also being given to their free expansions.^[43] Their reveal of the game's release date two weeks before release was criticized by Polygon writer Ari Notis, who wrote an article about how the short notice caused other indie developers to have to delay their games last minute to avoid being overshadowed.^[44] While reporting on Gibson revealing that the team did not know the date until close to launch, PC Gamer's Tyler Corp indirectly disagreed, suspecting the short notice of its release date "provided a good enough excuse" for delays.^[45]