We don’t like to talk about it, the thing all living creatures have in common, but it’s an inevitability on what seems to be an increasing number of game developers’ minds as they get older: death. Apparently it comes not only for us, but also Hollow Knight studio Team Cherry
The Silksong developer describes its plans to expand beyond the Metroidvania series in a new interview with Bloomberg, though co-founders Ari Gibson and William Pellen worry they might die before they can ship everything they want to. After all, Silksong took seven years.
“We’ve thought about the ideas that we have, the stuff we want to make and put in [Silksong],” Pellen says.
“And then we do have other games that we plan to make,” Gibson adds. “The only time concern really is – and we’ve talked about this before – death. It’s not that far off if you spend seven years per project, and potentially add another two. So it’d be nice to do a few more games. Apparently our timeframe still allows us to fit a few more in. Short of an unexpected tragedy.”
To some, Team Cherry’s grisly considerations here might seem Victorian – but death is the most literal deadline of them all. Death Stranding director Hideo Kojima worries about it, too, having once put his ideas on a flash drive for his staff to use as a creative “will” in case he passed suddenly.
71-year-old Dragon Quest creator Yuji Horii is also well aware of his mortality, though he prays he’ll “witness” the 50th anniversary for Dragon Quest in 2036. If they’re lucky, all these men might one day figure out what Emily Dickinson meant when she wrote, “Because I could not stop for Death – He kindly stopped for me.”
