Hollow Knight: Silksong

Adelaide-based games studio Team Cherry is known for their detailed world design and clever environmental storytelling. Their latest is Hollow Knight: Silksong (2025), set in the kingdom of Pharloom.

Rather than starting with a list of powers, items or plots points, Team Cherry took a different approach. They treated Pharloom as a real place, designing its geography and logic first, then imagining what creatures, plants or structures might naturally exist within.

This way of building a world mirrors how players experience the game – by slowly uncovering Pharloom’s secrets through exploration.

Bringing Hornet to life

Hornet, the main character in Hollow Knight: Silksong, is a warrior princess navigating an unfamiliar world. Known for her speed, skill, and sharp needle weapon, Hornet was first introduced as a rival in Hollow Knight (2017). In Silksong, she gains many new abilities, each with its own set of animations. Team Cherry created hundreds of hand-drawn sprites to capture her movements, showing great detail and care in every frame.

Boss fights: Battling Trobbio and The Last Judge

Hornet is a much more agile, powerful character than the protagonist of Hollow Knight (2017) – so everyone else’s combat had to become much more complex to match her in the sequel.

Bosses, in particular, are more intelligent, agile and powerful: they chain attacks together, switch strategies mid-action, and keep the players on their toes.

These flowcharts reveal the programming logic behind two different boss fights.

The fight against Trobbio is based more on spectacle and fun than challenge. Trobbio’s move-set mirrors Hornet’s – he is a similar size, and agile and good at dodging, darting around the screen as he attacks.

Team Cherry often play with scale and size in their boss combats. The Last Judge, a representative of the Citadel, is designed to be as overwhelming as the holy city itself. Tall and lithe, he is able to reach Hornet at any height, and quick enough to catch her.

Moss Grotto & The Citadel

Pharloom is designed to be a place, not just a series of levels. Players learn about the world and what they can do in it through the design of the environment.

Rather than a tutorial, the game starts in Moss Grotto. In this area, players explore the environment and tackle weaker enemies so they can get used to the game’s mechanics.

This green, peaceful landscape echoes throughout the game in underground mossy retreats, which sprout from the depths of the earth.

Hornet’s quest ends in the Citadel – an enormous holy city at the top of the game’s world. It’s rich and romantic, filled with grand buildings designed to impress players and make them feel small.

Co-director Ari Gibson likens it to ancient Rome – the home of a ruling class whose unchecked power has grave and wide-reaching consequences. We can see this throughout the game – from outposts mimicking its grand architecture to societies shaped by its demands.