Ari Gibson

Last updated
Ari Gibson
Born (1983-05-14) 14 May 1983 (age 42)
Adelaide, South Australia, Australia
Education University of South Australia
Occupations
Years active2005–present
Notable work
TitleCo-founder and co-director of Team Cherry

Ari Gibson (born 14 May 1983) is an Australian artist, animator, and video game designer, best known for his work on Hollow Knight (2017) and its sequel, Hollow Knight: Silksong (2025). He is also the co-founder and co-director of the games' development studio, Team Cherry.

Contents

Early life and education

Ari Gibson was born in Adelaide, South Australia, [1] [2] on 14 May 1983. [3]

He graduated from the University of South Australia with a Bachelor of Visual Arts, majoring in New Media Art. [3]

Career

Gibson formerly worked with The People's Republic of Animation starting in 2005, where he collaborated with Eddie White on many projects, most notably The Cat Piano , [4] [5] [6] which received many awards. [7] [8]

He also ran Mechanical Apple, a boutique animation studio, [9] alongside Jason Pamment. [10]

In 2014, Gibson co-founded the independent video game studio Team Cherry with William Pellen, whom he had previously worked with on game jams. They started a Kickstarter project for their then-upcoming game Hollow Knight, which was a success; the game released in 2017 to critical acclaim. Gibson worked on the game's art and animation, while also co-directing its development. [11]

He later worked on a piece of Hollow Knight downloadable content that eventually evolved into a sequel, Hollow Knight: Silksong, with the same roles he had while working on Hollow Knight. [12] The game's development took over seven years, though Gibson described the process as enjoyable. [13] Hollow Knight: Silksong released on 4 September 2025, also to critical acclaim. [14]

Art style

For Hollow Knight, and presumably its sequel, Gibson scanned his hand-drawn art directly into the game's engine. This was done to "create [a] vivid sense of place." [11]

PC Gamer writer Tom Marks described Gibson's art in Hollow Knight as using “a mostly monotone dark color palette.” He characterized the character designs as “relatively clean and simple”, but noted that Gibson’s animation “fills them with personality”. He also described Gibson's background art as quite complex, contrasting the rest of Hollow Knight's art. [15] Alana Hagues of Nintendo Life described Gibson's art in Silksong as being "a rainbow compared to the muted tones of [Hollow Knight's] Hallownest", while also still being "sombre". Hagues additionally described Gibson's Silksong artwork as using a "beautiful colour palette". [16]

List of known works

YearTitleMedium
2006Dust Echoes: Whirlpool [3] Animation
Dust Echoes: Mermaid Story [3]
Carnivore Reflux [3]
2007Sweet & Sour [17]
I Was a Teenage Butterfly [18]
2008 De Blob [19] [20] Video game
Hellboy: The Science of Evil [19] [20]
2009 The Cat Piano [4] [5] [6] Animation
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen [19] [20] Video game
2010 The Last Airbender [19] [20]
Megamind: Mega Team Unite [19] [20]
Sometimes the Stars [17] [21] Animation
2011 De Blob 2 [19] [20] Video game
Bronte [22] Animation
2013Winter Fox [10] [23]
Tomb Cat [24] Video game
2014Hungry Knight [11]
Motorbike [25] Animation
2017 Hollow Knight [11] Video game
2025 Hollow Knight: Silksong [12]

References

  1. ↑ Thorsland, Dan (28 March 2019). "How Adelaide developers are taking on the gaming world". Adelaide Review. Archived from the original on 29 April 2025. Retrieved 2 September 2025.
  2. ↑ Yin-Poole, Wesley (1 May 2025). "Hollow Knight: Silksong will be playable in September 2025 — at an Australian museum". IGN . Archived from the original on 1 May 2025. Retrieved 2 September 2025.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 "About". The Cat Piano. 2 September 2009. Archived from the original on 23 April 2025. Retrieved 20 July 2025.
  4. 1 2 Wignall, James (23 September 2009). "The Cat Piano". Motionographer. Archived from the original on 16 June 2025. Retrieved 31 August 2025.
  5. 1 2 Beck, Jerry (4 September 2009). ""The Cat Piano" by Eddie White and Ari Gibson". Cartoon Brew . Archived from the original on 1 September 2025. Retrieved 1 September 2025.
  6. 1 2 "The Cat Piano". National Film and Sound Archive of Australia. 14 October 2025. Archived from the original on 9 February 2025. Retrieved 14 October 2025.
  7. ↑ "Annecy Official Selection". 12 September 2009. Archived from the original on 12 September 2009.
  8. ↑ "The Cat Piano Australian Film Festival Awards". Archived from the original on 5 May 2018. Retrieved 7 September 2009.
  9. ↑ "Straight from the Source: Ari Gibson & William Pellen (Team Cherry)". Source Gaming. 9 April 2025. Archived from the original on 3 June 2025. Retrieved 23 July 2025.
  10. 1 2 Tsuka (21 June 2012). "Winter Fox & Mechanical Apple (Ari Gibson + Jason Pamment)". Catsuka (in French). Archived from the original on 1 May 2016. Retrieved 31 August 2025.
  11. 1 2 3 4 Milner, David. "The Making Of Hollow Knight". Game Informer . Archived from the original on 6 April 2020. Retrieved 20 July 2025.
  12. 1 2 Sirani, Jordan (14 February 2024). "Hollow Knight: Silksong – Everything We Know About the 2D Metroidvania Sequel". IGN . Archived from the original on 24 February 2024. Retrieved 1 September 2025.
  13. ↑ Schreier, Jason (21 August 2025). "Why 'Silksong' Took Seven Years to Make". Bloomberg . Archived from the original on 21 August 2025. Retrieved 1 September 2025.
  14. ↑ Pritchard, Marie (1 September 2025). "Hollow Knight Silksong release date". Eurogamer . Retrieved 1 September 2025.
  15. ↑ Marks, Tom (7 March 2017). "Hollow Knight's charming art sets the bar for hand drawn games". PC Gamer . Retrieved 1 August 2025.
  16. ↑ Alana Hagues (16 September 2025). "Review: Hollow Knight: Silksong - Nintendo Switch 2 Edition". Nintendo Life. Retrieved 17 September 2025.
  17. 1 2 Darmono, Lilian (10 March 2011). "Sometimes The Stars: Ari Gibson & Jason Pamment". Motionographer. Archived from the original on 20 November 2018. Retrieved 20 July 2025.
  18. ↑ "Little Big Shots 2008 Program". Sydney Opera House. 12 July 2015. Archived from the original on 31 August 2025. Retrieved 31 August 2025.
  19. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Arrant, Chris (13 July 2011). "Australian Games Studio Halfbrick Buys Into Studio The People's Republic of Animation". Cartoon Brew . Archived from the original on 6 October 2012. Retrieved 31 August 2025.
  20. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Pixels Rising Interview with Team Cherry — creators of Hollow Knight". Radio Adelaide. April 2016. Archived from the original on 2 August 2021. Retrieved 21 July 2025.
  21. ↑ Beck, Jerry (11 March 2011). ""Sometimes In The Stars" by Ari Gibson & Jason Pamment". Cartoon Brew . Archived from the original on 22 May 2025. Retrieved 31 August 2025.
  22. ↑ Darmono, Lilian (1 September 2011). "Bronte: by Ari and Jason for Gotye". Motionographer. Archived from the original on 25 June 2019. Retrieved 20 July 2025.
  23. ↑ Tabarsi, Anahita (6 December 2017). "Winter Fox (Staffpick)". Brown Bag Films . Retrieved 20 July 2025.
  24. ↑ Ofner, Claudia Susanne (2021). Play Me a Story: Storytelling in the Metroidvania Game Hollow Knight (PDF) (Master's thesis). Karl-Franzens-Universität Graz . Retrieved 31 August 2025.
  25. ↑ Tsuka (6 May 2014). "Motorbike, court d'Ari Gibson et Jason Pamment". Catsuka (in French). Archived from the original on 26 December 2022. Retrieved 31 August 2025.
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