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Matthew Griffin | |
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 Griffin at the 2014 Independent Games Festival | |
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| Years active | Early 2000s-present |
Matthew "Leth" Griffin is an American video game designer, marketer, and former teacher. He is best known for co-founding the indie studio Team Wanderlust/Yeti Trunk, his work on the 2013 title Risk of Rain , and for serving as the marketing and publishing director for indie games such as Team Cherry's Hollow Knight series.
Matthew Griffin was born in the United States, [1] and he currently lives in Texas. [2]
He has a bachelor's degree in philosophy, a minor in mathematics, and an associate's degree in programming. [3] [4]
In the early 2000s, Griffin created games using Game Maker, but struggled to find "a competent, hard-working and honest artist to work alongside". [4] Pixel artist Jason Gordy teamed up with Griffin in 2004 to work on Wanderlust: The Online Adventure, which was cancelled two years later due to a lack of direction. [4] Griffin and Gordy later formed Team Wanderlust, [4] later renamed to Yeti Trunk. [5] The team worked on a new game titled, Wanderlust: Rebirth, [4] [6] a game set to "closer resemble their vision for the Wanderlust universe"; Wanderlust: Rebirth released on June 14, 2011. [5] Griffin and Gordy released three more games over the next few years: Gubs (2012), [5] Puck Bang (2013), [5] and Wanderlust Adventures (2015). [6] [7] The company Chucklefish published Yeti Trunk's Wanderlust Adventures. [6] [7] Following this, Griffin helped work on games Chucklefish partnered with, such as Risk of Rain (2013), [8] [9] and Witchmarsh (TBA). [10] For Risk of Rain, he worked on developing the game's online multiplayer. [8] [9] As of 2012, he also was a full-time mathematics teacher and tutor; he later quit these jobs to focus on the gaming industry. [3] [4]
In June 2015, Chucklefish brought on Griffin as their publishing manager. [10] [3] At Chucklefish, he helped publish and market Interstellia (2015) [3] [11] and Stardew Valley (2016). [3] [11] He also led the localization for Stardew Valley. [3] Griffin later left Chucklefish, [11] and in July 2016, Australian independant developer Team Cherry brought him on as their marketing and publishing manager for their then-upcoming Kickstarter-backed title, Hollow Knight (2017). [12] [13] He also led the localization of the game, [1] [14] playtested it, [12] and voice acted some characters. [12] He continued his partnership with Team Cherry for their next game, Hollow Knight: Silksong (2025), [15] where he managed marketing and publishing, [15] helped playtest the game, [14] and voice acted. [14] He also gave updates on the game's development over the years, [15] [16] [17] [18] and revealed information about it, [19] [20] [21] as Team Cherry themselves stayed mostly silent during development. [22] [23] In mid 2021, Canadian independant developer Mongoose Rodeo brought on Griffin to manage marketing and publishing for their upcoming Kickstarter-backed game Crowsworn (TBA). [3] [24]
Griffin's then-upcoming Wanderlust Adventures was praised by Rock Paper Shotgun writers Emily Gera and Adam Smith, with Gera praising the "mind-boggling number of settings to explore", [25] and Smith stating that it "looks absolutely smashing." [6] Griffin's multiplayer addition to Risk of Rain was praised by Quintin Smith of Eurogamer , with him calling it "robust". [26] Polygon 's Philip Kollar called it "fun", but criticized it for being "laggy [and requiring] an archaic process of opening a port on your router to make it work." [27] Griffin's work on Silksong has received slightly mixed reception. Rock Paper Shotgun writer Imogen Beckhelling praised his Discord riddles in 2020 that revealed Silksong characters, calling it "a nice way to keep fans entertained until bigger news comes out." [28] IGN reported that in 2021, Griffin deconfirmed any possible Silksong appearances at E3 of that year, which was praised for its transparency. [29] The Gamer reported on mixed reactions to Griffin indirectly deconfirming a theorized ARG via a YouTuber, with some calling it "unprofessional". [30] PC Gamer writer Harvey Randall was mixed on Griffin confirming a pre-Holiday 2025 release in Discord, stating "[Team Cherry is] under no obligation to do things the traditional way... but... maybe if you want your game to be successful, this isn't a very good way to make your dreams come true?" [18]
| Year | Title |
|---|---|
| 2011 | Wanderlust: Rebirth |
| 2012 | Gubs |
| 2013 | Puck Bang |
| Risk of Rain | |
| 2015 | Wanderlust Adventures |
TBA | Witchmarsh |
Cancelled games
| Title |
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| Wanderlust: The Online Adventure |
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)Team Cherry | |||||
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