"Anything related to Silksong releasing would be the doom of the project," lead on gorgeous Hollow Knight fan game once worried, but after 2 years of work it looks like it will launch this year

Hollow Knight Silksong madness may have reached a new peak. For years, "Fine, we'll make our own game" has been a jokey motto – one of many – for the Skong faithful, fed up with waiting for Team Cherry's long-anticipated sequel (finally coming later this year) and pondering the feasibility of making one for themselves. But, thanks to a devoted team of fans, a convincing Hollow Knight fan game is now very real and shooting for a 2025 launch, and it looks and sounds so much like the genuine article, you'd be forgiven for initially thinking it's a new Silksong showcase.

That game is Godgrounds, an unofficial Hollow Knight fighting game that started with the work of just two people back in 2023. Lead developer Rockm recently shared an update on the team's progress with the Hollow Knight Reddit community, and I immediately had to learn more about it.

"For quite some time, I had the belief that our project mainly profits off the fact that the [Hollow Knight] fans are starved, so anything related to Silksong releasing would be the doom of the project," Rockm tells GamesRadar+. "I moved on from that belief. It was wild back then. Although, even today, on every single ]Nintendo Direct], I follow one gold rule: always bet on nothing happening."

"r/silksong should be considered an institution," Rockm observes. Correct.

The Godgrounds team has grown considerably, especially after production ramped up in 2024, with programmers, artists, animators, composers, voice actors, SFX engineers, and even "popular figures in the Hollow Knight community" answering Rockm's call for aid. Around 20 people have touched the project so far, with most being artists.

The work of composer Davide Trivella, a sample of which is available on YouTube, is a clear standout to me. "I have to admit, I am impressed by the team I've managed to build over time, it's full of very talented people," Rockm says.

Previously, Rockm considered both an arena-type map taking inspiration from "traditional fighting games like Street Fighter or platformer fighting games like Brawlhalla" alongside a more open map showing off character mobility, but "production turned out to be slower than anticipated and this approach was inefficient, so we decided to go fully on the combat system." However, Godgrounds will combine elements of both types of fighting games.

The team is hoping to have local multiplayer for two players, a lobby screen, a complete map, and perhaps additional characters eventually. The cast started with Hornet, a side character in Hollow Knight who was promoted to protagonist for Silksong, but more characters are planned. "We are very, very confident that Godgrounds will release its first version/demo this year," Rockm says. "The game will receive updates from there forward."

"Fighting other players is the overall objective of the game. We have brainstormed about adding progression systems in the future to make the game more engaging. The game is mainly aimed at Hollow Knight fans and players who like fighting games. Of course, not all Hollow Knight fans are fighting game enthusiasts, so we will make an effort to make the gameplay feel similar to Hollow Knight."

All of the assets in Godgrounds are original, Rockm says, pointing to a clause in the terms of service for Team Cherry, which reads:

"Making and selling original items that you designed and made yourself, based on the world or characters of Hollow Knight, is extremely fine. However, we don't give permission for anyone to use graphics from in the game or official marketing materials created by us – even if you add a scratchy texture to it in Photoshop or whatever. This includes character art, wallpapers, spritework etc. etc. created by us here at Team Cherry."

"Therefore I made the decision to make every asset from scratch and 100% original, whilst aiming to imitate the original art style of the game as much as possible," Rockm says. Team Cherry PR and marketing led Matthew "Leth" Griffin "mentioned in the [Hollow Knight Discord] server that small fan games were completely fine, however, if they [were] monetized [...], he would have to intervene," Rockm adds.

"I assume the project is completely fine," Rockm says about Godgrounds, "as long as it's free and contains no monetization practices. I've given thought on the prospect for some time, and while, yes, it would be great to be able to make profit out of the project, sell it for a price, or be able to publish it on Steam (even if it's free), so we have access to achievements and overall a wider audience – it's something we can't do due to their policies.

"I've had the idea of contacting TC or Leth in the future once the game's more advanced in development to see if we are allowed to continue development, and if so, if there could be a sort of "exception" or "official-approved collaboration" and have the project reach a new stage in terms of what we can do with it. But this is more of a distant possibility rather than an actual goal of the project."

The future of Godgrounds is still malleable, but it has a lot of momentum behind it and some incredible art to show for it. You can follow the project on Twitter.

Hollow Knight: Silksong dev deals psychic damage, hinting at future "DLC" for the Metroidvania which fans aren't convinced won't "turn into a full-fledged game that takes 8 years to develop."