Hollow Knight devs are fine with people missing the game's many secrets, as it makes them more special for those who hunt them down

What Metroidvania is complete without a bounty of secrets? Team Cherry knew how important secrets were, which is why they crammed a ton into Hollow Knight. In an interview with Kotaku, Team Cherry's Ari Gibson talked about players who do and don't hunt down those hidden gems.

Kotaku: There’s so much in this game that’s very easy to miss. We’ve talked with a lot of game designers over the years about how you reconcile wanting people to see everything and knowing that you can’t just make them see everything without ruining some of that mystery, some of that surprise. How did you approach that balancing act as you were making the game, knowing that there are some secrets that some people—a lot of people, maybe—will just never see?

Ari Gibson: We didn’t stress too much about it. It’s probably obvious from the game, but we didn’t build something [where] we expect people to see everything as they go through. As we’re making content, all we think is that someone will probably see this stuff. And if people come upon it and uncover something new, and feel like maybe this is something that not everyone has discovered, that makes it more special for that person. That makes the experience a lot more impactful than feeling like, oh, I found this thing, but everyone’s probably seen this because the director’s hands have nudged me to see it.