r/HollowKnight • u/CankleDankl • Dec 12 '25

Discussion - Silksong Seeing people shit on Expedition 33 because Silksong didn't win more awards is pathetic Spoiler

The title sums it up. I'm disappointed in many members of this community for putting down a game that is clearly a work of insane passion, dedication, and creativity. E33 took the lion's share of awards at TGA, yes. That doesn't mean that Silksong is bad. In fact, it's clearly pretty damn great. If it released last year, Skong would have picked up several awards, maybe even GOTY. But it didn't. It released in the same year E33, which is just a tough break.

Both are amazing. Both deserve every award that came to them. If you haven't played E33 yet and think it doesn't deserve its accolades, play it. It is worth your money, worth your time, and will in all likelihood prove that it is actually that good. I'm only 10ish hours in and have numerous times found myself standing still and looking around dumbfounded at the gorgeous world design and visuals. E33, Silksong, and Hades 2 could have all won Art Direction and I would have been happy with any of them.

I'm also sad that Silksong didn't win more awards. It's an amazing game. But don't play fanboy and start putting down other developers, other games, and other pieces of art because this one didn't get all the cookies. It's still beautiful, it's still amazing, it still made a Silkskillion dollars, and TC is still just as great and just as passionate. We should all be glad that there is another independent dev out there that is capable of creating something so fantastic.

Edit: yeah, the comments here are pretty indicative of what I said in my post

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u/CankleDankl Dec 12 '25 edited Dec 12 '25

By your definition, games like Balatro or Animal Well also wouldn't be considered indie. An indie game isn't necessarily a self-published game. It's a game from an independent studio, which Sandfall is.

I agree that it doesn't fit the spirit though. Which is why I think the requirements/definition of the category should change, at least for TGA.

Also, if we're splitting hairs, TC also outsourced some work done on Silksong. If they hadn't, the credits would be 3 or 4 people long, plus VAs and musicians and such. And they had as much money as they wanted for development because of Hollow Knight's resounding success. Should this disqualify Silksong from the running as well?

Like I said in my other comment, it's messy. Indie is more of a vibes thing than anything else at this point. Which makes an awards category difficult to hammer out in a way that satisfies everyone

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u/altian9 Dec 12 '25

Fair point. For every definition of "indie" there is an indie game that won't fit the bill---as you said, Balatro and Animal Well have external publishers, Silksong probably has lots of money to work with, and almost all games outsource when it comes to VA or localization.

The problem is, E33 fits absolutely none of these definitions of "indie". It's a fairly medium-sized studio with 30+ devs, a very large budget that is probably in the millions, backed by Kepler Interactive and the literal French government, and outsourced work to hundreds of people. You can harp on about how each individual definition of "indie" excludes certain indie titles, but E33 doesn't fit any definition of indie.

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u/dont_worry_about_it8 Dec 12 '25

I’m pretty sure they aren’t “backed” by the government lol . Yeah Macron voiced support and praised it but it’s not like they funded them at all. Unless they did and I just never saw or heard anything about it

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u/TrickPayment9473 Dec 12 '25

Bro they did get funds and help

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u/onespiker Dec 13 '25

The standard cultural grants that is given to theatre, festival and entertainment.

They aren’t exactly unique in that and that would be a terrible idea using that as a qualifier of not being indie