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Terry Cavanagh
Cavanagh in 2016
Born	1984 (age 39–40) Tydavnet, County Monaghan, Ireland
Alma mater	Trinity College
Occupation	Video game designer
Known for	VVVVVV Super Hexagon Dicey Dungeons
Website	distractionware.com

Terry Cavanagh (/ˈkævənɑː/, KAV-ə-nah; born 1984) is an Irish video game designer based in London, England. He has created over two dozen games, most notably VVVVVV, Super Hexagon, and Dicey Dungeons.

Biography

After studying mathematics at Trinity College in Dublin, Cavanagh worked briefly as a market risk analyst before moving to focus on game development full-time in 2007. While he received some attention in the press for his "serious and arty" indie games, financially, things were not going well and Cavanagh was just about ready to throw in the towel when he released VVVVVV, which ended up a surprise hit, giving him the freedom to continue developing games.

In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, in 2020, he gave away 1000 copies of three of his games for free in the hope it would "offer a distraction" to those in need of it.

Many of his titles share a primitive, minimalist retro aesthetic. He is credited as a programmer for Alphaland, a platform game by Jonas Kyratzes.

Cavanagh has stated that he prefers the personal nature of independent game development, its smaller scale enabling the personality of the creator to shine through in the final product.

Influences

Cavanagh cites the 1997 Japanese RPG Final Fantasy VII as his favorite game, crediting it as his inspiration for becoming a video game developer. In 2009 Cavanagh named interactive fiction writer Adam Cadre as his favorite developer.

Awards

• Cavanagh's game VVVVVV won the 2010 IndieCade Festival in the category of "Fun/Compelling".
• In 2014, Cavanagh was named to Forbes' annual "30 Under 30" list in the Games category.
• In 2019, Cavanagh's game Dicey Dungeons won the 2019 IndieCade Grand Jury award.

Ludography

References

1. ^ Edge staff (12 September 2012). "Terry Cavanagh on making fewer, more ambitious games". Edge. Retrieved 28 September 2013.
2. Peel, Jeremy (14 September 2021). "How Terry Cavanagh bet it all on the simple joy of platforming". PC Gamer. Retrieved 3 February 2024.
3. Heather Wald (16 March 2020). "Indie developer Terry Cavanagh is giving away free games to help those "in need of a distraction"". gamesradar.
4. David Wolinsky (13 April 2010). "AVC at GDC '10: An interview with VVVVVV creator Terry Cavanagh". The A.V. Club. Retrieved 23 July 2014.
5. "Alphaland". jonas-kyratzes.net. 5 May 2011.
6. Cantoni, Chris. "Terry Cavanagh Can't Stop Making Games". International Festival of Independent Games.
7. Gallaway, Brad (18 April 2009). "Interview with Terry Cavanagh, creator of Don't Look Back". GameCritics.com. Retrieved 24 July 2014.
8. "2010 IndieCade Award Recipients". International Festival of Independent Games. 6 October 2010. Retrieved 24 July 2014.
9. "Five Irish on Forbes 30 under 30 list". The Irish Times. 7 January 2014. Retrieved 24 July 2014.
10. "2019 IndieCade Award Recipients". International Festival of Independent Games. 12 October 2019. Retrieved 21 October 2019.

External links

• Official website
• The Escapist interview with Terry Cavanagh
• The Spelunky Showlike — Making Generous Games with Terry Cavanagh

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