Hollow Knight: Silksong’s development effectively began as a Hollow Knight DLC concept during the original game’s post-launch period, around 2017–2018, and then spun off into its own full game by early 2019.

Quick Scoop: When Did Silksong Start Development?

To unpack that a bit, there are really two “start dates” people talk about when they ask “when did Silksong start development” :

  1. Early concept / DLC phase (2014–2018)
    • Hornet’s campaign originated as a stretch‑goal DLC idea during the Hollow Knight Kickstarter, which went live in late 2014.
 * During Hollow Knight’s updates (the various free DLC packs between 2017 and 2018), Team Cherry were already prototyping and building early Silksong content in parallel, rather than starting from zero later on.
  1. Full standalone game phase (late 2018–early 2019)
    • After Hollow Knight’s big final “Voidheart Edition” update (around August–September 2018), the team shifted to fully focusing on Silksong instead of treating it as just DLC.
 * Silksong was then **publicly announced as its own game on 14 February 2019** , which is the moment many fans treat as the “official” start of full production, even though a lot of work had already been done before.

So depending on how strict you are:

  • If you count from the original Hornet DLC concept , development roots go back to the Kickstarter era in late 2014 , with more active content work during 2017–2018.
  • If you only count the standalone sequel , then focused development started shortly after Hollow Knight’s last major update in late 2018 , and was fully formalized with the announcement in February 2019.

In fan discussions and forum threads, you’ll often see people say Silksong has “been in development since around 2018,” while others argue its history really stretches all the way back to the 2014 Kickstarter plans for Hornet’s campaign.

Mini timeline snapshot

  • 2014 – Hollow Knight Kickstarter, Hornet DLC concept appears as stretch goal.
  • 2017–2018 – Hollow Knight DLCs release; early Silksong content and systems start forming alongside them.
  • Late 2018 – After Voidheart Edition, Team Cherry concentrates fully on Silksong.
  • 14 Feb 2019 – Silksong announced publicly as a standalone game, marking the clear “start” of its sequel-era development in many players’ eyes.

TL;DR: Silksong didn’t start from scratch in 2019—it grew out of a long‑running Hornet DLC idea dating back to the 2014 Kickstarter, then became a fully focused standalone project in late 2018 and was announced in early 2019.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.