Terry Cavanagh (developer)
Terry Cavanagh 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, Cavanagh faced significant financial difficulties in his early career. He was reportedly close to abandoning game development when VVVVVV became an unexpected success, providing him with the financial means 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.