Matthew Griffin (game designer)
Matthew "Leth" Griffin is an American video game designer, marketer, and former teacher. He is best known for co-founding the indie studio Team Wanderlust/Yeti Trunk, his work on the 2013 title Risk of Rain, and for serving as the marketing and publishing director for indie games such as Team Cherry's Hollow Knight series.
Early life and education
Matthew Griffin was born in the United States on March 27, and he currently lives in Texas.He has a bachelor's degree in philosophy, a minor in mathematics, and an associate's degree in programming.
Career
In the early 2000s, Griffin created games using Game Maker, but struggled to find "a competent, hard-working and honest artist to work alongside". Pixel artist Jason Gordy teamed up with Griffin in 2004 to work on Wanderlust: The Online Adventure, which was cancelled two years later due to a lack of direction. Griffin and Gordy formed Team Wanderlust in 2006, later renamed to Yeti Trunk. The team worked on a new game titled, Wanderlust: Rebirth, a game set to "closer resemble their vision for the Wanderlust universe"; Wanderlust: Rebirth released on June 14, 2011. Griffin and Gordy released three more games over the next few years: Gubs, Puck Bang, and Wanderlust Adventures. The company Chucklefish published Yeti Trunk's Wanderlust Adventures. Following this, Griffin helped work on games Chucklefish partnered with, such as Risk of Rain, and Witchmarsh. For Risk of Rain, he worked on adding online multiplayer to the game. As of 2012, he was also a full-time mathematics educator. He was a substitute teacher, an after-school teacher, and a "floating teacher" who went between classrooms to give students focused attention. He later quit these jobs to focus on the gaming industry.In June 2015, Chucklefish brought on Griffin as their publishing manager. At Chucklefish, he helped publish and market Interstellia and Stardew Valley. He also led the localization for Stardew Valley. Griffin later left Chucklefish, and in July 2016, Australian independant developer Team Cherry brought him on as their marketing and publishing manager for their then-upcoming Kickstarter-backed title, Hollow Knight. He also led the localization of the game, playtested it, and voice acted some characters. He continued his partnership with Team Cherry for their next game, Hollow Knight: Silksong, where he managed marketing and publishing, helped playtest the game, and voice acted. He also gave updates on the game's development over the years, and revealed information about it, as Team Cherry themselves stayed mostly silent during development. In mid 2021, Canadian independant developer Mongoose Rodeo brought on Griffin to manage marketing and publishing for their upcoming Kickstarter-backed game Crowsworn.
Public reception
Writing for Operation Rainfall, Tyler Lubben praised the 4 player co-op in Griffin's Wanderlust: Rebirth, and called the game's gameplay "quite satsifying". Andrew Barker of RPGFan gave the game a 60/100, writing "unfortunately, this frustrating and boring game falls far short of its SNES inspirations", due to issues like the "monotonous combat", "uninspired" soundtrack, and lack of leveling-up. His then-upcoming Wanderlust Adventures was praised by Rock Paper Shotgun writers Emily Gera and Adam Smith, with Gera praising the "mind-boggling number of settings to explore", and Smith stating that it "looks absolutely smashing." Griffin's multiplayer addition to Risk of Rain was praised by Quintin Smith of Eurogamer, with him calling it "robust". Polygons Philip Kollar called it "fun", but criticized it for being "laggy an archaic process of opening a port on your router to make it work."Griffin's work on Silksong has received slightly mixed reception. Imogen Beckhelling, writing for Rock Paper Shotgun, praised his Discord riddles in 2020 that revealed Silksong characters, calling it "a nice way to keep fans entertained until bigger news comes out." IGN reported that in 2021, Griffin deconfirmed any possible Silksong appearances at E3 of that year, which was praised for its transparency. TheGamer reported on reactions to Griffin indirectly deconfirming a theorized ARG via a YouTuber, with some called it "unprofessional". PC Gamer writer Harvey Randall was mixed on Griffin confirming a pre-Holiday 2025 release in Discord, stating " under no obligation to do things the traditional way... but... maybe if you want your game to be successful, this isn't a very good way to make your dreams come true?" TheGamers Sam Woods was more positive, stating "was Silksong launching on the same day as the Xbox Ally X?... it wasn't clear. Thankfully, Griffin clarified things... at least... fans have a little something to cling onto, knowing the game will release in the next few months."