What is This For?
People don’t believe me when I tell them how long maps take to make. Short of recording
the whole process, which would be a recording of me listening to a recording of me playing
the game, this is the best I can do to try and keep track of stuff and be accurate when I tell
people “This map took X hours”.
It’s mostly for me, but apparently other people have found it interesting enough to keep tabs
on, so have this intro, and hello there 👋🏻.
I’d mapped for 31 hours by the time I started this and realised just how ginormous a task it
was gonna be.
8th Sept 2025
12:00 - 12:33 - vid 22 (2025-09-07 19-10-16) (Mount Fay)
12:45 - 13:20 - vid 23 (2025-09-07 21-24-43) (Lugoli & Phantom)
13:25 - 13:30 - vid 24 (2025-09-07 23-48-04) (Phantom & Cross Stitch)
13:30 - 14:00 vid 25 (2025-09-08 00-46-42)
All footage finished.
Running Total: 33 hours.
Time for lunch then play!
16:30 - 17:05 vid 26 begin
Food break
17:15 - 18:16 vid 26 (2025-09-08 14-13-41)
Running Total: 34.5hrs.
20:35 - 21:20 vid 27 (2025-09-08 18-17-25)
01:15 - 01:35 vid 32 (2025-09-09 00-50-33)
Running Total: 35.5hrs.
BED
9th September 2025
09:50 - 11:00 vid 28 (2025-09-08 19-15-06)
11:05 - 11:40 vid 29 (2025-09-08 21-23-50)
11:50 - 12:05 vid 30 (2025-09-08 22-23-47)
12:05 - 14:00 vid 31 (2025-09-08 22-59-32)
Running Total: 39ish hours.
Need to play the game more now…
17:35 - 17:55 vid 32 (2025-09-09 15-11-23)
17:55 - 18:30 vid 33 (2025-09-09 15-47-54) (@34.40)
socialising
21:55 - 22:20 vid 33 (2025-09-09 15-47-54) (continued)
10th September 2025
01:55 - 02:35 vid 34 (2025-09-09 22-24-53)
Running Total: 41ish [Link] in Act 2 but almost done I think.
Bed time
11:05 - 12:00 vid 35 (2025-09-10 00-29-15)
More play
Act 2 complete
Act 3 begins
Game feel is much better now. Act 1 feels shit. Compared with HK, Hornet feels weak to
start with. Understandable from a lore perspective, awful feel for an actual videogame. Stop
making games feel worse for lore reasons.
15:35 - 18:00 vid 36 (2025-09-10 12-02-09) (( this one is 3hrs and 4 mins
long. Oops. ))
19:55 - 20:45 vid 37 (2025-09-10 18-00-52)
20:45 - 21:28 vid 38 (2025-09-10 19-25-12)
23:30 - 01:05 working on The Surface map (none in game)
01:45 - 02:40 Vid 39 (2025-09-10 21-29-42)
02:40 - 03:15 Vid 40 (2025-09-11 00-02-31)
BED TIME
Running Total: 49.5ish hours.
11th September 2025
15:00 - 15:42 vid 41 (2025-09-11 10-57-34)
15:45 - 16:00 vid 42 (2025-09-11 11-57-28)
16:10 - 16:35 vid 43 (2025-09-11 12-38-06)
16:35 - 17:00 vid 44 (2025-09-11 13-23-34)
I have given up on playing the game legit in any way shape or form. Balance has gone back
out of the window, even with a full needle upgrade. Dream Boss runbacks include
unnecessary 20+ second mini cutscenes that waste your time. Everything seems designed
to suck the joy out of exploration, and not even the story or world can hold my attention
through this bloated mess anymore. I am now playing it purely to finish it and uninstall it.
This is not a rage quit. I am not angry. I am simply disappointed that Team Cherry have
seemingly abandoned the tightness of Hollow Knight because they were too busy having fun
and couldn’t stop themselves just adding more and more and more without actually
seemingly considering if it was fun for other people. And now the Souls cult and Cherry cult
have converged to absolutely drown any kind of discourse with “Well I did it first try so git
gud scrub” drivel so any balance or quality of life changes will be screamed and cried about
for years to come.
19:45 - 20:33 (vid 47 2025-09-11 18-52-52) mapping Coral Tower
20:33 - 21:10 vid 45 (2025-09-11 16-53-21)
21:15 - 21:50 vid 46 (2025-09-11 18-15-05) mapping Voltnest
12th September 2025
00:35 - 01:27 vid 48 (2025-09-11 21-59-42) (47 was super short)
01:45 - 02:07 vid 49 (2025-09-11 23-30-11) — 100% completion listed in
game
02:07 - 02:25 Cleanup / Notes / Completion stuff
I’m at the end of the game — final boss fight (I assume) — and my hands hurt too much to
continue for now.
Running Total: 55ish hours.
“Silksong” WIP map v0.10 now on kofi.
More work on placeholder icons, cleaning up space, adding a key/legend, etc etc to come
soon. I’ve not spellchecked anything yet.
13:15 - 17:35 working on NPC icons and cleanup (NPCs aren’t named in the
atlas files, so I have to find them by eye)
19:50 - 00:20 working on Vendor Menus (this is the task I’ve been dreading
as it takes SO long)
Taking a break. Menus mostly done. Need to add images of each shop.
00:45 - 01:20 finished* vendor menus
Running Total: 65ish hours
13th September 2025
12:10 - 14:20 cleaning up background image; adding clarity to Steel Soul
only areas; removed that one random Bellhart room to the left of the Weaver elevator that is
likely cut content or future DLC
14:20 - 15:20 large list of changes in changelog
v0.13 release
Running Total: 68ish hours
14th September 2025
03:10 - 04:15 Working on Shakra vendor box (to be included in the 0.14
release)
15th September 2025
14:30 - 17:05 Numerous miscellaneous tweaks, both cosmetic and content
for v0.14
Running Total: 72ish hours
I think I am mostly done with the map content. I now need to actually a) finish the
game (since I have the final Act 3 boss to kill) and b) see about the hunter’s journal
etc.
My thumb is still slightly swollen but doesn’t hurt anymore. Unsure how long that will
last versus the final boss…
22:00(ish) - 02:35 big list of changes for v0.15 including maps of all the chapels,
exhaust organ, coral tower (entrance), and brightvein
I forgot to start the timer but it was around 10pm when I started.
Running Total: 76ish hours
Final boss completed last night. Total of 43 deaths (only 11 in that session, however. The
others were when my thumb was really hurting. My fault.). Great fight’ good ending cinematic
too.
A Note on Future Time Tracking
Because I’m mostly tinkering and tweaking things now, I’ve stopped putting my full attention
on the map while I’m updating/upgrading stuff (watching LobosJR play the game while I
work). I’m thus not keeping an accurate record of when I’m working because I think that
would give inflated numbers and it’s already a big number.
That said, we’re up to a rough 85 hours now. The small maps I’ve added to various places
take a chunk of time to do.