Jonatan Söderström
Söderström at the Game Developers Conference in 2010
Born9 October 1985
Sweden
OccupationGame designer
Years active2005-present

Jonatan Söderström, also known as Cactus, is a Swedish video game developer noted for his unusual and innovative games. He is best known as the co-designer and programmer of Hotline Miami (2012) and Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number (2015), but had prior to those games developed over 40 small freeware games, many of which were reviewed and lauded even in the mainstream video game press.[1][2] His game Clean Asia! was nominated for both Excellence In Visual Arts and Excellence in Audio at the Independent Games Festival in 2008.[3] In 2010, he won the IGF's Nuovo Award, which honours unconventional game development, for his puzzler Tuning.[4]

All of Söderström's games prior to Hotline Miami were created with Game Maker, and he was one of the most influential developers in the Game Maker community, together with others like Derek Yu.[5] At the GDC 2009, he delivered a talk called "The Four Hour Game Design", describing the methods he uses in producing his games.[6]

When asked about his game design style in an interview, Söderström replied "Variation can be good, but so can consistency. When I make games I try to keep them unified and to the point, so I don't drift off too far. It's also one of the reasons most of my games are so short, when I feel like I want to turn the game in a new direction I usually explore that new direction in a separate game instead".[7] This further explains Söderström's unusually high output of concentrated games, most of which were developed within a span of two years.

Games

The games Söderström has created include:[8]

  • Ad Nauseam
  • Ad Nauseam 2[9][10]
  • Arms
  • BlockOn!
  • Brave Karma Warriors
  • Burn the Trash[11]
  • Clean Asia!
  • Decontrologic
  • EVAC
  • Fractal Fighters
  • Fuck Space[12]
  • God Came to the Cave
  • Hot Throttle
  • Hotline Miami
  • Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number
  • Illegal Communication[13]
  • Insect Invade 2
  • Keyboard Drumset Fucking Werewolf
  • KrebsWelte
  • Krytza
  • Life is a Race!
  • Minubeat
  • Mondo Agency[14]
  • Mondo Medicals
  • MSoids
  • Ninja Flu
  • Norrland
  • Precision
  • Strings
  • Protoganda II
  • Psychosomnium
  • Retro
  • Retro II
  • Retro 4
  • Saru Ga Daisuki
  • Seizuredome
  • Shotgun Ninja
  • Space Fuck!
  • Stallions In America
  • Ted's Wet Adventure
  • The Birthday
  • The Design
  • This Is Infinity
  • Tuning (winner of the Sublime Experience award at IndieCade in 2009)[15]
  • Unholy Stage
  • Xoldiers
  • xWUNG

References

  1. ↑ Curtis, Tom (13 July 2012). "Cactus goes commercial: How one indie moved beyond his freeware roots". www.gamasutra.com.
  2. ↑ Stuart, Keith (21 April 2008). "Interview: Cactus Games". The Guardian.
  3. ↑ "Road To The IGF: Clean Asia! Takes Aim At Innovation" from Gamasutra
  4. ↑ Purchese, Robert (12 March 2010). "IGF 2010 winners revealed". Eurogamer.
  5. ↑ Werning, Stefan (2021). Making Games: The Politics and Poetics of Game Creation Tools. p. 49.
  6. ↑ "The Four-Hour Game Design by Cactus" from the GDC 09 event list
  7. ↑ Courtney, Timothy (5 March 2016). "Game Talk: Developer of Games Like Hotline Miami, Norrland, Clean Asia! & Mondo Medicals, Jonatan Cactus Soderstrom Interview with Timothy Courtney". timothycourtney.io. Archived from the original on 5 May 2019. Retrieved 9 July 2016.
  8. ↑ Söderström, Jonatan. "Cactus / Jonatan Söderström". CactusSquid.rf.gd. Retrieved 23 January 2022.
  9. ↑ "Hardcore shooting fun (and rude bits) with Ad Nauseam 2". the Guardian. 15 April 2008. Retrieved 23 January 2022.
  10. ↑ "Prickly Situations". Rhizome. 20 August 2008. Retrieved 23 January 2022.
  11. ↑ "TIGSource » TIGArchive » Burn the Trash". Retrieved 23 January 2022.
  12. ↑ Walker, John (3 April 2008). "SPACE WEEK: Fuck Space!". Rock, Paper, Shotgun. Retrieved 23 January 2022.
  13. ↑ "TIGSource » TIGArchive » Illegal Communication". Retrieved 23 January 2022.
  14. ↑ "Indie Developer Showcase, Day Four: Mondo Agency". The Escapist. 29 January 2010. Retrieved 23 January 2022.
  15. ↑ "IndieCade, Impressions of the Award Winners". Gamasutra. October 2009. Retrieved 10 March 2012.
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