| Jonathan Söderström | |
|---|---|
 caught in the headlights | |
|
Location |
Sweden |
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Worked with |
Terry Cavanagh, Arthur Lee, Mark Johns, Dennis Wedin |
|
Website |
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Jonatan "cactus" Söderström is a Swedish game developer with over 50 games made with Game Maker. He is known for completing games very quickly, and for promoting the idea that games don't have to be fun. His games can be identified by a characteristic "cactus" style, which all of his creations seem to share.
In 2012, he released the popular commercial game Hotline Miami with Dennis Wedin, followed by Hotline Miami 2 in 2015.
Biography
Cactus won the IGF award for innovation in 2010.
He has a twin brother.
Games
The Works of Cactus!
Cactus interview IGF 2008
Cactus Interview IGF 2008
Cactus IGS 2009- Part 1
Cactus' IGS 2009 Presentation Part 1
Unfinished Games
Unfinished games video
Released
This list is incomplete.
- Ascii Fun
- Arms
- Ad Nauseum 2
- The Birthday
- BlockOn!
- Burn the Trash
- Cactus Arcade (a compilation of games)
- Clean Asia!
- Decontrologic
- Deep/Wing/Break (with Kvalsternacka)
- The Design
- Dungeon (with MrPodunkian)
- Evac
- Fractal Fighter
- Fuck Space!
- God Came to the Cave
- Hot Throttle (with Mark Johns for Adult Swim)
- Illegal Communication
- Insect Invade II
- Kryzta
- LIfe is a Race
- Lovecraft Game
- Minubeat
- Mondo Agency
- Mondo Medicals
- MSOIDS
- Ninja Flu
- Ping Pong!
- Plants 3D
- Precision
- Protoganda
- Protoganda II
- Protoganda: Strings
- Psychosomnium
- Reizus 3
- Retro
- Retro II
- RETRO 4
- Saru ga Daisuki
- SeizureDome
- Shotgun Ninja
- Stallions in America
- Stench Mechanics
- Space Fuck!
- Ted's Wet Adventure
- Teknozombie 3D
- Unholy Stage
- Ultramission
- X O L D I E R S (with Terry)
- xWUNG
In Progress
- Life/Death/Island
- Tuning
- Air Pirates
- Death Party (Shotgun Ninja 2)
- Brain Damaged Toon Underworld
- Cave of Clark
- Akichizoku
- Bike Game (with Messhof)
- Norrland
Notable Quotes
- "I don't think it's very interesting how commercial games just try to look as realistic as possible these days, and many indie games rely heavily on high-detail pixel art. While I can appreciate both, I think it's just as nice to look at something that maybe doesn't look equally impressive crafts wise, but has a distinct and unique style nonetheless."
- "Right now there is some sort of wall between a lot of people and games. You don't expect to be really be of value other than to pass time. And I think that really needs to change. It's really like the most advanced medium we have to work with and that should reflect in what we create with it, so right now we're just trading experiences like: I was in the war, I shot a lot of people in the head, I blew people up ...yeah I don't know, I think that's fun in some way."
- "I really like games that let me experience something I would never be able to experience in real life."
- "I think it's really important that a lot of people who don't actually want to makes games, but more like have interesting stories or share their experiences of life and things like that, they start making games."
- " ... [...] ... I want to thank Jesus. I want to thank God for the inspiration to make this game. ... [...] ... Thank you." - acceptance speech for Tuning's IGF award.
Trivia
- Jonatan loves David Lynch films, which you can see the inspiration of in his Mondo games.
- "cactus" isn't normally capitalized, and is preferred on this wiki over "Cactus".
- His website got the #42 spot in Time Magazine's top 50 websites of the year 2010[1]