Maddy Thorson

Madeline Stephanie Thorson (born Matt Thorson, 18 March 1988) is a Canadian video game developer, known as one of the lead creators for the video games TowerFall and Celeste, developed under the studio Maddy Makes Games (previously Matt Makes Games). Since September 2019, Thorson has worked as Director of R&D at Extremely OK Games.

Early life

Madeline Stephanie Thorson was born on 18 March 1988. Thorson went to college at Grande Prairie Regional College in Alberta, Canada, studying computer science, during which one summer she worked at HermitWorks Entertainment, a local video game development studio.

Career

Maddy Makes Games

alt=Text in a pixel-like font, letters of different color and shadow text, reading "Maddy Makes Games" When Thorson was around fourteen, her mother helped her acquire a copy of GameMaker, a software tool to help develop video games. Through working in GameMaker, she was connected to others in online forums who were also interested in making games, including Chevy Ray Johnston. She developed a number of small pay-what-you-want games through GameMaker in high school and through college,

Thorson's goal in college was to get a computer programming degree and join up with a large game development studio, but as she progressed, she realized she could still make video games without having to be attached to a studio.

Thorson and Johnston were visited by friends they had made online. Later, Holowka recognized Thorson as TowerFall main creator and relinquished his stake as a co-creator. Following its initial release in 2013, the team reissued the game in 2014 as TowerFall: Ascension for most other gaming platforms with additional features. The game was released across multiple platforms in January 2018. By the end of 2018, it had sold more than 500,000 copies, and received numerous industry awards.

Romhacking

Thorson has developed romhacks for various Mario games, often under the pseudonym "Maddy69xo420". She has released four hacks for Super Mario World including Super Mario World Remix in 2015, Super "Sonic Saves the World" World in 2021, Sure Shot in 2022, and Masterpiece in 2025. She designed levels for the SMW Kaizo Relay Race collaboration hacks for Games Done Quick in 2022 and 2024 and released a level for the Super Mario 64 hack Mario Builder 64 titled Ocean Spire on May 24, 2024. Her hacks have been featured at various speedrunning events including Romhack Races and Summer Games Done Quick 2023 & 2024.

Extremely OK Games

alt=Four stylised letters of different colours arranged in 2-by-2 grid reading "EXOK" On 5 September 2019, Thorson announced that she was effectively shutting down Maddy Makes Games, while re-establishing the same team under the new name Extremely OK Games (abbreviated EXOK). The purpose of the change was twofold. First, the new name recognized that Thorson was not the sole creative force behind the games and ensured that the whole team was fully recognized and shared in the collective output from the company. Second, the change coincided with a move to a new set of offices in Vancouver to house the entire team, which had been previously spread across the world, including some in São Paulo. EXOK was technically founded in March 2019, but the first six months had been spent working to move these international developers into Canada and dealing with immigration requirements.

Thorson stated that TowerFall and Celeste would remain published under Maddy Makes Games, and that the team had already started the early exploratory work for their next title, codenamed "EXOK-1". The game was formally announced at The Game Awards 2022 with a planned 2024 release date, but was pushed back an unspecified time in March 2024. In January 2025, Thorson, on the company's blog, announced that the game had been canceled, citing a dispute over intellectual property rights of Celeste that led to the loss of a studio member, and struggles with development as among the reasons.

Notable games

Year Title 2004 Jumper 2004 Jumper Two 2008 Jumper Three 2013 TowerFall 2015 Celeste Classic 2018 Celeste 2021 Celeste Classic 2: Lani's Trek 2022 Sure Shot 2024 Celeste 64: Fragments of the Mountain 2025 Masterpiece

Canceled games Title Platform(s) Earthblade Windows

Personal life

Thorson is transgender and uses she/her pronouns. By around 2020, she had adopted the name Maddy Thorson. In the Farewell DLC to the game Celeste, the final cutscene shows the character Madeline in her room with a rainbow flag and transgender flag. Thorson later confirmed that Madeline was trans in a blog post which also reflected on her own coming to terms with her gender identity.

Thorson and her partner have been parents to a child since 2022. She said in 2024 that, due to the responsibilities of parenthood, she was unlikely to develop a multiplayer game in the future.

Reception

Thorson was named by Forbes as one of their "30 Under 30" for gaming in 2014, recognizing her for the development of TowerFall.