All Articles: Shovel Knight
Shovel Knight is the first project from Yacht Club Games
Prepare to taste justice, Shovel Justice!
Yacht Club Games has pushed off shore and officially announced their first project, Shovel Knight. The former WayForward team members have cast their newest hero in a game that owes a very large debt to Mega Man and more than a bit to the cane-pogo mechanics of DuckTales:
Shovel Knight is a sweeping classic action adventure game with awesome gameplay, memorable characters, and an 8-bit retro aesthetic. It’s a hot mashup of new and old that may remind you of Mega Man, Castlevania, or Dark Souls! You play as the eponymous Shovel Knight, a small knight with a huge quest. Shovel Knight has come to this valley with two goals: to defeat the evil Enchantress and save his lost beloved. He wields a ShovelBlade: a multipurpose weapon whose techniques have now been lost to the ages. Always honest and helpful, Shovel Knight is a shining example of the code of Shovelry: Slash Mercilessly and Dig Tirelessly!
But, between Shovel Knight and his beloved stands a cadre of villainous knights. These terrible foes, known as The Order of No Quarter, have been dispatched to prevent Shovel Knight from reaching the Enchantress, and will pursue their mission at any cost.
Yacht Club has organized a Kickstarter campaign to help fund development and, as of this writing, they’re a third of the way there with 27 days to go. Provided all goes well, Shovel Knight will be available for the PC in September 2013 and, if all goes really well, Yacht Club hopes to bring the game to the Wii U and 3DS sometime after that.
If you’re attending this year’s PAX East convention, you’ll be able to play Shovel Knight at Yacht Club’s booth all weekend long.
New studio Yacht Club Games sails away with a crew from WayForward
WayForward is responsible for some of this generation’s most retro-tastic games including Double Dragon: Neon, BloodRayne: Betrayal, A Boy and His Blob, and Contra 4. But as WayForward moves forward with a Mighty Switch Force sequel, a large part of the team has sidestepped into a new studio, Yacht Club Games.
Sean Velasco, the former Director at WayForward (and voice of Skullmageddon in Double Dragon: Neon), will captain this new venture with an additional crew of developers marooned from his former studio.
Velasco wants to continue WayForward’s retro tradition at Yacht Club, saying, “Our serious and solemn goal is to make really awesome games that fuse modern and retro game philosophies.”
Velasco continued, “We want to create fun and challenging gameplay with concise and polished mechanics. We want to both tug at your heartstrings and delight you with levity and charm. We want to make games that you play together with friends and family.”
Yacht Club plans to announce their first project in the next few days, and they’ll be attending this year’s PAX East (March 22-24) to greet the public.