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All Articles: Shovel Knight
Yacht Club will bring Shovel Knight’s King Knight campaign to PAX West 2017
Ready Thy Shovel!
Yacht Club Games has announced that Shovel Knight‘s final expansion/spinoff, the King Knight campaign, will be unveiled during this year’s PAX West expo:
You are hereby invited to join us on a royal adventure!
We'll be at PAX West Sep. 1st-4th with King Knight in our most glamorous game yet! pic.twitter.com/hsw70KH6Ib
— Yacht Club Games (@YachtClubGames) August 1, 2017
Yacht Club’s Nick Wozniak recently described King Knight’s campaign as “light-hearted” and “goofy,” so it likely won’t be as sad as Specter of Torment.
Shovel Knight’s King Knight campaign is expected to launch later this year, and will be available as a free expansion for all owners of the Treasure Trove bundle for the 3DS, PC, PS3, PS4, Switch, Vita, Xbox One, and mobile devices. The regal adventure will also be available as a standalone download on the PC, PS4, Switch, and Xbox One.
Yacht Club continues to joke about Shovel Knight 64… and talks seriously about King Knight expansion
Developers from Yacht Club Games have joked about creating Shovel Knight 64 for a few years now. But the company’s “Pixel Artmancer,” Nick Wozniak, revealed that their fanciful daydreaming about a Shovel Knight sequel that uses the blocky polygonal style made famous by the N64 might be real during an E3 2017 interview with App Trigger:
App Trigger: I’ve seen a little bit of Yacht Club talking about working on more Shovel Knight, or more things besides Shovel Knight after all this is done. What would your personal preference be? If you could work on anything, what would it be?
Nick Wozniak: Anything? I think one of the things we want to work on in the far future is definitely like a Shovel Knight 64, a 3D platformer. We would all love that. We all love Mario 64 to pieces and would just love to be able to jump into that.
Of course, this wasn’t an official announcement for Shovel Knight 64. Wozniak said that Yacht Club doesn’t just want to be known as “the Shovel Knight company,” and that they’re currently hard at work on “something new.”
However, the developer is also putting the finishing touches on Shovel Knight’s King Knight expansion, and Wozniak also had a bit to say about the game’s final add-on:
App Trigger: [King Knight is] great. He’s the light-hearted guy. Even though you guys gave us choices at the beginning of Shovel Knight, your eye is drawn more toward King Knight, so I think that’s the one a lot of people start with.
Nick Wozniak: He’s great. He’s the first guy you probably encounter, and he sets the tone of the rest of the game. You know what to expect, kind of, when you see King Knight. He’s a joke, even in his name. He’s not a king, he’s a knight who’s kingly, and that’s ridiculous and stupid and it sets the bar for your expectations of what the game is and what the knights are. His campaign is going to be a big departure from the very tragic story that Specter Knight was, but it will be interesting and focused on his journey to becoming King Knight. I’m not sure what the timeline is now, we’re still working through what it is, but it’ll be goofy.
Yacht Club has previously said they want to release the King Knight campaign before the end of the year, so it shouldn’t be too long before we can all be royals.
Shovel Knight: Official Design Works officially announced by Udon Entertainment
It looks like the rumors are true… Udon Entertainment will release a Shovel Knight artbook this August.
Shovel Knight: Official Design Works will include an in-depth look at the early concept art that allowed Shovel Knight to become a Kickstarter darling and indie sensation, as well an exclusive interview with the development team:
Udon has worked very closely with developer Yacht Club Games to ensure that Shovel Knight: Official Design Works is every bit the definitive Shovel Knight art book that fans deserve. Within its pages you’ll find character art, developer commentary, rough illustrations and concept art, background development images, comprehensive sprite sheets, full-page promotional illustrations, and more – including an exclusive interview with the game’s development team!
The 184-page book will also include content from the game’s first expansion, Shovel Knight: Plague of Shadows.
If you can’t wait until August, you can view a selection of preview pages at the the publishing company’s official website right now.
Shovel Knight: Specter of Torment campaign update dated for 3DS and Wii U
Yacht Club Games has announced that Shovel Knight fans will soon be able to play the Specter of Torment campaign on the Wii U and 3DS.
Specter of Torment won’t be released as a standalone download on either platform, but the campaign will be available to download as a free update on April 21 (on the Wii U) and April 25 (on the 3DS):
Darkness looms! Specter of Torment will arrive as a free update to Shovel Knight on the North American eShop
Wii U-April 21st
3DS-April 25th pic.twitter.com/rMyq4vD397— Yacht Club Games (@YachtClubGames) April 19, 2017
Yacht Club Games previously broke ground on Shovel Knight’s Specter of Torment campaign for Nintendo’s Switch (March 3) and the PC (April 5). It’ll also be available later this month for the PS4 and Xbox One (as a standalone download), and the PS3, PS4, Xbox One, and Vita (as a free update to Shovel Knight).
Posted in 3DS, News, Wii U
Tagged Shovel Knight
It looks like Udon will publish a Shovel Knight: Official Design Works artbook in August
We’re still waiting patiently for the release of those children’s books based on Shovel Knight (they’re currently scheduled to arrive in stores on April 18), but it looks like you’ll be able to purchase yet another tome featuring the titular knight later this Summer.
According to a new listing on Amazon, Udon Entertainment will publish Shovel Knight: Official Design Works on August 29. The artbook will include 184 pages of images from the game, as well as new information about Shovel Knight from the development team at Yacht Club Games:
Shovel Knight: Official Design Works collects the fun and original artwork behind this landmark title. Inside you’ll find key art, character concepts, enemy designs, sprite sheets, unused ideas, and an all-new Shovel Knight tribute art gallery! This epic tome is also packed with creator commentary, as well as exclusive interview with the Yacht Club Games team.
Shovel Knight: Specter of Torment, the newest expansion to Shovel Knight’s side-scrolling adventure, will be available to download for the PC beginning tomorrow. If missed its Nintendo Switch launch last month, you might not know that it’s an AMAZING addition to the franchise.
Shovel Knight: Specter of Torment will be released for the PC on April 5
Shovel Knight: Specter of Torment was one of the best games released for the Nintendo Switch during its launch weekend, but we have good news if you’ve been waiting for it to make its way to other platforms.
Late last night, Yacht Club Games announced (via their official website) that Shovel Knight: Specter of Torment will be available to download for the PC on April 5. The game is also in development for more than a half-dozen other platforms (3DS, Fire TV, PS3, PS4, Vita, Wii U, and Xbox One), and each one is currently scheduled to be released by the end of April.
Players who previously purchased Shovel Knight (which is now known as Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove) will receive the campaign as a free expansion. But PC, PS4, and Xbox One players who have never played Shovel Knight before will also have the option to purchase Specter of Torment as a standalone download.
Two additional expansions (King Knight’s Campaign and Battle Mode) are also in the works at Yacht Club Games. They’re expected to launch before the end of the year.
Shovel Knight: Specter of Torment Review: Death Takes Over in a Perfect Prequel
Yacht Club Games has built a strong reputation over the years for their ability to deconstruct, modernize, and regenerate the side-scrolling platformer. Using Ducktales and Mega Man as a template, the original Shovel Knight was a game that honored the past, while only being able to exist in the present. Meanwhile, its first expansion, Plague of Shadows, brought back the gadget platformer in a unique adventure that felt more like a true sequel than an add-on.
The developer must have had the same thought, as Shovel Knight: Specter of Torment is the first game in the franchise’s rapidly-growing expanded universe to be available as a standalone game as well as a free expansion. Widening their playing field has also lead Yacht Club to tackle the cinematic storytelling and swordplay found in the NES era’s ninja platformers, best exemplified by Ninja Gaiden. (more…)
17 Random Thoughts About the Nintendo Switch (and its Launch Lineup)
It’s much too early to say for sure, but it looks like Nintendo is off to a great start with the Switch. The Wii U had bit of a hot start as well, but something feels different this time. Perhaps it’s the near-universal acclaim that Breath of the Wild has received. Or maybe it’s the interesting selection of exclusive launch titles that you can only get on the Switch.
Whatever the reason, after a week with the Switch, I’m enjoying it very much. And that’s not the only thought that popped into my head over the last seven days… (more…)