Shovel Knight is a platform game developed and published by Yacht Club Games. Development was crowdfunded and the game was released for Nintendo 3DS, Wii U, and Windows in June 2014. It was ported to OS X and Linux in September 2014, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita, and Xbox One in April 2015, Amazon Fire TV in September 2015, and Nintendo Switch in March 2017. Shovel Knight is inspired by gameplay and graphics of platformer games developed for the Nintendo Entertainment System.
The game received critical acclaim, with critics considering it one of the greatest video games ever made. With the release of additional campaigns, the original story received the retronym Shovel of Hope. The full game was released in December 2019 as Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove, which includes three other campaigns (Plague of Shadows, Specter of Torment, and King of Cards), along with multiplayer fighting game Shovel Knight Showdown.
A spin-off dungeon crawler puzzle game, Shovel Knight Pocket Dungeon, was co-developed with Vine and released on December 13, 2021, for macOS, Windows, Nintendo Switch, and PlayStation 4. A prequel, the roguelike Shovel Knight Dig, was co-developed with Nitrome and released on September 23, 2022, for Windows, Nintendo Switch, and Apple Arcade. A remake of the first game called Shovel of Hope DX is planned to be released at a future date.
Gameplay Shovel Knight is a 2D side-scrolling platform game with an 8-bit graphical style. In the base campaign retroactively titled Shovel of Hope, players control the eponymous adventurer as he goes on a journey to rescue his partner Shield Knight while fighting the Enchantress and her Order of No Quarter. Shovel Knight can attack with his shovel, dig through dirt blocks, unearth treasure, or use this tool to bounce upon enemies and objects. Levels are themed around the individual knights of the Order of No Quarter, feature several checkpoints, and end with a boss fight against one of the order's eight members. Each section of the world map contains three knights, and the player must defeat all of them to progress to the next area. Aside from the main quest, players are encouraged to collect treasure to improve Shovel Knight's abilities.
By finding a salesman named Chester hidden inside levels, the player can purchase items called Relics with treasure. These Relics provide helpful effects and are powered using a resource called magic. Examples of Relics include a locket that grants temporary invulnerability, or a wand that shoots fireballs. The player can further use treasure to buy useful upgrades for Shovel Knight's health, magic capacity, armor, or shovel. For example, an upgrade for the shovel allows it to shoot damaging projectiles whenever Shovel Knight is at maximum health. Some levels contain hidden music sheets that the player can give to a non-player character called the bard; trading these sheets awards treasure and the ability to sound test each of the game's music tracks.
Dying in Shovel Knight causes the player to lose a portion of their treasure at the location of death, and the player can return to this location to recover their lost gold. However, if the player dies again before claiming this treasure, it is lost forever. As an optional challenge, players have the choice of destroying checkpoints to be awarded treasure, at the risk of being sent back to an earlier location in the level should they die. Completing the game unlocks a more difficult New Game Plus mode, which reduces the number of available checkpoints and increases the damage Shovel Knight takes.
Downloadable content and platform-exclusive features Free downloadable content (DLC) updates add new features to the game, including a "Challenge Mode" where the player can complete difficult tasks such as speedrunning or repeat battles with the game's bosses. A local cooperative multiplayer DLC allows for two players to complete the main campaign in tandem, and co-op on Nintendo platforms is compatible with Shovel Knight series amiibo figures, allowing players to store customized characters or summon cosmetic fairies. A body swap mode allows players to alter the genders or identifying pronouns of certain characters in the Shovel of Hope campaign.
Three additional single-player campaigns titled Plague of Shadows, Specter of Torment, and King of Cards focus on different playable characters who appear as bosses in the Shovel of Hope campaign. Plague of Shadows casts players as Plague Knight, who uses bombs to attack enemies and can use both a double jump and a powerful "burst jump" to launch himself through the air. Specter of Torment is centered around Specter Knight, who can run up walls, jump off of them, and use his scythe to slash enemies and obstacles. King of Cards puts players in control of King Knight, who has a shoulder bash which turns into a spin attack upon colliding with enemies or objects. King Knight's campaign features a card battle mini-game called "Joustus", in which players place cards on a field to claim spaces marked with gems.
In addition to the DLC campaigns, Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove features a multiplayer fighting game add-on called Shovel Knight Showdown. In Showdown, up to four players compete in various game modes using playable fighters based around characters in the franchise. The game includes a single-player story mode which can be completed to unlock new fighters and levels. Shovel Knight has several version-exclusive features such as unique boss battles; a boss version of Kratos from God of War appears in the PlayStation ports, while Rare's Battletoads are included as enemies in the Xbox One and Windows versions. The Nintendo 3DS version features a StreetPass arena mode, which lets players record themselves moving around an arena and attempting to defeat an invisible enemy. The recording is then sent to other players connected through StreetPass, allowing the recorded player characters to fight each other in combat.
Plot Shovel Knight and his partner Shield Knight are renowned and successful adventurers, but while exploring the Tower of Fate, an amulet curses Shield Knight and leaves Shovel Knight stranded outside of the sealed tower. Grieving for his friend, Shovel Knight gives up adventuring and goes into self-imposed exile. During his absence, a powerful being known as the Enchantress rises to power, spreading evil across the land. Upon hearing that the Enchantress has unsealed the Tower of Fate, Shovel Knight resolves to journey back to it, hoping to find and rescue Shield Knight. To reach the tower, Shovel Knight confronts and defeats the members of the Order of No Quarter, a group of knights serving the Enchantress.
Along his journey towards the Tower of Fate, Shovel Knight continuously battles with his old rival Black Knight. After he defeats Black Knight for a final time at the outskirts of the tower, Black Knight reveals that the Enchantress is actually Shield Knight, who is possessed by an evil spirit that inhabits the amulet. Shovel Knight ascends the tower and defeats the Order of No Quarter again, before battling the Enchantress. He manages to exorcise the evil spirit, turning her back into Shield Knight. The amulet transforms into a powerful monster known as the Remnant of Fate, which Shovel Knight and Shield Knight defeat together. Shield Knight holds back the Remnant of Fate as the tower collapses, while Black Knight carries an unconscious Shovel Knight to safety. He leaves Shovel Knight by his campfire and departs. A post-credits scene shows Shield Knight, who managed to escape the collapsing tower, lying next to Shovel Knight as he sleeps.
Development
Yacht Club Games was founded by former members of the video game company WayForward Technologies. The concept behind Shovel Knight was conceived in January 2013. Designer Nick Wozniak stated that the idea for the game started out as "sort of as a joke conversation over lunch that kind of got too serious". The team planned to make a game in the style of the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) classics that they grew up on, and eventually the sword-thrust move from Zelda II: The Adventure of Link was brought up as a move that the designers liked. They soon believed that this move would be better suited in their game for a shovel instead of a sword. Director Sean Velasco said that the decision of the protagonist's name was "pretty much settled" after the first brainstorming session, with the name "Plummet Knight" being the only other suggestion.
The game was revealed on March 15, 2013, alongside the launch of a Kickstarter campaign to crowdfund development, with a minimum goal of . Before the launch of the crowdfunding campaign, Yacht Club Games was put in contact with Dan Adelman, the director of digital content development at Nintendo of America. Adelman liked the game and was able to provide support with publishing and development. The campaign went on to collect a total of , fulfilling all announced "stretch goals" for additional features by its end on April 13. Those goals included a four-player battle mode, a mission-based challenge setting, a body swap mode, and additional playable story campaigns for three boss characters. The campaign had numerous rewards for backers, including an art book and special bags of dirt decorated to symbolize members of the Order of No Quarter. In combination with money brought through PayPal donations, Yacht Club Games raised a total of . The team provided a demo for Shovel Knight at PAX East, and received favorable coverage from video game websites. The amount the developers raised was insufficient to cover the game's costs, and they had to delay the release date, leading them to work the last months of its development without payment.
Design Yacht Club Games performed research on various NES games to help with their design, and they learned about the innovations and drawbacks of early and late NES titles. Despite being a 2D platform game, Shovel Knight was designed in a 3D engine, which allowed for the developers to easily port it to different platforms and allow for the finding and removal of bugs. The developers followed feedback from players of the PAX demo and other interested people, who helped them fix bugs and provided inspiration for mechanics and stretch goals for the Kickstarter campaign.
The Order of No Quarter was inspired by the Robot Masters, characters from the Mega Man franchise that serve as its main bosses. Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse influenced how they designed the items of Shovel Knight to give them multiples utilities. The developers drew inspiration for the checkpoint design from Dark Souls, and attributed smaller influences to DuckTales, Super Mario Bros. 3, and U.N. Squadron. Yacht Club Games gave attention to Shovel Knight's movement, designing it so the character would slide after moving horizontally, though this movement could be prevented by jumping. The team was concerned about the difficulty, wanting to create an experience with improved balancing compared to traditional NES games. This led to them avoiding a lives system and implementing the mechanic where the player can retrieve their treasure upon death. An optional boss was designed by Matthew Kowalewski and Woolie Madden of Super Best Friends Play as part of a backer reward.