Shovel Knight Dig Announced During Yacht Club Stream
It feels like there have already been a dozen Shovel Knight games, doesn't it? Those were all add-ons to the original (curse those Kickstarter milestones). But now we're actually getting a legit new Shovel Knight game called Shovel Knight Dig. Unfortunately, we don't know when.
Developer Yacht Club Games hosted a Nintendo Direct-style stream today where it made a number of announcements. Shovel Knight: King of Cards and Shovel Knight Showdown are coming this December. A physical release of Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove (which features the base game and all of its updates) will also arrive in December. And there's a Kickstarter for a Shovel Knight board game? What?
But those announcements have to take a backseat to Shovel Knight Dig. It shows us where Yacht Club plans to go after the studio wraps up work on the first Shovel Knight, and that is, apparently, in the direction of more Shovel Knight.
Shovel Knight Dig looks a lot like the game we've all come to know rather well; the modern-day gold standard for 2D platforming. But it's also very different. For starters, you can now dig downward, which seems like a no-brainer mechanic for a character who carries a shovel around. The levels in Dig are also "meticulously crafted" yet randomly generated, which sounds an awful lot like how the Infinite Forest works in Destiny 2. Shovel Knight and his shovel can both be upgraded over time using items found in chests and other locations, which is neat.
Oh, and did we mention Nitrome is collaborating with Yacht Club Games on Shovel Knight Dig? Nitrome makes a lot of well-liked mobile games, so it'll be interesting to see what that partnership yields.
The worst part about the Shovel Knight Dig news is that we don't have a release window, much less a release date. And aside from the Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4, we don't have all the platforms nailed down. We'll be sure to keep watch for any news on the game, however, and report back should more info magically appear before our eyes.