Shovel Knight Dig announced, original game to get quality of life updates on all platforms



When it comes to dedicated indie development teams, Yacht Club Games is definitely up there, having provided updates for their hit game Shovel Knight for the five years after its initial release. A host of new quality of life features are coming to Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove, with Plague of Shadows receiving a new menu to allow easier access to your arcanas, Specter of Torment getting five new challenges, and accessibility options are being added for the entire game, which helps those that are prone to flashing/shaking images or are colorblind. Three new amiibos of Plague Knight, Specter Knight, and King Knight have also been announced, which will unlock new costumes for the Nintendo Switch, 3DS, and Wii U versions.

More importantly, a brand new spinoff game has been revealed, in the form of Shovel Knight: Dig. Existing as a collaboration with developer Nitrome, Shovel Knight: Dig has "meticulously crafted levels" which are randomly generated together. Your goal is to dig down in order to explore, progress, and find upgrades. Jake Kaufman will also return to compose the soundtrack for the new game. Shovel Knight: Dig has been in development for almost a year, though no release date was given.

  • In Shovel of Hope, we’ve finally added a third option for character pronouns. Alongside being able to choose between two body types for every main character, you can now switch the pronouns to they / them.
  • You can now earn Shovel of Hope Feats while playing co-op. These are still quite challenging, and some are made even more challenging when coordinating with a friend!
  • In Plague of Shadows, we’ve added an Alchemy Quick Select option. You can select your bombs and arcana with a convenient new menu, allowing you to experiment with explosives freely, just like the mad alchemist himself.
  • In Specter of Torment, we added five all new platforming challenges to challenge mode. These are not meant for the faint of heart—the new challenges require significant command over Specter Knight’s iconic move: the dash slash.
  • For all the games, including the upcoming King of Cards and Showdown, we have added three new language options! Korean and Traditional and Simplified Chinese. Bringing the total count to twelve!
  • We’ve expanded Accessibility options across all games. The intensity of screen flash and screen shake events can now be reduced independently from one another. And King of Cards also has palettes to improve colorblind visibility for Joustus.
  • Shovel Knight features hundreds of cheats to share and explore already! But we couldn’t resist adding just a few more. Some add whole new ways to play. Some of them might be a bit too much…
  • Finally, once you have completed all feats in a game, you will unlock a small flag on the title screen to signify that game’s completion. In addition, once you have conquered every Challenge for that game, a medal will appear denoting your true mastery. If you’ve already completed each game, then don’t worry, these are awarded retroactively. Enjoy filling up the title screen with your many, hard-fought, knightly accomplishments!
 

Jmbenetti

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all this random generated levels type of game are getting stale, its just an easier way to make them articially longer, since on most of them you die and need to start from scratch so meh ...
I usually don't like them, but I loved Rogue Legacy.
 

Taleweaver

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I'm certainly inter...Wait, wait: I mean...

<*silence for comedic effect*>

I can dig this. B-)

<*complete and utter silence, save for some crickets and someone yawning*>

Aaaanyhow: I really liked the 2 steamworld dig games, and shovel knight obviously seems like a perfect fit.



Shovel Knight: Dig has "meticulously crafted levels" which are randomly generated together.
Erm...isn't that a straight up contradiction? :unsure:

I mean...proper level design far outreaches the level itself but also takes consideration of the context in which it's created. A single level can be awesome, but if it's nearly repeated dozens of times it lowers the overall feel. And it's not like you can just string random levels together and call it a day. It'd be like a cook carefully selecting the best cooking ingredients...and then slapping them randomly together and pretend it'd be a better meal.
 

Ev1l0rd

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Erm...isn't that a straight up contradiction? :unsure:

I mean...proper level design far outreaches the level itself but also takes consideration of the context in which it's created. A single level can be awesome, but if it's nearly repeated dozens of times it lowers the overall feel. And it's not like you can just string random levels together and call it a day. It'd be like a cook carefully selecting the best cooking ingredients...and then slapping them randomly together and pretend it'd be a better meal.
It's actually pretty straightforward.

You have two kinds of random generation.
  • Truly random generation, every level is regenerated from random bits and bobs of stage. A game that does this: Dead Cells
  • "Prefab" RNG: Either the stage itself or the layout of the stage is made up of prefabs. In the former case, there are for example 15 possibilities for the first stage and 15 possibilities for the second and so on. The RNG is then which of these stages is picked. The latter case is more random, but the prefabs are guaranteed to always fit together. Example for the latter: Spelunky.
 
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Taleweaver

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It's actually pretty straightforward.

You have two kinds of random generation.
  • Truly random generation, every level is regenerated from random bits and bobs of stage. A game that does this: Dead Cells
  • "Prefab" RNG: Either the stage itself or the layout of the stage is made up of prefabs. In the former case, there are for example 15 possibilities for the first stage and 15 possibilities for the second and so on. The RNG is then which of these stages is picked. The latter case is more random, but the prefabs are guaranteed to always fit together. Example for the latter: Spelunky.
I get what you try to say, and I understand the difference between those two ways. However, I wouldn't say either of those examples would have "meticulously crafted levels" (or any other game with randomly generated levels, for that matter).

Don't get me wrong: I enjoy games with randomly generated levels very much. The near-infinite amount of levels is even a plus in that aspect. But really: taken at face value, these levels are always just "okay" or "passable". None will ever stack up to , say, properly constructed Mario platformer levels.
 

shadow1w2

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For a moment I thought there was a Namco cross over with Mr.Driller.
This works too though.
curious if this ends up a mobile game and if so I hooe it has a simple premium purchase price.
 

Ev1l0rd

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I get what you try to say, and I understand the difference between those two ways. However, I wouldn't say either of those examples would have "meticulously crafted levels" (or any other game with randomly generated levels, for that matter).
The first part of prefab RNG is what they'll be doing. They'll have X amount of first stages, X amount of second stages and so on.

Those X first stages can still all be meticulously crafted, it just provides more variety in the gameplay itself.
 

pedro702

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The first part of prefab RNG is what they'll be doing. They'll have X amount of first stages, X amount of second stages and so on.

Those X first stages can still all be meticulously crafted, it just provides more variety in the gameplay itself.
dont think they have entire stages on random .. that makes no sence therefore they would make 4 or 5 games in one lol.

each stage probably has several parts like passing through a door , or going down a hole and such and on this transition parts you get a random part so each stage is comprised of randomly generated parts.
 

medoli900

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As a number one fan of Nitrome and Motherload (the first game inspired from dig dug that I ever played), I am very happy to see the genre resurfacing with SteamWorld: Dig and this.
 

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