Highlights

  • Shovel Knight is a groundbreaking indie title that paved the way for other indie hits and inspired a new generation of developers.
  • Yacht Club Games continued to support Shovel Knight for nearly a decade, with free updates, expansions, spin-offs, and more.
  • The upcoming Shovel Knight: Shovel of Hope DX will offer a definitive experience with new content, paving the way for the highly anticipated sequel.

Arriving 10 years ago today following a rousing success on Kickstarter, Yacht Club Games' Shovel Knight is perhaps one of the most pivotal indie titles to ever be released. As both one of the first large-scale indie game Kickstarter success stories and one of the first titles in a new wave of marquis indie releases following the success of titles like Super Meat Boy, Braid, and Fez, Shovel Knight would help inspire an entirely new generation of indie developers. The game's long tail of support from Yacht Club is an undeniable influence on other indie successes like Dead Cells, and the recent reveal of the title getting a full-fledged sequel has been a long time coming.

Following Shovel Knight's initial 1.0 release on June 26, 2014, the title would go on to receive nearly a decade of support from Yacht Club in the form of free updates, new characters, expansions, spin-off games, and more. As part of the game's 10th-anniversary celebration, Yacht Club revealed that the definitive version of the title, Shovel Knight: Shovel of Hope DX, will be released soon, and also dropped the bomb that a sequel is in development. Given the title's importance in the indie world as well as in the gaming industry as a whole, the announcement of a proper sequel to Shovel Knight is exactly what the franchise needs and deserves.

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Shovel Knight: Shovel of Hope DX - Official Announcement Trailer

Yacht Club Games announces Shovel Knight: Shovel of Hope DX, an enhanced version of the original Shovel Knight adventure coming soon to Steam.

Shovel Knight's Sequel Has Been a Long Time Coming

Shovel Knight 10 Years Body

Shovel Knight is one of the more noteworthy early Kickstarter success stories for indie game development. Its funding campaign would launch in March 2013, far surpassing its initial $75,000 goal to raise just over $311,000 in a month, closing funding in April 2013.

Yacht Club Games' successful Kickstarter campaign to fund Shovel Knight's development and release would garner plenty of attention for the title, and its runaway success after launch would only solidify its place as one of the most important indie hits ever developed. By 2018, Shovel Knight had sold more than 2 million copies, and current estimates put the title at nearly 3 million units sold across all platforms and releases. However, rather than dive right into a brand-new game and full-fledged sequel, Yacht Club Games made the (at the time) atypical decision to continue supporting Shovel Knight through a series of free updates.

In the years following the game's release, Yacht Club has delivered three separate expansions that each introduce new characters and unique mechanics (Plague of Shadows, Spectre of Torment, and King of Cards), as well as a free spin-off arena battling game (Shovel Knight Showdown) and two full retail spin-off releases with Shovel Knight Dig and Shovel Knight Pocket Dungeon. Yacht Club has kept itself busy delivering more Shovel Knight content to faithful fans along with newer upcoming projects like Mina the Hollower, but a proper sequel to the studio's breakout title is both well-deserved and slightly overdue.

Players Will Get to Dive Into Shovel Knight's Past Before Running Headlong Into Its Future

Somewhat unsurprisingly, Yacht Club Games is honoring Shovel Knight's legacy in more ways than currently developing a full-fledged sequel to the title. Ahead of the first reveal for Shovel Knight's official follow-up, players are getting the definitive version of the Shovel Knight experience with Shovel Knight: Shovel of Hope DX, which not only includes all previous content for Shovel Knight but also reintroduces features and options that were present in every version of the game in an act of game preservation. That the new, definitive version of Shovel Knight is also going to introduce even more new content and characters is fitting given Yacht Club's long tail of support for the title and a proper send-off for one of the most important indie platformers.