Shovel Knight developer Yacht Club Games held a presentation today that lasted about 90 minutes and was chock full of awesome new announcements and demos of new games. You can find a handy roundup of all the news over on Yacht Club’s website, but the one that caught my eye the most was the announcement of the brand new title Shovel Knight Dig. As the story goes, Drill Knight digs right up into Shovel Knight’s campsite and snags all of his loot, and then takes off back into the earth below. And of course Shovel Knight is having none of it. He grabs his Shovel Blade and heads down into the dirt to give chase. What ensues is a downward digging adventure that kind of gives me a Steamworld Dig vibe, or for a more mobile appropriate comparison, Doug Dug (Free). Now this is all well and good, but the most surprising part of this new game announcement is that it’s being developed in partnership with a name we’re all VERY familiar with around these parts, Nitrome! Check out the Shovel Knight Dig trailer here.
Oh yes, that is most definitely a Nitrome game. And while Nitrome is primarily known for their awesome mobile titles, don’t go marking your calendar just yet for Shovel Knight Dig, mobile gamers. As of right now the game has only been announced for Nintendo Switch, and officially the destination platforms are still “TBD." However, that’s also a GOOD thing, because at least mobile hasn’t been ruled out yet, and I think it remains a strong possibility we’ll see it on mobile someday. Yacht Club has expressed interest getting Shovel Knight onto mobile in some fashion, but not by simply porting their precision-heavy main game and slapping some virtual buttons on it. Shovel Knight Dig could be a good candidate for the touchscreen. While Shovel Knight Dig has been in development for more than a year, Nitrome says there’s “quite a ways to go still" so it may be a while before we’re playing the game on ANY platform. Unless you’ll be at PAX West this weekend that is, where a demo will be playable on the Nintendo Switch. I will be there with bells on, so hopefully I’ll have more to report on this one in a few days.
