After connecting with Yacht Club, the team behind Shovel Knight and its DLCs, at PAX West in September, With a Terrible Fate was thrilled to sit down with one of their original team members to discuss how Shovel Knight came to be.

Shovel Knight sprang to life through a hugely successful Kickstarter campaign, and we wanted to know how the croudfounded nature of the game—for instance, its DLCs that were developed as stretch goals—influenced the way that Yacht Club thought about their storytelling.

In this interview, With a Terrible Fate’s Dan Hughes and Aaron Suduiko Skype with Nick Wozniak, the Pixel Artmancer at Yacht Club. We cover everything Shovel Kinght, including:

  • The crowdfunding landscape for game developers, both when Shovel Knight was being made and today
  • How the game’s DLCs came about, and why they diverged from the original in the ways that they did
  • Shovel Knight’s themes, why the team decided to change the game’s ending, and what it takes to get a player invested in a game’s story
  • How the Shovel Knight developers thought about their game’s story, and how they developed the personalities of its characters
  • …and more!

Check out the full recording of our interview with Nick here:

It was a pleasure to talk with Nick, and we’re excited to bring you more Shovel Knight content based on this exclusive interview in the weeks to come!


Aaron Suduiko

Aaron Suduiko - Founder and Chief Video Game Analyst

Aaron Suduiko is the founder of With a Terrible Fate and a philosopher of video-game storytelling. He specializes in the impact of player-avatar relations on game stories.  Learn more here.

Dan Hughes

Dan Hughes - Video Game Analyst

Dan Hughes has dabbled in everything from playwriting to religious studies to YouTube personas. He is the seriesrunner for With a Terrible Fate's "Now Loading... The Video Game Canon!"  Learn more here.

With a Terrible Fate is dedicated to developing the best video game analysis anywhere, without any ads or sponsored content. If you liked what you just read, please consider supporting us by leaving a one-time tip or becoming a contributor on Patreon.

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