Developer Yacht Club Games has always had grand ambitions for their seminal Shovel Knight franchise, and they’ve shown interest in expanding its reach with 3D platforming and even more cameos. Speaking to App Trigger, studio artist Nick Wozniak discussed the future of the franchise.
The original game made its debut in 2014 and has spread to great popularity among players, and already Yacht Club would like to see the character in a 3D platformer, one inspired by classics of the Nintendo 64-era.
I think one of the things we want to work on in the far future is definitely like a Shovel Knight 64, a 3D platformer. We would all love that. We all love Mario 64 to pieces and would just love to be able to jump into that.
As of now, Shovel Knight is in a 3D platformer, Yooka Laylee as a playable cameo. As to other game cameos, Wozniak entertained the ideas of Shovel Knight earning a place in games like Overwatch and Super Smash Bros. The latter is of interest as plenty of Smash fans voted for the character in 2015’s ballot for extra DLC characters, but Shovel Knight did not make the cut.
…I’d love to see Shovel Knight all over the place. For Smash Bros would be amazing. For Overwatch, we’ve been thinking a lot about Overwatch. Recently somebody drew a centaur-Shovel Knight. He was holding a shovel and next to it on the whiteboard I drew Orisa from Overwatch and they were having a conversation, being weird about centaurs. And we posted it on Twitter and then the official Overwatch Twitter said hello back, and it was really cool! There’s nothing there as far as a cameo, but I’d love to see Shovel Knight in those things. A big Reinhardt skin would be awesome. We love that game a lot and we play it all the time.
Incidentally, when asked what is under the titular knight’s helmet, Wozniak responded:
That is something we have not officially addressed, and I think I’m gonna leave it at that.
Of late, Shovel Knight‘s core release got a Nintendo Switch port and was upgraded to a piecemeal “Treasure Trove” release that houses all its DLC campaigns. In the future, fans have the King Knight quest with the boss as a playable character, and Battle Mode. After that, the base game will be complete, for the time being, and the future of Shovel Knight open to anything.
Top image: Shovel Knight official plush
