We’ve been privileged in the past, in that
we’re able to do our own thing. We don’t
usually work with any IP unless it’s one we
truly have a lot of love and respect for, and
Shovel Knight, for us, is right up there with
the very best.
One of the things I like about both Shovel
Knight and Bomb Chicken is how they
have simple controls that are so carefully
balanced. When it came to Bomb Chicken,
how long did it take to fine-tune the
bomb-laying mechanic?
It actually all started out from us wanting
to make a platformer with in-depth
controls playable with one hand. The
biggest challenge to overcome was getting
an attack and a jump in there with a single
input. Our first prototype involved a sprite
which spawned boxes underneath to gain
height. We soon realised we needed to
make the boxes disappear as having so
much on-screen clutter was undesirable,
and that’s where the bombs came in. [The
main character] started out as a wizard,
but I had a silly suggestion to have it be
a chicken that laid the bombs, and the
chicken was born. The rest of the chicken’s
moveset came fairly naturally after that,
during the first round of ideas.
Have Shovel Knight Dig’s mechanics taken
a similar amount of fine-tuning, given
they’re now being used in a different
context – mostly digging down, as well as
pure platforming?
The initial idea of getting a blend of fast
and frantic digging mixed with platforming
was implemented fairly quickly. Yacht Club
knows their character better than anyone
and helped us get that classic Shovel Knight
feeling spot on. It took quite a lot of fine-
tuning between us to get it to the state
it is today. For example, suggestions like
keeping your character’s momentum as
you break out of the dirt makes the digging
we played around with a more arcade
Game Boy Advance style for fun, and we
instantly all knew it was what we were
looking for.How fluid is the creative process between
you and Yacht Club? Is it a situation
where both sides are free to pitch
in ideas?
The process is all fairly fluid. We’re pretty
much allowed to pitch whatever we feel
passionate about and then get feedback.
It’s usually only things that may clash with
any existing lore or suggestions on how to
expand upon or refine an idea.When it comes to the levels and
procedural generation, what’s the
process of ensuring that the resulting
stages are enjoyable and don’t get
too repetitive?
There are quite a lot of lengths we’ve
gone to to try and make repetition less
apparent. There are probably too many to
mention, but to give you some idea, here
are a few. Firstly, there are a huge number
of stages in each theme with thematic
enemies that live there. After each ‘run’,
the deck of levels are shuffled, and the
ones you’ve already played are sorted
to the back of the pack. Some generic
enemies are also shuffled in a similar
way, so on one run you’ll be fighting an
army of blobs, and the next a cluster of
propeller rats.
Some of the more memorable set-piece
levels we also iterate versions of. This
means that even though a player may
think they recognise a stage, they never
truly know quite what to expect. We make
sure that worlds don’t just focus on new
mechanics, but also have a variety of
different gameplay types. For instance, onestay fast and buttery smooth. After lots of
iteration, it now feels very natural and is a
joy to play.How did the concept of Shovel Knight Dig
come about? David D’Angelo said they
wanted a more ‘bite-sized’ take on Shovel
Knight, so was it a case of passing ideas
back and forth to find one that clicked?
Yacht Club had a general idea of what
they were after, but they were really
quite hands-off and trusted us to throw
some ideas their way. Really honing the
gameplay around ‘digging’ seemed like a
natural extension of Shovel Knight (he’s a
knight with a spade, after all).We took inspirations from the likes
of Downwell – fast and frantic with clear
defined goals – and Spelunky – huge
amounts of replay. The blend of digging
and platforming at this speed is something
we hadn’t really seen before.Can you talk a bit about how you came
up with Shovel Knight Dig’s look? It still
has that retro sprite style, but the colour
palette’s a little warmer and more
varied, and there are some new, subtle
character movements in there, too.
We were originally aiming the very first
mock at a classic luxury SNES feel, as this
seemed like the next logical step after the
game’s first series. After a bit of iteration,“We’re allowed to
pitch whatever we
feel passionate about” Expect to find characters from the
original Shovel Knight in Dig, like
these slumbering Dozedrakes. Don’t get excited for a full Shovel Knight sequel
just yet – Yacht Club’s embarking on another game
before it starts on Shovel Knight 2, D’Angelo says.08 / wfmag.cc
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