Seeing a nexus of discussion, favorite moments, and artwork form up by a community of players, day by day and with each new campaign, was a delight. We hope everyone had fun sharing and sketching their favorite Shovel Knight moments in game too. As of November 8th, 2017 Miiverse is no longer in service, but we wanted to take some time out at the end of the year to highlight just a bit of the creativity on display!

Impressions from Plague of Shadows itself was also a huge influence on Specter of Torment! Reception to the alchemist’s maniacal moves… well, they certainly got a reaction! Some people hated how Plague Knight flew all over the place (usually into a pit!), while many warmed up to the explosive trickster after some practice. At Yacht Club, we love the subtlety and possibilities found in Plague Knight’s crazy mobility set, but we saw a lot of frustration too. For Specter Knight, we resolved to create more streamlined and intuitive controls with a lower execution barrier- a playstyle that was in between steadfast Shovel Knight and frantic Plague Knight.

It’s been a little over a week since our art contest wrapped up, and we had to critique over 500 entries! We were blown away by the quality, creativity, and variety of all the artwork…even the art mediums were diverse! We received entries ranging from digital renditions of scenes from Specter of Torment to 3D character models, game mods, clay figurines, paintings, and even a cake!

It was a really difficult decision for the team considering all of the amazing entries we had, but we finally have the winners of our Specter of Torment Art contest! Warning! Spoilers ahead for all things Specter of Torment! Proceed with caution if you haven’t yet played the latest Shovel Knight adventure!