Shovel Knight Dig Announced, Has Strong SteamWorld Dig Vibes

Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove, the series of free updates for the original Shovel Knight game, is almost completed. But Yacht Club has now announced the character’s next game: Shovel Knight Dig, a vertical scrolling action game being made in partnership with UK studio Nitrome.

The brief trailer showed a more 16-bit inspired art style, as compared to the original game’s 8-bit incarnation. The action also appears to be largely vertical as Shovel Knight digs his way down into the earth, similar to the SteamWorld Dig games. The official site also states that the stages will be procedurally generated.

The presentation said the game has been in development for more than a year, but still has much longer to go. The first demo will be available at PAX West.

The announcement came as part of a Yacht Club Games Presents presentation, similar to a Nintendo Direct. In it, the indie studio announced more details on the upcoming King of Cards and Shovel Knight Showdown, a release window of December 2019 for those final updates, and promoted a Shovel Knight board game on Kickstarter.