Yacht Club Games has been hard at work on Shovel Knight’s first DLC, Plague of Shadows for several months now. One of the reasons development has taken such a long time is because the DLC features an entirely new playable character. Thrust into the role of the Plague Knight and seeking to make the ultimate alchemy potion, players will take on the Order of No Quarter as the Plague Knight, a maniacal alchemist with a crazy penchant for destruction.
Because Plague Knight has such a distinct way of flitting around the level in his boss fight for the game, the developers wanted to recreate that feeling in how Plague Knight moves when controlled by the character. A new blogpost on Gamasutra details exactly how the team tailored Plague Knight’s moves to give him a distinct feel from the melee-heavy Shovel Knight.
Plague Knight’s moves are much more erratic and less controlled than Shovel Knight, so in addition to giving him the ability to double jump, he’ll also be able to use an ability called burst that will propel him across the map. Once launched into the air after a burst, players can’t do much to change the horizontal direction.
The entire post is worthy of reading, as it details not only how Plague Knight was created and how he will control in the upcoming DLC, but also how the game itself was designed around the limited moveset that Shovel Knight features.
Will you be picking up the Plague of Shadows DLC when it releases this year?
