| Shovel Knight: Plague of Shadows | |
|---|---|
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| Developer(s) | Yacht Club Games |
| Publisher(s) | Yacht Club Games |
| Composer(s) | Jake Kaufman |
| Platform(s) | |
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| Genre(s) | Platform |
| Mode(s) | Single-player |
Shovel Knight: Plague of Shadows is a downloadable content (DLC) expansion for the 2014 platform game Shovel Knight, developed and published by Yacht Club Games. The player takes control of Plague Knight, an alchemist on a journey to create the ultimate potion. Plague Knight attacks by throwing alchemical bombs, and has the ability to double jump and perform a more powerful "burst jump" that sends him forward through the air. Gameplay is similar to the original Shovel Knight but features a new story and alterations to the levels to account for Plague Knight's movement.
The game was originally conceived as a minor add-on to Shovel Knight but grew in scale as development commenced. Yacht Club Games decided to retain the levels of the original game while using Plague Knight's abilities and moveset to make the stages feel fun to play again. The team faced trouble balancing the levels, and increased the difficulty of Plague Knight's movement to ensure the game remained challenging. Plague of Shadows received positive reviews on release, particularly for its story and the moveset, with some critics considering it to be more difficult than its predecessor. Yacht Club Games used player feedback on Plague of Shadows to help design the following Shovel Knight DLC, Specter of Torment.