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helpfulsnowman's review
2.0
While there were some interesting insights into the development of Shovel Knight, and while Craddock's writing is clear and to-the-point, this just isn't a terribly compelling story. Shovel Knight's development plays out pretty much like you'd expect, and while I think the cohesive dev team made for a great game and a good work environment, it doesn't make for an exciting story.
I do think there's a missed opportunity here to talk more about crowd-funded games, what the results are like, how many of them sink or swim, and so on. Shovel Knight was initially crowd-funded, and it's certainly one of the more successful games of that type.
I do think there's a missed opportunity here to talk more about crowd-funded games, what the results are like, how many of them sink or swim, and so on. Shovel Knight was initially crowd-funded, and it's certainly one of the more successful games of that type.
esop's review
4.0
An interesting insight into the founding of Yacht Club Games and their initial ideas and design decisions for Shovel Knight, as well as explaining a bit of the history of some NES game design practices and limitations. A great, quick read for any fan of YCG and Shovel Knight.
flexmentallo's review
informative
reflective
medium-paced
3.25
A well-written (if sometimes too glowing) look at the development of SHOVEL KNIGHT, an iconic modern platformer. Digs into the perils and pitfalls of indie development, as well as some of the technical nuts and bolts. An excellent read for anyone who wants to work in the games industry.
romination's review
3.0
It's fine but is more of a high-level oral history than anything. I don't know what I expected - the Boss Fight series is held in such high regard, particularly the Spelunky one. But in this case, theirs is a pretty generic startup story: quitting their jobs with a dream of doing Something Else, a successful Kickstarter, then having to buckle down and tighten their belts in the end because it's taking too long and they CAN'T DELIVER A RUSHED PRODUCT despite being out of money. You've heard it before about X, Y, Z different thing.
Some of the anecdotes about making the game have more to enjoy in them, though, such as the area about their overall design philosophy because it gave an interesting history on the limitations of NES games, how developers and Nintendo got around it, and how close Shovel Knight actually is to being playable on an NES and what compromises they took to make it still a modern game despite their limitations. In the end I think this taught me more about the design of Kirby and other NES games than it did Shovel Knight!
The other story I liked was about how they managed to get Manami Matsumae, the composer for the Mega Man games, to do some tracks for this as well. I always thought it was really cool to see her name there in the credits, but I had no idea that she'd more or less dropped off the map after she left Capcom.
But really the best result of this has been that it's urged me towards playing more Shovel Knight, which is always a good thing. Shovel Knight, y'all: it really is that bitch.
Some of the anecdotes about making the game have more to enjoy in them, though, such as the area about their overall design philosophy because it gave an interesting history on the limitations of NES games, how developers and Nintendo got around it, and how close Shovel Knight actually is to being playable on an NES and what compromises they took to make it still a modern game despite their limitations. In the end I think this taught me more about the design of Kirby and other NES games than it did Shovel Knight!
The other story I liked was about how they managed to get Manami Matsumae, the composer for the Mega Man games, to do some tracks for this as well. I always thought it was really cool to see her name there in the credits, but I had no idea that she'd more or less dropped off the map after she left Capcom.
But really the best result of this has been that it's urged me towards playing more Shovel Knight, which is always a good thing. Shovel Knight, y'all: it really is that bitch.
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