Behind the Pixel – Yacht Club Games on Kickstarter and the Future of Shovel Knight

Part of creating The Max Frequency Podcast was to restore all the episodes of Behind the Pixel, an interview show I did in 2017 for seven episodes. These will be mixed into this feed so that the show can live on podcast services once more. Below are the original show notes, with some light editing. I hope you enjoy.

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This time on Behind the Pixel, I talk to Nick “Woz” Wozniak and Ian Flood from Yacht Club Games: The studio behind one of my favorite games of all time–Shovel Knight. Join me as I dig into the early days of their Kickstarter, their on-going stretch goals, and the future of the studio. Listen in to learn all about the crowd funded success and its community centered studio.

Follow Yacht Club Games on Twitter @YachtClubGames and their games and news over at their website.

Nick Wozniak is a pixel artist at Yacht Club Games. Follow him on Twitter @norkwoz.

Ian Flood is a programmer at Yacht Club Games. Follow him on Twitter @Ianmflood.

Dope Facts about Yacht Club Games

  • They created the first third-party Amiibo (and should make more).
  • They raised a total of $311,502 on Kickstarter. That’s 315% more than their goal of $75,000!
  • Shovel Knight has both a “Butt Mode” and a Jar Jar Binks inspired mode that replaces choice text with the words “butt,” “meesa,” and “yoosa.”

Links to articles mentioned in the interview

(Listed in order of publication date)

“We believe in Shovel Knight. We know that the final game is going to be great. We’re so sure of this that we quit our full time jobs to work on it. We’ve poured a massive amount of time, money and effort into our labor of love, but it’s not enough to finish the game. In order to make Shovel Knight a reality, we need you!”- Yacht Club Games from their Kickstarter for Shovel Knight

This episode was recorded on April 11, 2017.