Yacht Club Games, the developers behind Shovel Knight, have posted an available position at their company, which suggests that their next project will make the transition from 2D to 3D. Having released back in 2014, Shovel Knight has received universal acclaim, since making its way to the Switch, PC, Xbox One, and PS4.
Originally finding funding through a Kickstarter campaign in 2013, Shovel Knight has found massive success and continued to release critically acclaimed DLC since its release. The most recent of these expansions was the King of Cards and Shovel Knight Showdown pack, which was released in December, 2019. With this being the final wave of additional content, Yacht Club Studios released an ultimate addition of the game, known Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove, offering newcomers a chance to experience the game, as well as all of its DLC, in one affordable bundle. But now, with Shovel Knight completed, it seems that Yacht Club Games is looking to move on from their beloved side-scroller, and expand their portfolio to a 3D plane.
According to a job posting on Gamasutra, Yacht Club Games is looking to build a 3D team with the addition of a Mid to Senior Gameplay Programmer. In the job’s description, some qualifications include being proficient in C and C++ programming languages for creating 2D and 3D games, as well as strong 3D math skills. In addition to this, Yacht Club Games states that the goal of building their 3D team, is to compliment their existing 2D specialists. Because of this wording, some could speculate that this new project could include elements of both dimensional planes, much like the upcoming Paper Mario and the Origami King or the Ori series.
We are hiring!
We’re on the lookout for an experienced Gameplay Programmer and 3D Technical Artist to help us out with our current projects!
We wholeheartedly encourage candidates of diverse backgrounds to apply!
Job Listings:https://t.co/xRUZ6SbwF2 pic.twitter.com/mBKuxZylnJ
— Yacht Club Games (@YachtClubGames) July 7, 2020
Aside from this unfortunately, there is not much else revealed about Yacht Club Games’ next project. The rest of the job posting is pretty vague and is careful not to divulge too much information. That being said however, it does seem that they are looking to build a custom engine for their next game, which could imply that whatever the studio is working will be completely unique to that of Shovel Knight.
Having now worked on Shovel Knight for six years, it’s exciting to see Yacht Club Games venture on to something new. After finding success with an IP, studios can easily be tempted to stick with what works, and continue pumping out content for that property. Obviously, if there is a demand for it, there is nothing with this, and in this particular instance, all of Shovel Knight’s DLC were fantastic additions to the game. But with the ultimate addition being released on every major gaming platform, Yacht Club Games has been given the opportunity to look to the horizon and ask themselves what they want to do next; if the answer to that question is Shovel Knight 2, then that’s also perfectly acceptable.
Source: Gamasutra, Yacht Club Games
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