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[Deleted member 465307]

The developers at Yacht Club Games posted an article on Polygon detailing their approach to the upcoming Body Swap Mode coming in a new patch for Shovel Knight (I believe it's bundled into the upcoming larger update). This mode gives players new control over their game and playthrough. Features include:

• Shovel Knight, Shield Knight, Enchantress, Black Knight, and every Knight of the Order of No Quarter have all been reimagined with new designs and pixel art. You can individually choose the design of each character that has been given a body swap.
• For the characters who have received body swaps, players can also independently choose whether they'll be referred to with male or female pronouns (e.g., you can have the new Plague Knight character with male or female pronouns).

The article goes into detail about the rules they established for themselves when designing the new characters and their thinking when it came to "why" and "how" this feature should be implemented. You can read lots more in the article.

The article also provides a look at some of the character design iterations the team went through along with a few of the final designs. Here are the final designs shown:

I highly recommend checking out the article for the development insights, character design iterations, and even some bonus "what if?" designs for other characters that weren't given new designs. Here's the link again.

UPDATE: YCG has now put the article on their own website, adding information on the redesigns of Mole Knight and Plague Knight in the process. I've include the final art above. Here's the link to their post.

Dig me a grave if old.

 

[OmegaFax]

Queen Knight is probably my favorite design of them all. Overall. Neat idea.

 

[Nirolak]

You forgot Queen Knight:

 

[Toxi]

Queen Knight is great. Can't wait to see the new funny conversations Yacht writes.

 

[Platy]

Meh

I liked it more when it was just "body swap" without any mention to gender or sex .. even the shitty "smaller horns" joke

I like the rponoum thing

 

[Greatest Ever]

Gimme all the amiibos

 

[BitStyle]

You forgot Queen Knight:

That's a cool redesign

 

[Flying Toaster]

Queen Knight for the win. Actually all the support that they have been doing for this game is wicked.

 

[diablogod]

Ya know, Yacht Club Games are alright.

 

[SinCityAssassin]

Meh

I liked it more when it was just "body swap" without any mention to gender or sex .. even the shitty "smaller horns" joke

I like the rponoum thing

but those aren't mutually exclusive and also most of them talk.

 

[LinkSlayer64]

This is a pretty awesome feature.

 

[BaconHat]

I love the amount of thoughts and work put into it.
Yatch club games is shaping up to be one of my favorite developers.

 

[Deleted member 465307]

You forgot Queen Knight:

Oops, thanks! I'm adding Her Majesty now.

 

[freethoughtbubble]

Yacht Club continues to be the best.

 

[Platy]

but those aren't mutually exclusive and also most of them talk.

To be fair it seems my problem is OP's resume than the text itself.

 

[MadLaughter]

I haven't played much Shovel Knight, but this is fuckin' rad.

 

[psyfi]

cool idea!

 

[Deleted member 465307]

To be fair it seems my problem is OP's resume than the text itself.

Thanks for pointing that out. I've made some changes to the OP.

 

[KingBroly]

I'm...very curious how some of the re-designs look.

Queen Knight's the best. Black Knight having a Medusa-like chestplate is cool. The rest...eh

 

[F0rneus]

I bought the PS4 version ages ago, but I was waiting for this to replay the game properly. Glad to see it'll be out soon.

 

[ForkNetwork]

Yooo Queen knight looks awesome

 

[Doop]

This is a really cool idea. I love the body swapped Chester.

 

[HStallion]

Female Black Knight doesn't look all that different but I suppose female Shovel Knight doesn't look much different either. Then again only so much to be done for a game with pixelated graphics where everyone wears mid evil armor.

 

[rainking187]

I really like that it's not just a straight up swap and you can pick and choose bodies and pronouns. Could have some interesting combinations. I think I'm going to buy the game on Steam while it's still on sale.

 

[pinkurocket]

yas queen

 

[Garrett Hawke]

this is really cool

 

[Kinsei]

Being able to change the sex and pronouns of the characters separately is really cool.

I wish that hypothetical female Chester was in the game. The design looks really great.

 

[Masterspeed]

The indie dev who just keeps on giving.

 

[UnemployedVillain]

Wow, even swapping the pronouns. I'm guessing games that allow you to choose genders already do this, but just hearing it explicitly mentioned makes it sound impressive

 

[Berordn]

Hm, I was hoping for a little more from the Enchanter.

Queen Knight is incredible, though.

Going through the gallery makes me a little upset that they're only focusing on the main cast, Chester and Mona both look great.

 

[Kinsei]

Wow, even swapping the pronouns. I'm guessing games that allow you to choose genders already do this, but just hearing it explicitly mentioned makes it sound impressive

Nope. This is the first game I know of to actually do this.

 

[Sylverstone14]

 

[Chairhome]

Yacht Club Games just keeps on giving

 

[KNT-Zero]

I wonder what is the actual necessity this mode is trying to cover. Aside of the gender swap, there is no other changes, right? Well, it's free DLC after all...

 

[OnionPowder]

Nope. This is the first game I know of to actually do this.

Sims 4 either does or gets really close. A patch last year changed a lot stuff regarding gender.

https://www.thesims.com/news/new-cas-update

I wonder what is the actual necessity this mode is trying to cover. Aside of the gender swap, there is no other changes, right? Well, it's free DLC after all...

It was a stretch goal, so they went all out with it like they normally do.

 

[Platy]

I wonder what is the actual necessity this mode is trying to cover. Aside of the gender swap, there is no other changes, right? Well, it's free DLC after all...

yes, besides the gender swap you can also change the body of the characters.

This mode increases self identification and makes the game more acessible for people who are tired of games full of hetero man with just a single token woman

 

[akidnamededdy]

So can I keep Shovel Knight as a male and change all of the Order to female so I can play the entire game just shoveling the shit out of a bunch of women?

A-asking for a friend.

 

[Regiruler]

I had a much different image in my head when I conceptualized a male enchanter.

 

[AcademicSaucer]

So you can basically make an anime if you swap everyone but Shovel Knight

 

[Garrett Hawke]

pls stop quoting me thank u for the excellent replies i have been thoroughly educated

 

[Regiruler]

This seems like way too much of a hassle unless there's swap all toggles.

 

[Tidalwave]

I can hardly tell the difference on anyone except queen knight :/

 

[SinCityAssassin]

This seems like way too much of a hassle unless there's swap all toggles.

Probably is if they took this much time to let you choose individually, all things considered.

Do we know how much Shovel Knight will cost on Switch? Might finally be time to pick it up.

$25.

 

[Kinsei]

It is a bit of a double standard that they threw out the "sexy" characteristics of the female version in favour of more normal armour.

But overall the effort is commendable, I'm just nitpicking.

Do we know how much Shovel Knight will cost on Switch? Might finally be time to pick it up.

$25 for Treasure Trove (The complete version) or $10 for Shovel of Hope (The base game)

 

[UnemployedVillain]

It is a bit of a double standard that they threw out the "sexy" characteristics of the female version in favour of more normal armour.

But overall the effort is commendable, I'm just nitpicking.

Do we know how much Shovel Knight will cost on Switch? Might finally be time to pick it up.

How is it a double standard? People complain about "feminized/boob" armor all the time on here and are always calling for generic more practical armor.

 

[Garrett Hawke]

How is it a double standard? People complain about "feminized/boob" armor all the time on here and are always calling for generic more practical armor.

Because they already have the sexualised female design - they didn't change it, they just made the male version standard armour.

$25 for Treasure Trove (The complete version) or $10 for Shovel of Hope (The base game)

Probably is if they took this much time to let you choose individually, all things considered.



$25.

Nice, thanks

 

[Already Torn]

Really cool article. Won't feel bad buying this game for the fourth time.

 

[Twiforce]

Will this update still apply to the Wii U version?

 

[ForkNetwork]

Will this update still apply to the Wii U version?

All of them

 

[Kinsei]

Will this update still apply to the Wii U version?

Yep. The two new campaigns will too.