Shovel Knight Pocket Dungeon

Shovel Knight Pocket Dungeon is a roguelike puzzle game co-developed by Vine and Yacht Club Games, and published by Yacht Club Games. A spin-off of the platform game Shovel Knight, the player takes control of the namesake adventurer as he becomes trapped within a magical artifact, the Pocket Dungeon, and is forced to fight his way out while battling other knights who befell the same fate. Gameplay is set on an 8x8 grid, on which the player can move in one of four directions. Enemies appear at the top of the grid, and the player attacks them by moving into the spaces they occupy. The contents of the grid move down the screen every time the player moves or attacks, and a game over occurs if the player loses all of their health or if the grid becomes completely filled. As players defeat the game's bosses, they unlock new playable characters with their own special abilities. Yacht Club Games was inspired to create Pocket Dungeon after meeting with Vine, a solo developer working on a project called Puzzle Knights. Noting similarities between both games, the developers recruited Vine and helped him establish a development team. Development took place over three years on a budget of $1 million. The game was first released on December 13, 2021, for Windows, PlayStation 4, and Nintendo Switch. It received positive reviews from critics, who praised its playable characters, soundtrack, and graphics, with many highlighting the game's difficulty. Yacht Club Games supported the game with downloadable content expansions.