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Shovel Knight is one of video game crowdfunding's biggest success stories. A retro platformer developed by ex-WayForward staff at fledgling studio Yacht Club Games, Shovel Knight raised more than quadruple its $75k Kickstarter goal in spring 2013. Upon finally launching in summer 2014 (on Steam and the North American 3DS and Wii U eShop), the game surpassed the developer's lifetime sales estimate of 150k copies by shifting 180k copies in its first month on sale. And that was before it was ported to PlayStation platforms, Xbox One, and the European Wii U and 3DS eShops.So what did Yacht Club decide to do with this smashing success? Rather than roll around in a big pile of money like Scrooge McDuck or invest all that capital into its next game, the developer decided to honour those who made the company a success by adding what might be gaming's most expansive free DLC to date with the Plague of Shadows expansion.
And what an expansion it is! Rather than simply adding a palette swap so players could go through the campaign as fan-favourite villain Plague Knight, Yacht Club decided to instead rework the entire campaign, nearly creating an entire sequel in the process.
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