Velasco and his co-founders, all former colleagues at a studio called Wayforward Games, had first pitched
Shovel Knight as a Kickstarter in March of 2013. They promised a tight, NES-style platformer that
crossed the iconic structure of Mega Man with the tight design of Mario and the tactile downward thrusts of Zelda II. They also promised stretch goals, as was common practice on Kickstarter—if they surpassed their initial funding target of $75,000, they'd commit to features like a Mac version and an in-game music player. At $115,000, they'd turn one of the game's villains into a playable character, allowing a player to go through all of
Shovel Knight with a whole new set of abilities. If they were lucky enough to raise $250,000, they said, they'd make
three of these villainous boss knights playable.
Thanks to an impressive PAX East showing and some last-minute help from streamers, the
Shovel Knight Kickstarter raised over $311,000, which meant that Velasco and crew were on the hook for all of their stretch goals. That meant they had to create not one but three playable boss knights. Once the game shipped, in June 2014, they started planning out what the first of those playable villains—Plague Knight—would look like.
