{"id":105088,"date":"2019-12-07T01:08:59","date_gmt":"2019-12-07T01:08:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.xbox.com\/en-us\/?p=129807"},"modified":"2019-12-07T01:08:59","modified_gmt":"2019-12-07T01:08:59","slug":"shovel-knight-showdown-game-modes-building-the-single-player","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/2019\/12\/07\/shovel-knight-showdown-game-modes-building-the-single-player\/","title":{"rendered":"Shovel Knight Showdown Game Modes: Building the Single-Player"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"media_block\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/news.xbox.com\/en-us\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/12\/vsScreen3.jpg?resize=1200%2C675\" class=\"media_thumbnail\"><\/div>\n<p><!-- .entry-social --> <\/p>\n<div class=\"entry-main entry-main--post entry-main--post-no-sidebar\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-xbox-summary\">\n<h3>Summary<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li><em>The Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove <\/em>package, made up of five complete games made over the course of five years, will finally be complete <\/li>\n<li><strong><em>Shovel Knight&nbsp;Showdown<\/em><\/strong> and <strong><em>King of Cards<\/em><\/strong> will launch as free updates for owners of <strong><em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/p\/shovel-knight-treasure-trove\/bpfvsms2mn7l?activetab=pivot:overviewtab\">Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove<\/a><\/em><\/strong> <\/li>\n<li>We think these games offer something truly special, from a fast-paced multiplayer battle game to a grand, sweeping single-player adventure <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<p>On December 10, <strong><em>Shovel Knight&nbsp;Showdown<\/em><\/strong> and <strong><em>King of Cards<\/em><\/strong> will launch as free updates for owners of <strong><em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/p\/shovel-knight-treasure-trove\/bpfvsms2mn7l?activetab=pivot:overviewtab\">Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove<\/a><\/em><\/strong> on Xbox One. We think these games offer something truly special, from a fast-paced multiplayer battle game to a grand, sweeping single-player adventure. We can\u2019t wait to share them with all of you. <\/p>\n<p><em>The Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove <\/em>package, made up of five complete games made over the course of five years, will finally be complete! We\u2019ve had quite a few adventures with Xbox over the course of those five years \u2014 even the Battletoads&nbsp;paid a visit to Shovel Knight\u2019s world. <em>King of Cards<\/em> and <em>Showdown<\/em> really are the cherries on top, and we hope you enjoy both!<\/p>\n<p><strong>Building Single-Player<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Our desire for <em>Shovel Knight Showdown<\/em> on Xbox One was<br \/>\nto create a&nbsp;big, standalone game with tons of variety that you could play<br \/>\nagain and again.&nbsp;Part of that \u201cfull game\u201d feeling needed to come from <em>Showdown<\/em><br \/>\nhaving its own adventure! It needed a way to delve deeper when multiplayer<br \/>\nwasn\u2019t an option. The story and characters needed to make meaningful strides.<br \/>\nAnd if you did have a partner around and you still wanted an adventure\u2026we<br \/>\nwanted you to be able to play, too! We began putting our core pillars in place<br \/>\nto develop a great story mode, as well as other single player content, too.<\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/news.xbox.com\/en-us\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/12\/image1_JPG.jpg?w=940\" alt=\"Shovel Knight Showdown\" class=\"wp-image-129822\"><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p><strong>Crafting Story Mode<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>So, what is a story mode? We obviously wanted to convey some kind of story, encourage you to play through the game as all the characters, and entice you to play repeatedly. Additionally, it\u2019d be ideal if it helped you see the full breadth of content in the game, so you knew exactly what was available in the multiplayer. But how would we show so much content in a fun and surprising way? That led us to brainstorming about how we could combine a standard \u201cfighting game arcade ladder\u201d with our randomized game mode, <a href=\"https:\/\/yachtclubgames.com\/2019\/12\/chesters-choice\/\">Chester\u2019s Choice<\/a>!<\/p>\n<p>Many fighting games like <em>Mortal Kombat<\/em> feature arcade ladders, but they rarely feature interesting or unique setups. We like arcade ladders and think they work well, but since <em>Shovel Knight Showdown<\/em> is so focused on gems and platforming, we figured that mixing the platforming gameplay up was critical.<\/p>\n<p>We liked the approach to arcade ladders found in games like <em>Super Smash Bros<\/em>\u2019 Classic Mode that are set across a long series of stages with each tier presented as a fun encounter that mixed up modes, settings, stages, and characters along the way.<\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/news.xbox.com\/en-us\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/12\/tallyScreen1.jpg?w=940\" alt=\"Shovel Knight Showdown\" class=\"wp-image-129818\"><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p>We decided to randomize our story mode: battles, settings,<br \/>\nand modes would be shuffled, though they\u2019d start from a handcrafted base rule<br \/>\nset, like Chester\u2019s Choice.&nbsp;This way, we could ensure the battles were fun<br \/>\nsetups that emphasized the story and characters, while also creating replay<br \/>\nvalue.<\/p>\n<p>While our story mode gameplay could carry some story in<br \/>\nterms of the scenarios you encountered, we knew that wasn\u2019t enough. Each<br \/>\ncharacter\u2019s story needed to be like its own little story episode! We won\u2019t go<br \/>\ninto detail about how we designed the intertwining narratives in <em>Shovel<br \/>\nKnight Showdown<\/em> \u2014 that\u2019s a tale for another day! But once we were done, we<br \/>\nhad lots of story points that we wanted to get across!&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>First, we gave each character an intro and outro cutscene<br \/>\nusing in-game graphics. These scenes would set up the story and pay it off at<br \/>\nthe end. The outro cinematic would also work as a reward for finishing the story<br \/>\nfor that character.<\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/news.xbox.com\/en-us\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/12\/victory2.jpg?w=940\" alt=\"Shovel Knight Showdown\" class=\"wp-image-129819\"><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p>We spent great efforts to ensure that each character had a<br \/>\nworthwhile story. During the story battles themselves, each character was<br \/>\nassigned unique rival or impact character that you\u2019d encounter several times.<br \/>\nThese impact characters were hand-chosen for each character to try and make the<br \/>\nmost interesting story possible. Through the cutscenes and rival encounters,<br \/>\neach adventure would have its own little story arc. Best of all, as you played story<br \/>\nmode as each of the unlockable characters, the fully intertwined story would<br \/>\nbecome clear. Taken as an aggregate, these stories made <em>Showdown<\/em> feel<br \/>\nlike a grand adventure worthy of its own title.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>But there\u2019s more- <strong>Two<br \/>\nplayers can play the story cooperatively<\/strong>! Because <em>Showdown<\/em> is<br \/>\nprimarily a multiplayer experience, we wanted the single-player content to have<br \/>\nthe option of being played with a friend. Sometimes you want a change of pace<br \/>\nfrom battling one other, and cooperative story mode is a great alternative! The<br \/>\nbattles can be quite different in single player or coop- we hope you try them<br \/>\nboth!<\/p>\n<p>Story mode is crammed full of special events, unique rule<br \/>\nsets, boss battles, and finally, a cool new minigame: Targets Mode, which we\u2019ll<br \/>\ndiscuss next.<\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/news.xbox.com\/en-us\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/12\/plains1.jpg?w=940\" alt=\"Shovel Knight Showdown\" class=\"wp-image-129817\"><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p><strong>Targets Mode<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>In addition to story mode, we thought it would be important (and fun!) to have a mode that let players practice the characters in a different, non-threatening setting. A target or scoring mode seemed like a good fit.<\/p>\n<p>We like how target modes in games like <em>Super Smash Bros<\/em>. can encourage players to use the full breadth and depth of each characters\u2019 moves that would lead to a new realization about how to execute their abilities. But <em>Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove<\/em> already has hundreds of single-player challenges and stages\u2026adding more just felt uninteresting. We also wanted our target mode to train the player for an unlimited time period.<\/p>\n<p>We felt that a classic arcade-style score attack might do<br \/>\nthe trick. We\u2019d put the targets on randomized paths that made interesting<br \/>\nnavigational challenges, and we\u2019d group them up to test your attack ranges.<\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/news.xbox.com\/en-us\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/12\/clockwork1.jpg?w=940\" alt=\"Shovel Knight Showdown\" class=\"wp-image-129814\"><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p>The idea is simple enough: break the targets entering on the tracks for points! If you break a group of targets in a row, a bonus will be added for completing the \u201cchain\u201d, along with two extra seconds of playtime. Once you run out of time, the game ends! In this way, the game could potentially last forever.<\/p>\n<p>If Target mode was going to last a variable amount of time, we had to ensure that the gameplay didn\u2019t feel static! Like one of our favorite single screen sore attack games, Bird and Beans, we focused on having dynamic elements. In Birds and Beans, as the game progresses, the floor gets destroyed and you have to play differently! In our Target mode the stage will change layout, a hazardous bomb (or helpful smart bomb!) can appear, and even the emcee Percy will engage in various antics. We ramped all these behaviors to a crescendo!<\/p>\n<p>Targets can get wild as the score increases. The targets<br \/>\nstart moving faster, there are new types of targets, and the ground can drop<br \/>\nout. We tried to keep in mind Bird and Beans\u2019 simplicity. We spent a lot of<br \/>\ntime trying to reduce the number of elements in the game while creating an<br \/>\nexperience that could potentially last an hour (though Target mode runs rarely<br \/>\nexceed a couple minutes). The dynamic elements in the mode emphasized your need<br \/>\nto intuit your chosen character\u2019s abilities and figure out how to best reach<br \/>\nall the targets on screen.<\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/news.xbox.com\/en-us\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/12\/lostCity1.jpg?w=940\" alt=\"Shovel Knight Showdown\" class=\"wp-image-129816\"><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p>(The Target Mode combo meter rewards players for breaking<br \/>\nchains of targets without making a mistake.)<\/p>\n<p>You may have noticed one more thing in the HUD: a combo<br \/>\nmeter! After we had implemented the targets moving and chaining together in an<br \/>\nappealing way, we found we needed something that encouraged the player to move<br \/>\nquickly and avoid mistakes. The combo meter we implemented increases when<br \/>\ntargets are chained but degrades quickly, essentially telling the player to<br \/>\n\u201churry up!\u201d It provides much-needed tension\u2026 making a mistake and it goes to 0.<br \/>\nLosing that combo can really set you back!<\/p>\n<p>Target mode can be encountered in story mode with the<br \/>\nobjective being to reach a score goal, but it can also be played solo. It\u2019s a<br \/>\nrite of passage to try and achieve a great Targets score with your chosen<br \/>\ncharacter, as it displays your mastery.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Practice Mode<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>While we could add modes forever, we didn\u2019t want to overload<br \/>\n<em>Showdown<\/em>! But from the beginning, we figured a training mode or Practice<br \/>\nMode would be required. We tried to make it as streamlined as possible.<\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/news.xbox.com\/en-us\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/12\/victory1.jpg?w=940\" alt=\"Shovel Knight Showdown\" class=\"wp-image-129821\"><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p><strong>All Mode-d Out!<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>From single-player to multiplayer, there are a wealth of ways to play <em>Shovel Knight Showdown<\/em>. All in all, we learned that when developing a multiplayer game, making content is only half the battle! It must be presented in a variety of modes that showcase it best.<\/p>\n<p>We think <em>Showdown<\/em> and its various modes are a blast<br \/>\nto play! The game should be simple to pick up and understand, but there\u2019s lots<br \/>\nto explore and master with every mode. We hope you enjoy playing and replaying<br \/>\nto uncover <strong><em>Shovel Knight Showdown<\/em><\/strong>\u2019s secrets!<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><!-- .main-content --> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Summary The Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove package, made up of five complete games made over the course of five years, will finally be complete Shovel Knight&nbsp;Showdown and King of Cards will launch as free updates for owners of Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove We think these games offer something truly special, from a fast-paced multiplayer battle [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-105088","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-xbox-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105088","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=105088"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105088\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=105088"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=105088"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=105088"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}