He and Wozniak aren't working on Shovel Knight, their widely-anticipated 8-bit-style platformer. Flood, who resembles Peep Show’s David Mitchell, holds a controller in his hands and then does something unexpected: he begins to laugh. That's not what you want to hear from half of your programming team. 'I don’t know what to do,' exclaims Flood. Nearly 8pm, and programmer Ian Flood and artist Nick Wozniak are slumped in their chairs, bags under their eyes, and looking at their screen and frowning. Their first title launches in two days, and the office of Yacht Club Games is tense. With Shovel Knight launching yesterday on Sony's platforms, here is an inside look at the chaotic week leading up to its original launch.

This piece originally ran shortly after the release of Shovel Knight on the Nintendo Wii U and 3DS. Some content, such as this article, has been migrated to VG247 for posterity after USgamer's closure - but it has not been edited or further vetted by the VG247 team. This article first appeared on USgamer, a partner publication of VG247.

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