Shady Knight News

Hi everyone,

I'm happy to announce that the album version of the original Shady Knight soundtrack is finished and available now to everyone.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/3606550/Shady_Knight_Soundtrack/
This collection includes all of the hub themes as well as the original demo and release trailer tracks.
The soundtrack available in .mp3 and high-quality .wav formats.

[h2]In Shady Knight, you only hear music when you are flawless.
[/h2]
Shady Knight's gameplay is uneven, it's a mix of high intensity moments with a lot of downtime in between. One moment you are rushing through multiple enemies, the next you are waiting for the perfect moment (charging apex shot, waiting for an incoming attack to parry, or aligning a barrel for a perfect kick).

Simply throwing a brutal action track was never an option. You're the one who dictates the pace of the game, and that's where the idea of dynamically changing tracks came from:

• It always starts with silence. Every time you get a kill you might hear a glimpse of drums in the distance, but you have to do better than a kill.
  
• Reaching A-rank allows you to hear the base layer of a track, you are almost in the zone, but something is still missing.
  
• The powerful drums start to appear at S-rank, but they are loudest and clearest only at SSS.
  
• Once in the zone, the current track stays with you for the next level, until you fall or take damage.
  

This way the main hub tracks in Shady reflect your style and confidence, only by playing flawlessly you join the stream and feel your true power.

And now, for those who were or will be flawless, this soundtrack is where you can hear the themes in all their glory on repeat.
[h3]No falls, no mistakes, just flow.[/h3]

Composed by Britt Brady.

Hi! Just a quick fix for the latest update.

Ironically enough, my 'experimental fix' to prevent phasing through the ground at high speed, while doing it's job, could phase you through walls under certain conditions.

I've improved my method to fix the issue. Sorry for the inconvenience!
Physics bugs are tricky to debug sometimes.

+ Improved descriptions

• Resonance Style Point (Spear Style)
  
• Dagger Pound Style Point (Dagger Style)
  
• An improved hint for deleting savefiles in the new Profiles menu
  

Best,
cptnsigh

Hi everyone!

The first update / patch of 2025 is live.
Here are the most important changes and improvements.

[h2]Highlights[/h2]

• [h3]New Style Maps (Kick, Spear, Dash, Dagger)[/h3]
  As before, even if you've already discovered some of the moves, it's worth trying to repeat all the moves available on the Style Maps to understand the move and how to repeat it consistently. Style Maps are unlocked in pairs when you reach the four main hubs:
  
  • Ignorance (Jump & Sword)
    
  • Hubris (Slide & Bow)
    
  • NEW Obsession (Kick & Spear)
  • NEW Wrath (Dash & Dagger)
  
• [h3]Save Profiles[/h3] You don't have to reset your save to start over, just choose one of two additional save slots in the new Profiles menu located on the Title Screen. Your best time and score will be submitted to leaderboards regardless of the current save file. Your settings remain the same across all save slots.
  
  
• [h3]Renewed behavior of The Armless Knight[/h3]
  The original version was too focused on backstabbing + his inability to do much against an airborne player made him seem rather passive for a boss fight. Now, The Armless acts more like a proper enemy, with a number of new additions to his move set and fewer opportunities for cheese to make the fight feel fairer. Experienced Knights can still style the hell out of our old friend ;)
  
  

[h2]Player[/h2]

• Improved grapple auto-aiming in the air. Previously, the grapple would prioritize grapple points over enemies over objects (barrels, the orb). Now the object/enemy closest to your aiming direction wins.
  
• Added a special sound clue when the dagger cooldown ends.
• Added a Flawless icon during gameplay. Appears above the rank letter when all enemies are killed + no damage + no falls with a special sound. There's a little gray area with falling and burning enemies, they are still presumed dead when the orb is destroyed, but the icon will ONLY show when all are actually dead.
  
• Pullable enemies can't block your dagger pull from behind. For example, you can backstab-pull a Blessed Lancer or Blessed Deadman if you're fast enough to catch them from behind.
  
  
• Soul Dash (dashing to a weapon right through an enemy) now works on knocked out enemies. No one will ever use it intentionally, but it's now possible :)
  
• Bow throw charge time reduced. Throwing a bow still takes a bit longer because it is the only weapon that stuns enemies on collision, but it should now feel less like a forced delay.
  
• Fated Strikes are followed by a special sound and quick a dark vignette. The effects are subtle so as not to interrupt the existing flow, but to give a few more clues as to when such a special move was performed.
  

[h2]Options[/h2]

• Small rearrangement. I moved some of the newer gameplay settings to a new Advanced menu to make the gameplay options less overwhelming by separating the fine-tuning settings.
  
• Added the Show Timer option to the new Advanced menu. Now you can turn on the speedrun timer once and for all. Especially less hassle with Steam decks/controllers.
  
• Optimization of the in-game timer, as we can now enable it in the options to stay on screen indefinitely.
  

[h2]Fixes[/h2]

• Fixed eye-poking launch direction (Rising Vertigo). Now it’s not possible to send yourself flying backwards when stabbing the eye with a spear, the direction of the launch is based on your look direction and not relative to the center of the eye.
  
• The Lancers' skyfall strike is fixed. They won't sit and wait in the void forever if you don't move.
  
• King Ballista arena tweaks. Fixed navmesh for enemies and bigger collider for the exit portal to make the final move a bit less stressful.
  
• Added an experimental fix falling through the floor physics bug (usually would happen upon landing between wooden platforms from a height).
  
• Fixed a camera bug when performing a chain dropkick very close to an enemy. Slightly improved Heavies' model clipping when dropkicking by increasing the distance from enemies with larger proportions.
  
  

[h3]Shady Discord[/h3]
If you want to help me with the future patches/update by playing them earlier feel free to join my Shady Knight Discord Server

• Don't forget to #pick-your-role @BETA_builds to be pinged when there's a new build.
  
• The BETA builds discussions are on #experimental-shady channel.
  

That's all for now, and as always, thank you so much for playing I will see you in the next update!

Yours,
cptnsigh

Hi everyone,
Just a small update for the new Practice elements : )
Welcome to Practice Arena!

[h3]Practice Arena
[/h3]

• Music Theme option added to Arena Options. The default is the HUBRIS theme and now you can choose your favourite from Cravenness, Ignorance, Wrath and of course Obsession.
  
• Added a few Weapon Sigils, one on the first floor and a couple in good places to practice your tangent wallkicking skills.
  
• Slightly changed the 'basement' part of the map with a new way to reach the top floor.
  
• The "Start With" option will only switch your weapon to the selected one when you change the option (instead of every time you pause the game) and on quick restart.
  
• The Practice Arena and the first two Style Maps (Jump & Sword) are unlocked immediately upon reaching Ignorance. The last two Style Maps (Slide & Bow) are unlocked after entering the Hubris.
  

[h3]Fixed Bugs[/h3]

• Fixed rare Strike Cancel bug on weapon throw.
  
• Fixed. The Leaders menu item wasn't hidden for Style Maps.
  
• Removed development texture on Sword Style.
  
• And a few minor UI bugs related to the new Practice menus.
  

Happy Holidays!
cptnsigh

Hi everyone,
The final update for 2024 is here!
This is a special level for you to set up a fight with a number of enemies and a weapon of your choice to test your skills in different combat scenarios.
[h2]Usecases[/h2]

• You can spawn a bunch of Headless Knights and practice each weapon on them,
  
• Make a 1v1 duel with a Blessed Lancer to learn his behavior,
  
• Find all the ways to deal with shields and blessed enemies,
  
• Practice your parrying skills with a God Mode ON,
  
• or Air Parrying on our jumpy spider friends,
  
• at last, simply set all to random and just jam on this improvised endless arena!
  

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
[h3]Combat Hints[/h3]
In the arena, you can find combat hints and try them out on enemies right away.
Shady Knight is a game of many hidden contextual moves so there are always different missing bits that may be useful for different players.

[h2]Available Options:[/h2]
[h3]Enemies[/h3]

• Type (an enemy type to spawn): Headless, Spider, Deadman, Archer, Lancer, Heavy or RANDOM
  
• Count (max number of active infinite spawners): up to 5 enemies
  
• Blessed: No, Yes, RANDOM (spawn a regular or a blessed version of the type)
  
• Shielded: No Shield, Fire, Stun, RANDOM
  

[h3]Player
[/h3]

• Start With (weapon): No Weapon, Sword, Bow, Spear and the last bonus weapon
  
• God Mode: Off, On (you still can take damage but you can't die, you will see if the damage was lethal)
  
• UPD Music Theme

Learning new skills and contextual moves by experimenting with your controls under pressure has always been part of the Shady Knight experience. This also means that some moves that can make your path much more controlled can be overlooked until very late in even harder levels.

To open the door a bit to how even the simplest action like jumping can change your approach to combat, there are four new special practice maps that cover the main style points for two base actions and two weapons:

• Jump Style explains Object/Head Boosting, Jump Slam, etc.
  
• Slide Style features Slide Bash, Slide Slam, etc.
  
• Sword Style to learn Ground Pound and one of my absolute favorite fated strikes, the Areal Slash
  
• Bow Style players of the old demo may remember a move called Rapid Fire, its variation is still in the game ;)

Let me know if you like them and if these maps teach you something new!
[h3]UPD: NEW STYLE MAPS[/h3]
New Style Maps and the latest improvements (Feb 2025)

For many years, my New Year's resolution has been to finally release the game,
so I guess I'll have to get creative this time.

As always, thank you so much for playing If you enjoy my game, please don't forget to leave a review, this helps a lot to keep supporting it!

I'll be back next year with more shady updates, Happy Holidays!

Yours,
cptnsigh