'Shovel Knight: Ultimate Design Works' Delayed Last Minute to November 2026
- May 21
- 2 min read
May 21st 2025
Fans excited to see the expanded artbook for Shovel Knight will have to wait another 6 months, as Shovel Knight: Ultimate Design Works has been hit with a delay shortly before it was expected to be released by its publisher Udon Entertainment.
When this happened is not certain, but the details have been updated sometime in the last few weeks as the book was expected on May 26th, and was even included on my Upcoming Artbooks: May 2026 article. After Udon delayed their other release for the 26th, The Art of Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty, I checked this title too and it has been pushed all the way back to November 17th 2026.
This is a huge delay for a change so close to the finish line, one that has not been acknowledged by Udon themselves, and so was only spotted when checking retailers like Amazon. It's a hugely frustrating part of being a fan of a series or collector of artbooks, because they can be hard to track at the best of times, but radio silence from publishers when these things happen doesn't help. This is not only a problem for those that are aware of the book, but staying silent between the announcement and delayed publication date also prevents more people from finding out it even exists.
When the book does arrive though, it will share the early sketches, concepts, pixel art, and illustrations for the original title from Yacht Club Games that was seen in Shovel Knight: Design Works, but upgrades to book to a hardcover and adds over 100 new pages for the other Shovel Knight games. The 2D side-scroller was a huge hit and the original book was fantastic, so this will certainly be on the radar for a lot of fans.
There are other 'Ultimate' artbooks from Udon Entertainment, including Marvel vs. Capcom: Ultimate Design Works, that like this book, added addtional pages and packed them in a hardcover format. Just like other publishers, Udon does delay a lot of their releases, but they also go back and revist past books too, which is more uncommon in the artbook world. As much as this delay is less than ideal, it's unlikely you would get the book at all from anyone else and is much appreciated.
Future updates for Shovel Knight: Ultimate Design Works will be reported here and a copy is joining the collection to be reviewed and previewed. Hopefully this is the only delay for the book and players can jump into the artwork on November 17th. Those interested in adding a copy to their own collection can order the book below.
On one hand,:'( im sad to have to wait ,on the other hand,too many books have arrived my doorstep so far this year,a cool off of a while will be nice so i enjoy the ones that i own before this one arrives. As they say, classic udon.