Topic: Shovel Knight Has Been Delayed.

cool add whatever you want. i can wait.

Plus they often don't have the marketing prowess to dance around negative press in case the game releases in a crappy state.

As games like Two Brothers proved...

I don't think we have to wait long.

There's nothing wrong if a title gets pushed back - the problem arises when a console (WiiU) is counting on such titles to get through a 3-months long drought.
Sadly, delays and vague release dates are getting the standard in the indie game industry. It's fine to delay a game once in a while, but this is becoming protocol: there were at least a dozen eShop titles scheduled to be released Q1 and I think we only got one or two. I think developers are relying too much on flexible release dates and ever-supporting-fanatics. The videogame industry is the only industry I can think of where projects get a release date even before they actually exist (think of a musician saying "My next album will be out in 2015 but I still have to write all the songs")!
It's alright to wait more for Shovel Knight but I'd like this trend to stop. Instead of announcing the products before they have the core of the game down, they should announce the games after the big part of the work is done (as it usually happens in music).

Hollywood says hello.

Lots of things get projected release dates during the planning stages. Construction projects, vehicles, movies, etc. Basically anything that can take a long time but needs attention for funding and stuff (which is what things like Kickstarter are for).

Hopefully Shovel Knight is not going be disappointing for anyone stakes. XD

Remember Diablo 3?

Hm, well I know they're a new team but it is getting a little irritating. Wasn't it originally planned for Sept. 2013 early on? Still, I'm sure it'll turn out good and worth the wait. (Hopefully)

Ha, this happens all the time. They don't say those exact words, but musicians often do say that they'll release an album later in the year. You think when they say that the album is complete but they just feel like waiting 12 months to start selling it?

Others have pointed out other industries where this happens (spoiler alert: nearly all that involve an extended amount of time), so I won't gang up on you, but yeah...release dates get set and moved all the time in many industries.

Hollywood regularly puts out exact release dates for films that barely or haven't even entered the pre-production stage.

Detox was supposed to come out five years ago.

@shingi_70: Duke Nukem Forever is both a delayed game and a forever bad game

In music it's not common practice. I can't think of 'that many' records that were advertised and got an exact release date being pushed back because the content wasn't ready. Of course my knowledge is limited - I remember Chinese Democracy being "in the works" for ages, but records that were officially announced...I can't think of many. Same goes with most of the movies that I remember being delayed. Of course there might be an occasional delay due to production costs or other problems that couldn't be avoided. Most of the films I know that got a delay, they got it because of publishing issues (meaning the content was ready, the rest wasn't). I don't know about Hollywood, but in Europe I don't remember many unfinished movies that got a trailer and an exact release date. No doubt, they exist but it's not that common.

On the other hand, the indie industry seems to rely too much on delays and vague release dates. How many games were scheduled to be released Q1 2014? How many we got? 10%? I don't mean to criticize the indie industry as a whole, but I think we, as fans, have come to be so used to indie games being delayed that we don't see how unprofessional it is. If we keep on cheering everytime indies do a professional mistake, how could the industry grow into something more mature and more respectful towards the players?! Again, I don't mean to attack the developers, and if Shovel Knight needs finishing touches it's alright to delay it...but what would happen if everybody in the industry starts to operate in total disrespect of officially announced release dates? It would be a lot more professional to announce proper dates when a product is actually ready.

Other than Shovel Knight what indie games have been delayed. Only one of note I can think of is Broken Age from double find. Plus most indies never give an actual release date more than just a quarter and a year.

Shante has been delayed but that probably has more to do with wanting it to release as close as possible to 1/2 genie hero.

It's not common practice, but it does happen more often, especially with unexperienced people. As I said before, they're indies. They've most likely never worked on projects like this, so they don't know how much time they need, and when things do get out of hand, there's no "other teams" they can pull people from to speed things up. And again, Big studios get delays quite often, too, so I don't see why you'd expect anything more from a small studio that doesn't have the resources and experience.

Also, lets not forget this is a Kickstarter. Most games have projected release dates - timeframes they want the game done by. It's not always available to the public, but the team sure knows it. And by crowdfunding, they've effectively made the public part of the team, so those tentative, ballpark release dates have to be made public.