Shovel Knight developer raises close to $1 million for their next game
Following the success of ‘Shovel Knight,’ Yacht Club Games is introducing a new retro-styled adventure title to the modern era. Dubbed ‘Mina the Hollower,’ the top-down game combines smooth 60fps combat with a world full of mystery and horror – all in an 8-bit art style.
Similar to their 2013 project, the company launched a Kickstarter campaign about two weeks ago, accumulating an amount close to $1 million ($932,000 at the time of writing). To put this in perspective, the pledged amount was $311,503, which is far below the current amount with over 16,000 backers. The campaign comes to a close in 11 days with a goal of delivering the project December 2023.
Mina the Hollower borrows its aesthetic from the Game Boy Color, putting you in control of a rat who is hurtled into a desperate mission to rescue a cursed island. The overall gameplay is kept at a smooth 60fps, with a range of retro video game styled tracks from composer Jake Kaufman – who has previously worked on Crypt of the Necrodancer, Saints Row: The Third, and Yacht Club’s very own Shovel Knight.
Formed in 2013, the company was composed of merely 5 developers and has now grown to 20 employees, selling millions of copies. “The old days felt a lot more desperate,” said co-founder Sean Velasco in an interview with Bloomberg. “Now, if the whole business exploded, then 20 people would be out of work. It’s a different kind of fear and responsibility, but I feel way less worried about it because I’ve just got confidence we’ve got a real good team, and we’re going to keep on the best we can.”
Velasco intends to take Yacht Club on a route similar to Nintendo, where they have multiple franchises under their name. He hopes that Mina the Hollower will be their version of Zelda, one of the biggest IPs held the Japanese company.
In Mina the Hollower, players will encounter a cast of bizarre characters, explore hidden locales, and whip their way through enemies. You can leap, dodge, and burrow your way through the ground to battle monsters, or choose from an arsenal of weapons to deal damage. As for the modern touches, we get widescreen support, detailed animation, and responsive controls.
Yacht Club Games is currently deep in development on Mina the Hollower, which is currently led on Steam, with plans to launch on the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation, and Xbox. According to Bloomberg, there is also a B team that is focused on a second unannounced project, which is hinted to be a 3D version of Shovel Knight.
