Mina the Hollower
Mina the Hollower is an upcoming action-adventure game being developed and published by Yacht Club Games. It is scheduled for release on Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch 2, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows. Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S at a new yet-to-be-announced date after being delayed from its original October 31, 2025 release date.
Synopsis
The game revolves around Mina, a skilled inventor and "Hollower" who travels to Tenebrous Isle to discover why her Spark Generators have gone out.Gameplay
The game's main character is Mina, a genius inventor and mouse who has created advances in Spark Technology. She is a Hollower, a member of a guild dedicated to studying the Earth. She wields a whip, called the Nightstar, as a weapon, allowing her to attack in four directions. Additionally, Mina can take advantage of a technique known as "Hollowing". This grants her the ability to burrow underground for a short time as a way to traverse short distances quickly and cross gaps, all while being completely invincible in the process.Alongside her whip, Mina is able to use sidearms such as hatchets and daggers, being able to hold only one at a time. Trinkets can be equipped to provide permanent boosts to her navigational and combative abilities.
The game is in a 3/4 isometric perspective, similar to Game Boy Color games such as The [Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons and Oracle of Ages|The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons and Oracle of Ages].
Story
Setting
The game takes place in a 1700s gothic horror-inspired world populated by anthropomorphic animals. It is primarily set in Tenebrous Isle, Ossex's only major city. One of the levels in the game includes Nox's Bayou, a poisonous swamp which hosts one of the generators.Plot
Mina makes an expedition to Tenebrous Isle, home to the philanthropist Baron Lionel. Lionel acts as Mina's patron, funding her research on the isle and subsequently leading to its rapid development. Standing in her way is Thorne, a bat who served as the former head of Lionel's guard, before betraying the Baron and destroying the generators alongside his shock troopers.Development
Mina the Hollower originally began as a side project by Yacht Club Games employee Alec Faulkner to hone his coding and artistic capabilities, and was not originally intended for commercial release. Development on the solo affair, then under the name Gothic, caught the attention of Yacht Club management, who viewed the title as a favorable pairing to the studio's flagship Shovel Knight series. On February 2, 2022, a Kickstarter campaign was launched to support development, which raised USD$1,239,584 from 21,439 backers. When including other sources of crowdfunding, the game raised over USD$1,400,000 for the studio.Mina the Hollower was designed to mimic the visual appearance of a Game Boy Color title. This stylistic decision was made while still a side project for Faulkner, inspired by a slew of Game Boy games he had been playing in his personal time. In an attempt to pay homage to early portable gaming and remain as authentic as possible to the original Game Boy hardware, Mina abides by the technical limitations of the Game Boy, containing no 3D assets and limiting pixel design to four colors per tile. The lone exception to this philosophy is the game's widescreen resolution.
The developers' interest in scary stories and horror games, as well as creating the darker-in-tone Specter of Torment downloadable content for Shovel Knight, is what inspired them to create a darker game. The gameplay and story draws influences from such games as Castlevania, The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening, and Bloodborne. Other influences include the Disneyland rides The Haunted Mansion and Pirates of the Caribbean. The soundtrack was composed by Jake Kaufman, with two guest tracks from Yuzo Koshiro.