You play as Mina, a whip-wielding Hollower and visionary inventor. She receives a troubling letter from Baron Lionel, her longtime patron and the overseer of Tenebrous Isle. Mina’s advances in Spark Technology brought power to the Isle for the first time many years ago, ushering in newfound prosperity for its citizens. But now, the Spark Generators have gone out, and foul play is suspected.

You will use a myriad of weapons and oddball trinkets to vanquish the monsters thwarting Mina’s objective. Along the way, you’ll unearth the secret horrors of Tenebrous Isle.

The Hollowers are a guild dedicated to studying the earth and its latent resources. By using their special technique, Hollowing, they can move faster underground than above it! Hollowers have worked for ages to analyze and amplify secrets buried beneath the surface. Mina’s Spark technology is her latest contribution to the Hollowing arts.

Some time ago ago, Spark technology transformed Tenebrous Isle from a backwater nowhere into a bustling and industrious place. Under the guidance of Baron Lionel, the Spark Generators were installed, transforming everyone’s lives nearly overnight. But now, the prosperity of Tenebrous Isle is threatened. The sparks have gone out of the generators, and a creeping evil is growing closer to the heart of the island’s capital city Ossex, the only area still running at full capacity. 

Moreover, the Spark Generators were constructed remotely like spokes around the island, making their locales fraught with danger. Mina will have to undergo a whirlwind tour of the island’s exotic biomes in order to restore them all.

Mina the Hollower is currently in the thick of production, and ideas are still taking form.

“We want your feedback, collaboration, and support in making Mina the Hollower the best game it can possibly be. That’s why we’re returning to our roots and kicking off Mina the Hollower’s development as a KickStarter campaign (looking to raise $311,503). Though we’re financing a majority of this project ourselves, we hope we can create a more expansive game this way. More importantly, we want to build a community around Kickstarter, much as we did with Shovel Knight. We also want to share our development process, more than ever before!” said Alec Faulkner, Director of Mina the Hollower.

Yacht Club Games has also partnered with the video game merchandise virtuosos at Fangamer to create exclusive backer rewards, including a physical soundtrack, enamel pins, an art book, and an adorable plush. 

Smooth 60fps action combat, a world full of mystery and horror, and top-down adventuring combine in a mix that may remind you of classic titles like Castlevania, The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening, or even Bloodborne. Whip foes, burrow through the ground, and explore a pixel-perfect world in Mina the Hollower, a brand new game from the developers who brought you Shovel Knight!

Mina the Hollower is inspired by Gothic Horror, a literary genre popularized in the late 1700’s. Known for its macabre and morbid tone, the genre’s stories often focused on a horrific descent from normality into an unknown world.

You won’t want to miss this harrowing, yet heartwarming tale!

Are you ready to level up? Mina the Hollower features an experience point and level-up system (a first for Yacht Club Games!).  Here's how it works: As you defeat foes throughout the world, you’ll earn Bones. You’ll also find Bones hidden in chests, and all around the world. The Bones are your money, but they are also your experience. Beware, there will be ways to lose your Bones! We’ll detail those mechanics in a future update.

Once you get enough Bones, you "Bone Up" to the next level! You can Bone Up on your Attack, Defense, Sidearms, or create Bonestone as currency to spend later. Every time you Bone Up, that category becomes more expensive. Should you build your character evenly, or put all your eggs in one basket? If you take too many risks, you could lose your Bones...

What exactly does it mean to be a next-gen Game Boy Color game?

•  Compact Resolution - Game Boy’s screen resolution was a tiny 160x144. Mina’s is 256x144, essentially the same screen real estate, but widescreen. This small resolution (smaller than Shovel Knight!) gives a close-up view at the expense of screen real estate. Each pixel is very impactful!
•  Finite Color - Art assets in Mina the Hollower all conform to the Game Boy Color's palette restrictions, limiting sprites to only 4 colors per 8x8 pixel tile. That even includes black and transparency!
• Focused Tech - Mina features sprite art with no 3D, scaling, or rotation, just like the classic 8-bit handhelds. Instead, we use a lifetime’s worth of 2D wizardry knowhow to bring the world to life.

The "Expanded NES" music and sound effects in Shovel Knight were all made using the free program, FamiTracker, and they can be played back on a real hardware console. For Mina the Hollower, audio recluse Jake Kaufman is imagining that the souped-up fantasy Game Boy supported extra sound chips of its own, and has turned to the MSX home computer and its beloved Konami SCC expansion to capture the lush, haunting sound of this chip mashup.

Mina the Hollower is in development for Nintendo Switch, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S and PC, currently scheduled for Dec. 2023.