★ 10/12

Mina the Hollower

Mina the Hollower is a top-down pixel-art action-adventure in the spirit of the classic Game Boy/SNES Zelda games (Link's Awakening, Oracle of Ages): you explore a dark gothic…

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Geo developer: Yacht Club Games, Los Angeles, US [fact]; product: global, 11 localization languages, multiplatform (PC/Mac/Linux/Switch/Switch2/PS5/Xbox); #1 on the US Switch 2 eShop, #1 Switch2/#2 Switch1 in Denmark at release [fact]

Founders Alec Faulkner (Director/Designer, original author of the side project "Gothic") [fact] · David D'Angelo (studio co-founder + Lead Programmer, a 13-year veteran) [fact] · Sean Velasco (CEO/co-founder of Yacht Club Games) [fact]

Domains store.steampowered.com/app/1875580 · minathehollower.com · yachtclubgames.com/games/mina-the-hollower

Score demand 3 · ease 2 · ICP 2 · monetization 2 · freshness 1

Growth tactics (teaser)

Kickstarter 2022 ($1.24M from 21.4K backers, 650%+ of the goal): the $250 plush tier brought in 25% of the campaign's total revenue from 5% of backers (merch monetizes a fan base disproportionately)
a built-in Shovel Knight fan base from day one: not organic growth from zero but moving an existing audience over to a 'second tentpole' franchise
the Steam Next Fest demo (June 2025) was timed to the release date announcement at Summer Game Fest, and demo progress carries over to the full game
a deliberately low $19.99 price to counter deferred purchases, with a direct quote from the co-founder: 'we only get one chance at this'
the brand's market weight made competitors (Devolver Digital, Borbware) move their release dates to avoid overlapping

🔒 Full dossier

Launch timeline, metrics, the growth mechanics taken apart and checkable sources — sent to your email after payment, as a .md attachment. The dossier itself is written in Russian; this page and the catalog are the English part.

Buy dossier · $5