Ever since the release of Shovel Knight, Yacht Club Games has become one of the industry’s defining examples of how retro-inspired design can coexist with modern production values and contemporary game feel. But while Shovel Knight largely celebrated the structure and pacing of NES-era platformers, Mina the Hollower pushes the studio into significantly darker, more ambitious territory.

Blending deliberate combat and exploration inspired by classic Castlevania titles with top-down exploration evocative of early The Legend of Zelda games, Mina the Hollower embraces the visual language of the Game Boy Color era while simultaneously building a much larger and more mechanically complex modern action-adventure experience.

And it's paying off, earning a 92 average on Metacritic as of the time of this writing, ranking it as the highest-rated game of 2026 so far.

In this written email interview, 13-year Yacht Club veteran developer David D'Angelo discusses the core pillars that shaped Mina from the earliest stages of development.

Mina the Hollower feels like a love letter to Game Boy Color-era action-adventure games, but with a much more ambitious scope and modern design sensibilities. What were the core pillars guiding the project from the beginning?

David D'Angelo, Developer: We wanted to create something with the scary, deliberate combat feel of old school Castlevanias, but in a top-down world similar to Zelda.

Although the Game Boy Color was still a tiny, unpowered portable, developers at the time followed the trends and made their games as big and ambitious as possible. We tried to follow in that tradition and do the same–mix the small and big together.

How did the team approach evolving beyond the studio’s previous work?

David D'Angelo: Specter of Torment was our first take on doing something a little darker and scarier in tone. Mina to us felt like another step in this direction. But it’s always hard for us not to be cracking jokes… Constantly over the development, we had to ask ourselves…is this scary? 

The game’s visual style is heavily inspired by authentic Game Boy Color limitations, including strict tile palettes and retro rendering rules. Why was it important to adhere so closely to those constraints instead of simply emulating the aesthetic loosely?

David D'Angelo: We wanted people to be able to look at the game and get an idea of what it’s all about! That said, we did stick to it loosely–maybe even more so than Shovel Knight. We definitely packed way more backgrounds and sprites on screen than was capable, even by the best Game Boy programmers.

From a technical standpoint, how do you build a modern game while intentionally working within retro-inspired artistic limitations?

David D'Angelo: We build it much like you’d build any modern game. The more important part is having rules and guidelines that everyone on the team is adhering to.

Was there ever the idea to produce an actual GBC version of the game via a downloadable ROM or physical cart? Perhaps an abbreviated prequel adventure?

David D'Angelo: Nope! But if someone wanted to make one, that’d be fun!

The burrowing mechanic fundamentally changes traversal, combat, and puzzle solving. How did that mechanic evolve during development, and how early did it become the game’s defining feature?

David D'Angelo: It was in the game from the start! It didn’t evolve during the development, but every enemy or object or NPC that went into the game, we often had to think of it in the context of the burrow. How can we make it engage with the burrow in a new and interesting way?

Mina the Hollower blends influences from Zelda, Castlevania, and even Bloodborne. How did the team balance those inspirations while still ensuring the game developed its own identity?

David D'Angelo: In reality, our list of influences is endless! The focus of the game was way more about making a game that had its own identity.

Never during development did we say, “Well, we should put this in because Castlevania did it.” But we might look to those games and many more for inspiration; that always led to us creating something new and different based on those inspirations, though.

From a pipeline perspective, how does Yacht Club Games structure development for a project with such a large interconnected world and so many bosses, trinkets, and systems?

David D'Angelo: How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time! Generally, we come up with a big overarching plan for everything: there will be 60 trinkets, 7 generators, etc., and we plan how all of those elements will be distributed throughout the game. Then we start building out the game level by level. 

The animation work feels especially expressive despite the low-resolution sprite art. What techniques and workflows help the team achieve that level of readability and personality?

David D'Angelo: Everything is built in a pixel animation tool called Pro Motion. We have decades of experience creating pixel art–mastering how to create readable, lovable characters and animations. The technique…well, it’s just hard work!

The game has reportedly been in development for over six years and has become your most ambitious project yet. What were the biggest production or technical challenges the team encountered during that process?

David D'Angelo: Building something of this scale and flexibility was definitely a challenge! We had to build a lot more tools for understanding the balancing, item distribution, etc., than we were typically used to. Since it’s so big, just getting everyone to wrap their head around every element was also a challenge!

Yacht Club Games has spoken openly about how important Mina the Hollower is for the studio’s future. Has that pressure influenced the way the team approaches polish, scope, and player expectations?

David D'Angelo: As with any of our projects, we just tried to make Mina the best it could be! We’ve tried to really just focus on the game.

Retro-inspired games have become increasingly popular over the last decade, but audiences also expect modern quality-of-life design. How do you decide where to preserve old-school friction versus modernizing systems?

David D'Angelo: For us, we think about it like a modern game! We’re building the best modern game we can with innovations around every corner. The old-school-ness of it only comes in for learning what works or doesn’t work from old techniques of making and designing games.

Looking back, what do you think players misunderstand most about building a “retro-style” game in a modern production environment?

David D'Angelo: Making a retro-style game is not easy or fast! It’s just as tricky or challenging as building any high-quality game! 

David D'Angelo, Game Developer at Yacht Club Games on Mina the Hollower

Interview Conducted by David Jagneaux