Yacht Club Games has confirmed that most of its developers are now working on a brand new 3D game (potentially Shovel Knight 3D), after the critically-acclaimed Mina the Hollower did well enough for the team to continue.
Before launching its old-school adventure game earlier this year, Yacht Club described Mina the Hollower as a “make-or-break” moment for the beloved indie studio. A global pandemic and a failed experiment to turn Yacht Club into a multi-project studio had left the developer on thin ice, it seems.
But Mina the Hollower sold well enough to buy the studio more time, according to a new Reddit AMA full of interesting tidbits. Asked if Mina was able to secure financial stability for the company, Sean Velasco simply said “yes… for now!” Mina managed to sell over 500,000 copies in its first two weeks, so it’s well on its way to the one million copies the devs were once hoping for.
For the foreseeable future, the devs aren’t ready to talk about the kinds of DLC and spin-offs and follow-ups that dear old Shovel Knight enjoyed for many years, but they’re not abandoning their newest baby either. “We’re working on more post-release features,” the devs wrote, which includes “expanded randomizer options, enemy and boss randomization, more modifiers, speedrunner features” and more ways “to do even more in Mina.”
Another fan also asked the folks at Yacht Club about their unannounced 3D Shovel Knight game – Velasco previously told Bloomberg that the game was halfway done before the entire studio put all hands on deck for Mina, and pivoted back into a one-game outfit. Alec Faulkner stopped short of confirming Shovel Knight 3D, but said “most of us are currently working on a 3D game, yes!” Alright then, Alec, keep your secrets. “Not sayin more! Other than that it’s gonna be soooooooo awesome.”
Co-founder Nick Wozniac went further into the state of the developer, and why splitting the team in half was probably a mistake. Here’s what he had to say on the matter: “Sales are the things that keep the company afloat so it’s not born from greed (mostly) that we say we’d love to see more sales, it’s all about continuing to work together and make great games and reaping the rewards along the way. We are doing ok and learned a lot this cycle. I think we learned mostly that keeping the team tight and focused is what helped Mina land. Splitting the team up to work on two games was something we could have corrected a long time ago but I’m glad to be where we are now. Just gotta pocket those lessons and use them to drive you forward.”
Eurogamer’s five-star Mina the Hollower review called it an “adventure that takes inspiration from the greats.”