Yacht Club Games developer David D'Angelo shares insights into the six-year development of Mina the Hollower, a retro-inspired action-adventure game that blends Game Boy Color aesthetics with modern design. The game draws on Castlevania's deliberate combat and Zelda's top-down exploration while building its own identity. D'Angelo discusses the burrowing mechanic (present from day one), the team's pixel art workflow using Pro Motion, the challenges of scaling production for their most ambitious project, and the philosophy of treating retro constraints as creative guidelines rather than strict rules. The game launched to a 92 Metacritic score, ranking as 2026's highest-rated game at time of writing.
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