Shovel Knight Dev's New Game 'Mina The Hollower' Smashes Kickstarter Goal

Ummm, I may be naive, but why do they need to do a Kickstarter when shovel knight sold 2.5 million copies lol?

I wonder if I should back this, do they have a tier for a physical copy?

“ (sorry, Oracle. You're underrated)”

-Few truer words have ever been spoken.

Ages and Seasons do not receive the love they deserve.

@jagetron Plus they got amiibos and other merchandise. Honestly I don't think they really need a Kickstarter for this but neither did Platinum Games or the Shenmue III developers.

@Tourtus yes. The lowest is at the $100 tier though.

Tbh I'll wait for this to release. I want the physical version myself and nothing about this kicstaeter is that interesting.

Also Kickstarter are using blockcain/NFT Stuff for thier website so I wont be backing anything in good faith.

Physical copies at the $100 tier is a joke. I think it's fair to assume this will get a boutique or retail release for $30 sometime down the road, just like Bloodstained and Indivisible did.

Thats great news! Hoping, and optimistic this will be a switch release.

They should invest their own money to finance this product. You know, like a normal business

@jagetron I was thinking the same thing.

Just like @Jagetron mentioned. Why do Yacht games need Kickstarter with the massive success of Shovel Knight? I feel like they're abusing this system to save themselves some development money.

Both Oracle of Ages and Seasons are amazing (and not really the same, at all). If you have a 3DS, play both of them!

Shovel Knight was also a Kickstarter, so wondering if they are just going back to their roots.
I do agree $100 for physical is a bit crazy, but I cant help myself

Also we already had this: https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2022/02/shovel-knight-dev-reveals-mina-the-hollower-a-top-down-adventure-with-zelda-and-castlevania-vibes

Couldn't you of just done an Update?

@jagetron They address this in the Why Kickstarter section:

Compared to our original Kickstarter, we’re not in dire straits! We’re financing a majority of Mina the Hollower's development internally. Our main reason for launching a Kickstarter this time is to build a brand new universe in the same way we did with our first game, Shovel Knight—with our community involved in creating something special along with us! Every backer that joins the development will help to make a more robust game. Together, we’ll break new ground!

@jagetron

My first thought exactly. Yacht Club Games has been in business for almost 10 years and has been quite successful. One would think that they could fund their own development at this time.

On the other hand, they have a good track record with KickStarter so why not raise some money that why even if they don’t exactly need it?

@Phillips455 Wow, wasn't expecting it to be that much... Hopefully they make a new tier for a stand alone physical copy for a lower price.

@jagetron Because why shouldn't they? Also maybe they wanted to avoid Banner Saga's issues, where not that many people realized 2 came out because the devs didn't crowdfund the sequel.

i'd like to point out the goal for mina was how much shovel knight's kickstarter raised

I wonder if they’ll be more cautious with stretch goals this time around. I heard rumors that they were restricted to finishing their Shovel Knight goals even after sales went down quite a bit

I am sure they thought about this a lot. Kickstarter will take their cut. They wouldn’t use Kickstarter without careful planning.

Bloody hell that was fast

@Magician Agreed, $100 is a stupid asking price for physical. At least go the industry standard at $60 which is still a bit much for a game of this tier but understandable being a new game.

@jagetron I agree with your question. It's the same as: Why does Ubisoft need NFT's?

Money.

@IronMan30 What's the difference between the two? I've started playing seasons on my Trimui and Ages on my Miyoo Mini and didn't know if one was harder than the other.

Thankfully it’ll be available at retail where I can pick up and appropriately priced physical copy. $100 for a physical plus a bunch of digital stuff I don’t even want is silly. Game does look great though.

@jagetron so they aren’t risking their own money and can have an early payday!

I'll get a digital version once it releases. I love the gbc style.

@Chunkboi79 Seasons is more combat and Ages is more puzzles. Need a password from finishing one to transfer items and unlock true ending in the other.

I always expected they would do another Kickstarter for one of their main projects and have no problem with it. While Yacht Club is in a better place now, they're still not a huge developer or publisher. Because of how awesome they were about Shovel Knight and its stretch goals, I'm most likely going to back this. They have a solid track record now and have no problem with them going this route again.

@SuperZeldaFun @HamatoYoshi The only downside is giving Kickstarter a part of the money raised. I am sure, though, they planned this carefully.

@jagetron They are banking on their reputation, giving them easy revenue. Sure they don't NEED it, but more money is always good.

@Magician Sea of Stars's Kickstarter did the same, I think. But 125 CAD for their physical tier makes more sense because their other game, The Messenger, retains high physical value.

You're right that a boutique outlet would snap up this game--my money would be on Fangamer getting it, which would then go retail like Stardew Valley did.

I always find it odd how these highly successful developers need a kickstarter.

RE: Why do successful Indie companies need Kickstarters?

Successful indie companies are still indie companies (Yacht Club is still just 20 people!), and risk-taking is extra risky when you're a smaller company. Kickstarters are a good way for them to gauge interest in a different project before deciding whether to sink what they have into a new project. The world could have taken one look at Mina and said, "Well that's not Shovel Knight 2" and maybe it wouldn't have sold. Now they can move forward with the assurance that people are interested in the title, and they have some extra funds to pour into it while they do. Kickstarters mean they get to take risks instead of just settling for releasing Shovel Knight 2, 3, 4, etc.

Awesome! I loved Shovel Knight and this looks really awesome. However, in some ways it looks TOO zelda-like. Some of the tiles and elements look like they were ripped right out of Link's Awakening, but that might be a good thing.

I love this studio, but Kickstarter is a no from me. And those prices for a physical game are nuts. I have thought about moving to more physical but good lord not for those prices.

@Magician yeah, a big joke lol 100$ for a physical game.... even triple a games are less then that but the game look cool so i ll buy it on release

"Especially because it looks like a brand-new Link's Awakening, or a Zelda: Oracle game..."

Nah, it looks mora like a brand-new classic castlevania but with zelda perspective.

As much I agree with you guys it's not just 100$ for the physical game some of yall are blowing it out of proportion. It also comes with a digital book, the ability to listen to the sound track early, and to be in a private discord to have discussions about what should be in the game (+ idk if they mean that you'll also get the digital copy when they said all previous tier rewards). It doesn't hurt to wait or just pay the first 20$ tier for the digital copy.

Also I think it's nice for Yacht Club Games to go back to their roots, surely it will trickle down to other indie devs Kickstarters.

I've only ever backed one video game kickstarter that didn't put physical goods at $100 or more. (That was Wonderful 101, which was a very different kind of Kickstarter.) As others have said, there will probably be physical copies available after the game releases, so you're probably just paying for exclusive Box Art. (And a bunch of other stuff. The previous tiers' rewards aren't bad.)

They said they chose a kickstarter because they want to build a community around this. The same way they did with shovel knight.

@jagetron They addressed on the Kickstarter, but here's what I think: Yacht Club did a KS for this because:

A. Pocket Dungeon didn't do so well. Critically, yes, but no so much commercially. I think more people were expecting Shovel Knight Dig to come out sooner.
B. Merchandising. A lot of KS games haven proven merch will be too expensive to make with the development money alone.
C. They need the money to remain stable enough so Microsoft won't buy them out and screw them over

Kickstarter are rarely used to actually fund games. Do the developers get some funds? Yeah, but I can't think of a single game that was funded purely through it. Now it's more of a community building/marketing tool (for video games that is).

I think Kickstarter takes 8-10% for each funded campaign. As of now, they will be getting at least $43k+.

Of course, as @Fiskern mentioned, the devs could consider that fee as part of their marketing budget.