Mina the Hollower is a natural follow-up to Yacht Club Games' previous hit, Shovel Knight, in many ways – not least of which is its excellent pastiche of a wide array of retro influences. But, even as Mina secures its position as the best-rated game of 2026, the devs are absolutely certain that they don't want to repeat one major part of Shovel Knight's legacy: all that DLC.
"No free DLC", programmer David D'Angelo tells Kotaku. That lesson applied to Mina the Hollower's original Kickstarter which, unlike the crowdfunding campaign for Shovel Knight, didn't offer stretch goals before major post-launch content. "Basically, we're not promising anything that – Whatever we promise is what we want to do for sure, without question. We came up with a plan for what the game was. And that's what we put on Kickstarter. And that's what we delivered at the end of the day."
