Inspired by Silksong, Mina the Hollower dev says its $20 price was an easy decision

Mina the Hollower has already all but secured its place among the ranks of the best indie games of the year, at the very least. Boasting a 92 average review score on Metacritic that puts it as 2026’s highest-rated release of the year, beating out the likes of Resident Evil Requiem, 007 First Light, and Forza Horizon 6, the mousey action-platformer will only continue to grow as word of mouth spreads. But developer Yacht Club Games, best known as the creators of Shovel Knight, was adamant about sticking to a low cost of entry despite its previous game’s legacy.

Coming in at just $20, Mina the Hollower isn’t just a fantastic adventure wrapped in gorgeous pixel-art visuals inspired by the Game Boy Color. It’s also affordable, at a time when many games have begun pushing back against ever-climbing price tags. While triple-A names were moving towards the $70-80 mark and beyond, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 was yours for $50, and this helped it build the momentum that saw it become 2025’s smash-hit game of the year. The fact that it was very good was an important piece of the puzzle too, of course, but Yacht Club Games has clearly already nailed that aspect with Mina the Hollower.

“Everyone came in ready to say, ‘I want the game to be $20.'” Studio co-founder and Director Sean Velasco told Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier. The team was expecting a somewhat involved meeting to figure out the perfect price point for Mina the Hollower, but according to Velasco, “Everyone said the same thing.”

“We don’t want the price to be something that anyone is even going to question,” Velasco explains. It’s far from a case of underselling to get more players on board, however, as the developer is confident it’ll pay off in the long term. “If we didn’t think we’d make more money doing this, we wouldn’t be doing it.”

Among the reasons given for this was the huge success of Hollow Knight Silksong in 2025, which has racked up more than seven million sales at that same price of $20. Given the sheer hype around it, Team Cherry could almost certainly have charged more, but it held firm. Yacht Club Games was also aware that rising costs across the globe have made non-essentials like videogames feel less affordable, and was keen to make sure that anyone who might be interested feels like they can spare the change.

Velasco also notes that Mina the Hollower’s success is a “make-or-break” moment. It’s the studio’s first completely new game in 12 years, with an estimated development cost of $5 million. It needs to sell well enough, or Yacht Club Games will be forced to consider ways to cut costs or take on outside investment. “We only get one chance at this,” Velasco emphasizes. “That’s also why it was $20. We don’t want people to wait.”

Mina the Hollower is out now on Steam and GOG, priced at $19.99 / £17.75. If you like what you see and want to support Yacht Club Games, don’t wait for that discount – the team has done its very best to ensure you’ll feel happy making the purchase on day one.

I’m very much in the early stages myself, but I can already feel the love and care poured into every corner of Mina the Hollower’s world. It’s a triumph of deliberate aesthetic design, oozing style from every pixel right from the first moments. I already suspect it’s a game I’ll want to dig out every last secret from. Even once that’s done, a huge list of modifiers gives you ways to make the game easier, harder, more convenient, or just plain weirder. It’s an absolute treat, at a very fair price.