Sources

Bibliography for the Mina the Hollower entry. Grouped by category.

Official

• Mina the Hollower: Yacht Club Games, official game page.
• Mina the Hollower on Steam: store description, features, screenshots.
• Kickstarter campaign (Yacht Club Games, launched Feb 2, 2022): crowdfunding figures: ~$1.24M from 21,439 backers.

Reference

• Mina the Hollower: Wikipedia, canonical facts: developer/director (Sean Velasco), lead designer (Alec Faulkner), composers (Jake Kaufman; Yuzo Koshiro guest tracks), engine (Propeller), release date (May 29, 2026), platforms, setting, reception, sales.
• Mina the Hollower Build Planner & Guide and Sidearms guide: content counts (60 trinkets, ~28 bosses), sidearm families and examples.
• All Trinkets in Mina the Hollower: Mobalytics, trinket effects, incl. Uranium Bracelet and Wallower's Gauntlets.
• Sparks & Spark Generators: NiaMeowDB and How to Recover Experience Bones, the two-tier death penalty, the "Bone Up" auto-retrieval rule, Spark Generators as checkpoints.
• Best Sidearms guide: GAMES.GG and All Spark Container locations, GameSpot, sidearm/Joule economy and Spark-container collectibles.

Developer interviews

• Inside Mina the Hollower's Six-Year Journey: 80 Level, David D'Angelo on the burrow as the founding pillar, the Castlevania-in-Zelda combat brief, the GBC constraint, and the scale/balancing tooling. Primary quote source.
• Interview with David D'Angelo: WayTooManyGames, design philosophy and influences.
• Mina the Hollower Blends Bloodborne With Zelda And Castlevania: GameSpot, the three-way inspiration framing.
• Hands-On With Mina the Hollower and Developer Interview: Newsweek, Sean Velasco hands-on impressions.
• Meta-Topping Mina the Hollower: Yacht Club Enters a New Era: Inven Global, the studio's pivot beyond Shovel Knight.

Reception

• Mina the Hollower: Metacritic, ~91 (PC/PS5), universal acclaim.
• Mina The Hollower Is Now Metacritic's Highest-Rated Game Of 2026: Nintendo Life, ranking and OpenCritic 98% recommend.
• Mina the Hollower Review: RPG Site and LadiesGamers, "soulsy in difficulty yet beautifully accessible"; difficulty/guidance critiques.
• 'Mina the Hollower' Review: Slant Magazine, critical framing of the design.

Images

All screenshots in this entry are sourced from Game UI Database, Mina the Hollower (id=2438). See CREDITS.md in the image folder for the per-file manifest. © Yacht Club Games; used as transformative critical commentary under fair use.