The James Bond of First Light is hot in a grown up way
"In order to live out the masculine fantasy of being James Bond, you do actually have to make this guy attractive to women in a way that male video game protagonists usually are not."
Feature
Maps, mice, and moody hues: The making of Mina the Hollower
On a studio visit to Yacht Club Games, Nicole Clark learned about the origins of our new favorite mouse hero.
9 min read
Mina the Hollower humbled me in minutes. I play as Mina, a savvy mouse, with the nightstar mace and an axe sidearm I keep losing. It’s us against the world — which, so far, has meant falling off so many ledges while escaping a shipwreck. With a little determination and a lot of lost Sparks, I finally make my way to Ossex. Adventure awaits.
Mina has become the year’s indie breakout, selling more than 500,000 copies in the first two weeks. Though it isn’t Yacht Club Games’ first hit — the Shovel Knight series is a real banger — it is its largest game so far, with substantial “scope creep,” according to game designer Alec Faulkner.
On June 16, Mothership visited Yacht Club Games’ studio in Los Angeles and talked to Faulkner and lead artist Sandy Gordon about Mina the Hollower’s inspirations, both aesthetic and literary.
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