(Image credit: Yacht Club Games)

Back in the '10s, Yacht Club cultivated a reputation as the studio that kept on giving—Shovel Knight Treasure Trove morphed into one of the best deals in the platformer genre, with one free update after another (including full story campaigns) for those who owned the original NES throwback.

But those awaiting the studio's follow-up, Mina the Hollower, spent a long time waiting, and delays left the company in dire need of a hit . "It’s make-or-break for sure," studio co-founder Cris Velasco told Bloomberg last year. "If we sold even 200,000, that would be really, really great.…