The team behind India adventure Minit returns with a side-scrolling racing game

The indie gem Minit, released in 2018, feels like fresh air. The monochromatic adventure game had a seemingly absurd time limit – the player killed every 60 seconds – and this in a passionate love letter to top-down classics like The legend of Zelda and an ingenious and clever quest that constantly surprised the player.

Now, the core team behind Minit – Core Throne and Disk room developer Jan Willem Nijman, designer Kitty Calis, composer Jukio Kallio, and artist Dominik Johann – is back with a new title, Minit Fun Racer. The game takes the same core idea and applies it to a sideways cycling game reminiscent of arcade titles of recent decades. All proceeds from the game, published for free by indie label Devolver Digital, go to charity, including Doctors Without Borders and special effects.

Minit Fun Racer released today for $ 2.99 on both Steam and itch.io, with the latter store having a pay-what-you-want option for those who want to give more.

Image: Devolver Digital

Minit Fun Racer has less narration than the game on which it is based and an even stricter time limit of less than ten seconds to begin with. You simply fall off a highway full of obstacles and are challenged to find your way to the end before the timer runs out and you start all over again. But Minit Fun Racer meet the original by hiding many secrets that can be found through experimentation.

The most important engine of progress in the game is to earn coins and use the currency to unlock new upgrades, which in turn helps you progress further down the trail. But there are Easter eggs and fun unlockable side-search style – like an air horn to wake the sleeping cats along the way or an impromptu helicopter chase if you bump into two police cars – that make the game worth exploring.

“We wanted to make a complete match, not just something you would buy just for charity,” Calis says. “The bigger it gets, the more we can help, and in the end we want people to have a good time and also to do good.”

In my first few game sessions last week with a preview of the game, I’m dead – a lot, as expected. But after my first few upgrades, I felt like I was making steady progress and really enjoying the quick trial and error design. And the new music of Kallio, a longtime collaborator of Nijman, who was also the catchy co-writer Val guys soundtrack, is a fantastic addition.

“Our philosophy has always been when you have fun making something that really shines through in the final product,” says Nijman. Asked about others Minit spinoffs or sequels in the future, Nijman and Calis say they do not yet exclude future works – or as Nijman calls it, a ‘Minit movie universe’ – using the game’s pixel art style or its core limitation.

“Never say never,” Calis says.