As his cat-eugenics roguelike inches closer, The Binding of Isaac creator says he hates everything about releasing games, which is probably why Rebirth got so much DLC
Aug. 30, 2024Edmund McMillen says working on Mewgenics is “so much fun”
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As Mewgenics crawls to the finish line after over a decade in and out of game development limbo, its creator says that actually releasing a game is the part he hates the most.
Edmund McMillen is best known for creating hit roguelike The Binding of Isaac, as well as violently tough platformer Super Meat Boy. Mewgenics was actually first announced as a follow-up to the latter, coming from the same studio, before development largely collapsed and McMillen reacquired the game’s rights alongside Tyler Glaiel.
It’s now so, so far away from its platforming origins. Mewgenics is instead a turn-based roguelike about breeding the ideal cat army to wage war - an elevator pitch headed directly to hell - andit’s almost “content complete,“prompting McMillen to jump onto Reddit for an AMA.
Asked about his least favorite part of launching a game, McMillensaidhe hates “almost every aspect of releasing a game, its always stressful and leaves you with this empty feeling - it’s probably why I keep some of my favorite designs in development past their release.” That’s also probably the reason why The Binding of Isaac Rebirth (and to a lesser degree the vanilla game) had so many years of post-launch support, three expansions included.
McMillen does admit that he has fun “watching people play the game,” but releasing one “sucks” so much because actually working on a game, “especially one like Mewgenics, is so much fun, it’s like waking up to a really fun new game no one has ever played and being the first to experience it every day.”
In the meantime, check out thebest roguelike gamesto play right now.
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Kaan freelances for various websites including Rock Paper Shotgun, Eurogamer, and this one, Gamesradar. He particularly enjoys writing about spooky indies, throwback RPGs, and anything that’s vaguely silly. Also has an English Literature and Film Studies degree that he’ll soon forget.
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