Mewgenics: Edmund McMillen Unleashes His Strangest Creation
Edmund McMillen, the visionary mind behind beloved indie hits like Super Meat Boy and The Binding of Isaac, is preparing to launch his most ambitious and perhaps most peculiar project yet: Mewgenics. Developed alongside co-creator Tyler Glaiel, this roguelike blends cat breeding, turn-based combat, home customization, and complex genetic inheritance into a truly unique experience. Recently, PC Gamer had the chance to go hands-on with the game and speak with its creators, revealing a title poised to challenge player expectations.
A Long-Awaited Idea Comes to Life
The concept for Mewgenics has been on McMillen’s mind for years, ever since the development of Super Meat Boy. What began as a simple idea has since blossomed into something far grander – a wild fusion reminiscent of games like Slay the Spire, FTL: Faster Than Light, and even XCOM, but populated by genetically modified felines. These cats come equipped with spells, inherited diseases, and a penchant for self-detonating on traps. McMillen himself believes Mewgenics is his best game to date.
Embracing Absurdity and Logic
The developers behind Mewgenics aren't afraid of glitches or broken combinations. Their philosophy is clear: if an interaction truly breaks a fight or the game, they fix it. However, if it's simply absurd but works within the game's logic, they keep it. A prime example is a boss that becomes completely ineffective during rain, as the water extinguishes its bomb fuses. While the boss's behavior was adjusted, the weather's impact on fire remained – because, as the developers reasoned, rain puts out fire, and that just makes sense.
Tactical Cat Combat and Deep Abilities
In combat, cats gain active and passive skills based on their classes, such as Fighter, Necromancer, or Tank. Each class boasts an impressive 50 active and 25 passive abilities, encouraging players to experiment and discover unexpected synergies. One seemingly meaningless skill, "Look at me!", can become a crucial tactical advantage due to the game's backstab critical hit system, rewarding clever positioning.
Building a Home, Raising a Legacy
Outside of battles, players manage their feline family’s home, breeding new generations and preparing them for expeditions. A key mechanic in Mewgenics is that each cat can only go on one adventure before retiring. However, retirement doesn't mean uselessness; retired heroes defend the home from special bosses and become parents to future generations of fighters, ensuring a continuous cycle of new blood.
Genes, Traits, and Finding Strength in Flaws
Kittens inherit more than just skills; they also carry genetic traits ranging from asthma and autism to rarer conditions like dwarfism. McMillen revealed that the game delves into not just animal breeding, but also themes of legacy and personal choice. Critically, some conditions aren't just debuffs: an autistic cat, for instance, might struggle with most tasks but be exceptionally powerful with spells. Similarly, dyslexia in Mewgenics can swap numbers (like fives for threes, or nines for sixes), which in specific situations can actually turn into an advantage.
“You might get, say, a simply ridiculously lucky cat – with off-the-charts luck – and you can use that to its full extent. You can do absolutely incredible things with that. We try to do that as often as possible because I like the idea of someone seeing something as a flaw and only perceiving it as a negative, but then suddenly they think, ‘Wait a minute… I can actually use this.’ And they do. That’s the point of the game: to make use of what you have. You have these cards in your hand – make them work.” – Edmund McMillen
McMillen also shared his thoughts on how to incorporate ADHD, a condition present in his own family. He noted the enthusiastic response from fans, who are eager to suggest ways to represent their own conditions within the game's mechanics. This desire to see their unique ways of thinking and being reflected through gameplay, and perhaps to feel understood in the context of tactical cat battles, is a powerful driving force for the developers.
Grotesque Humor and Hundreds of Hours of Content
Mewgenics presents a grotesque, odorous, and deliberately unsightly world, brimming with pain, absurdity, and silliness. It features scenes of cat reproduction, ironic takes on eugenics, and a distinctive, expressive art style created with Adobe Animate – a descendant of Flash, a technology McMillen has used since his earliest days. Glaiel estimates that a newcomer's first playthrough could easily take around 200 hours, while the developers themselves can complete it in about 50. The game includes advanced mechanics, such as delaying a cat's leveling to boost others, just one of many tricks players will discover over weeks of play.
Release Date
Get ready to breed your unique feline fighters and dive into potentially 200 hours of chaotic fun when Mewgenics launches on PC (Steam) on February 10, 2026. The game's Steam page currently confirms English localization for launch. Players can look forward to a deep, bizarre, and endlessly replayable experience that redefines the roguelike genre.
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