Mewgenics News

One of the most common questions we get asked when play testing Mewgenics is.. "but will my cats die permanently?"

yes, yes your cats will die, like everyone you know and will ever meet, your cats will eventually die.

This harsh reality may catch you off guard, but death is a very very important part of mew, maybe the most important because without that risk, there is no actual reward.. but how does death actually work in mewgenics? why let me show you!

This is April, a fresh young cat ready for adventure!



but sadly April was attacked by a group of kittens in an alley and was "downed".



When a cat is downed it suffers a minor injury to a random part of their body, this is shown visually and represented as a permanent stat down for the cat in question.



When a cat is downed, they fall to the ground writhing in pain and are inactive till the match ends or they are possibly revived by some act of god or cleric.

downed cats have "death armor", the number of times that cat's body can take damage till it's destroyed completely, dont worry though MOST enemies dont care too much about downed cats.. but you still gotta make sure your living cats dont accidently knock an allies body into a river or cactus.



If at any point in your adventure all of your cats become downed, they have failed their mission and are considered lost forever.If you make it through your adventure any remaining cats return home, forever changed by their experience!



Cats that have completed adventures are considered "old", old cats can no longer be taken on adventures and once an old cat arrives back home it triggers an unseen clock that starts counting down its remaining days, but dont worry you have options.

mewgenics is a game about legacy, not just in how you change the world as you play but also in what you do with your bloodlines. When 2 cats get busy, they make a kitten and that kitten shares the DNA of its mother and father. Not only will your kittens look/sound like their parents, but they may also inherit many other mechanical features.

Let's say you breed two basic strays, level 0 collarless cats ( no class ). When they have a kitten, that kitten has a chance to gain a starting collarless active from either parent or randomly roll into a totally new one... this concept also works for old cats who have survived long adventures. So even though your cats may be old and retired, they can still get busy and have a chance to give their offspring one of their many active and passive abilities.



That means there is potential here to have a fresh new cat with a Tank ability like Toss that you can then class into a mage and basically give access to something a mage can't ever have naturally.. you get what im laying down here? multiclassing brother!!

but in mewgenics most of the time when something survives an adventure it's not all sunshine and rainbows.. sometimes they come back quite different, they have seen and experienced some real shit, and with that may come a smorgasbord of mental and physical disorders, parasites and even curses that could potentially haunt your family for generations!

Of course every mental illness has a silver lining ! and we will go over all that in 2 weeks!

see ya
-Edmund

Currently mewgenics has over 400 active and 200 passive abilities across the games many classes, with many more to come. lets go over a few and explain how they work.

[h3]Actives:[/h3] actives or spells as some may call them are unique abilities that can be used as many times as you want during your turn as long as you have the mana to activate them.
All cats (usually) start with one collarless active that they are born with and gain one class active when you assign them their class at the start of the adventure. cats will also gain access to another active ability when they reach level 2 and level 5. here are a few examples.

1. Toss: Toss is a fun tank ability that grabs something adjacent to you and throws it into an empty tile in the spells AOE. enemies can be tossed into glass, water or adjacent to the next cat in turn order.. you can even toss interactive objects in the level or if you want, you can toss your own team mates! just remember landing will cause a tiny bit of damage to whatever you throw.

2. Frost Blast: Frost blast is a mage ability that shoots a blast of icy air in a straight line up to 5 spaces away, freezing the 1st thing it hits solid. frozen things will lose their next turn, then thaw out. while frozen they become immune to all damage and will slide around when hit in the opposite direction. this spell also has a ice element tied to it.. but we will go over elements and how they effect things in a later post.

3. Zealot: Zealot is a cleric ability that allows the caster to imbue themselves with a holy shield. much like the holy mantle in isaac, holy shield will absorb an attack no matter how much damage is done.

4. Marked: this ability is a hunter support all star, marking an enemy allows all other cats attacking it a 100% chance of landing a critical attack against it. ( critical attacks deal x2 damage, they can be done naturally as well but their chances are very low and tied to your luck stat )


[h3]Passives: [/h3]passives are abilities your cat has that dont need to be activated, they are simply always on. you (usually) gain your first passive when your cat is assigned a class and again when it reaches level 3.

1. Gravity Falls: this hunter passive, rewards your hunter for attacking stuff as far away as possible, comboing well with abilities that give you more range or reposition you easily.

2. Thunder Thighs: this tank passive grants your tubby lil cat the ability to "trample". things that have trample can pass through other cats or enemies that are blocking them, dealing damage to anything they walk over or land on, also displacing them in the process. this passive combos well with abilities that raise your movement, dash you forward and also things that give your cat contact type status effects like thorns ( thorns = things that make physical contact with you take damage equal to your thorns )

3. Undercat: this fighter passive gives them +2 str ( more melee damage ) and +1 brace (brace reduces physical damage taken by a flat amount) for each adjacent enemy around it. this ability combos well with positional abilities that get you close to multiple enemies, like jumping or being thrown... it also works perfect with melee aoe attacks that hit all targets around you at once.

4. Tutor: this mage passive teaches the last spell you cast each turn to the rest of your cats, allowing you to temporarily multiclass your team into mages! this one combos with a lot and allows for some pretty cool planning ahead for some possible minor game breaking combos.. if you play your cards right.

Upgrades!
But wait, theres more! at level 6 you will be able to upgrade one of your actives, you can upgrade a passive at level 7 and an additional active or passive at level 9 ( if you make it that far ).
yes thats right, all 600+ abilities we have in game right now can be upgraded to gain unique effects that buff each one.. here are 4 examples.. i dont wanna spoil too much because upgrading late game and exploring what each upgraded ability does is pretty damn cool.

Marked+: Marking an enemy will also mark all other enemies of the same type ( ie. cat, bug, turd, etc)

Toss+: You can toss stuff onto objects and enemies, dealing high damage to both things

Thunder Thighs+: Your trample damage is increased significantly, also gain +2 con.

Tutor+: Your teammates learn the upgraded version of the abilities you teach them (the students become the masters!)

and that about sums up the basics of actives and passives. i touched a bit on leveling up but ill do another post explaining that in more detail since we dont really do it like other games do.

but enough about how the game functions, lets move on to whos making it function!


[h3]MEET THE TEAM! ( or at least some of them)[/h3]

In the past ive been known to have a strangle hold on everything in my games. outside of programming and music, id just do everything myself, period.. but im all old now! having 2 kids and not being able to work as much as i used to has forced me into this gross thing called "working with others"... turns out it makes your life easier and your games better! over the past few years of dev we have had many different and amazing artist come in to help, today ill go over the 3 illustrators actively working on the game and show you why im so glad i could loosen up my anus and just let other people who are better illustrators than me work on the game.


[h3]Sony-Shock:[/h3]
Sony is an amazing artist who i was first introduced to when making four souls, his isaac fan art always made my jaw drop so i knew i had to have him do some promo cards for us. you may also know his work from one of the early Unboxing of isaac Tshirts ( and one of the most successful ).



When i hired Sony to work on Mew i knew i had to have someone with a very different style than my own, i put him on background and non interactive objects because his painterly style against my thick chunky cartoon outlines would clash in a way that would make it obvious what things you can and cant interact with. also that juxtaposition on style reminded me a lot of backgrounds in old cartoons from the 40s where the backgrounds were painted or even sculpted to look more realistic so the cartoons would stand out even more on top of them.





[h3]Vivian Voss:[/h3]
Vivian Voss ( Aka HamBerry ) was another prominent artist for Four souls who did a ton of work for the latest expansion Requiem.



Vivian has a very bold cartoon style that worked perfectly for establishing shots for game chapters as well as non-combat backgrounds. She really worked perfectly within that flintstones/jetsons atomic cartoon background style we had been referencing and has been churning out tons of art for the many many chapters of this monster.





[h3]Tikara:[/h3]
Tikara is yet another very familiar face in the isaac art community, she has worked with me on many projects and was the artist for the binding of isaac tarot cards and creator of nearly every loot card in Four Souls.



Tikara was one of our first artist on mew, she started out doing simple UI backgrounds and eventually moved onto class icons and status effect icons. She also did quite a few enemy portraits.





but this isnt everyone, we also have been working with some seriously amazing animators as well, but ill save them for another day...

in 2 weeks we will finally address the elephant in the room, death, dying and the afterlife ( or lack there of )
see ya

-Edmund

So in Mewgenics when a cat is born its considered "Collarless". collarless cats only gain their inborn abilities from the collarless ability pool, a broad and slightly higher costed group of active and passive abilities, but when you decide to take 4 cats out on an adventure, its probably best to assign them a class.

each class in mewgenics has strengths and weaknesses, unique basic attacks and large active / passive ability pools with many unique archetypes that you will draft from as you level up. here is the breakdown of each. there are many different draft archetypes and ways to play per class but in this post I'm going to break down some of the more common ones you'll notice right off the bat.

( Note: please check my previous post to see a breakdown of what each stat does! )




Stat mods: +2 str, +1 spd, -1 int
Basic Attack: Fighters are close combat melee fighters who are the hardest hitters in the game.



[h3]Common Archetypes for Fighter:[/h3]
One Punch Man: these abilities push the fighter into dealing huge damage with a single blow or multiple hits to a single target, best for taking down bosses and larger enemies.

Army in a Can: these abilities will go wide hitting multiple enemies with one attack, best for taking down mobs.

Risky: these abilities will give big bonuses but also come with costs that go beyond their mana you need to activate them.

Avenger: these abilities will buff your fighter, or become stronger if/when your other cats are downed... and maybe sometimes he can help in downing them...


----------------------------------------------------------------------


Stat mods: +2 int, +2 cha, -1 str, -1 con
Basic Attack: Mages have a medium ranged attack that requires line of sight.



[h3]Common Archetypes for Mage:[/h3]
Elementalist: these abilities utilize the many major elements found in mewgenics with a focus on Fire and Ice.

Spells Matter: these abilities give you special bonuses when cast multiple times in a turn.

Mana Engine: these abilities fuel your mana regen and also give it to other cats on your team.

Defensive Maneuvers: these abilities help your mage avoid combat, withstand attacks, and slow/hinder enemies.


----------------------------------------------------------------------


Stat mods: +2 con, +2 cha, -1 dex, -1 spd
Basic Attack: Clerics have a multi-purpose melee attack that hurts enemies but heals allies.



[h3]Common Archetypes for Cleric:[/h3]
Wet Nurse: these abilities are focused on healing, cleansing, and protecting your team.

Combat Medic: these abilities put your Cleric straight into combat with an array of attacks and defensive options.

Morale Support: these abilities aid your allies in battle by allowing bonus attacks or boons that affect your whole team.

Back for More: these abilities will rise your fallen comrades from death's door and get them back into battle.


----------------------------------------------------------------------


Stat mods: +4 con, -1 dex, -1 int
Basic Attack: Tanks throw their weight around in battle with a melee attack that dashes them 1 tile forward and then knocks the target back 1 space.



[h3]Common Archetypes for Tank:[/h3]
Stay Back: these abilities are themed around knock back, a mechanic that knocks things around the map causing collision damage.

Thicc: these abilities allow the tank to do what he does best, take a beating and survive.

Protector: these abilities allow your tank to get between your glass cannons and the enemy, or move allies / enemies around the map with ease.

Rocks: these abilities create / utilize rocks. ( rocks are objects on the battlefield you can attack to knock back into things )


----------------------------------------------------------------------


Stat mods: +3 dex, +2 lck, -2 spd, -1 con
Basic Attack: Hunters are the masters of ranged attacks and have the longest attack range of all classes, but cant attack anything close to them. hunters also have a lobbed attack, meaning their range wont be hindered by objects/allies in their line of sight.



[h3]Common Archetypes for Hunter:[/h3]
Tricky Traps: these abilities place trap like tiles that will cause a range of negative effects to whoever triggers them.

Vermin: these abilities summon flies, maggots and fleas to fight along side your party!

Eagle Eye: these abilities will raise your range or spot enemies so other team mates gain advantage against them.

Scatter Shot: these abilities will target all tiles in a line or aoe and / or hit multiple times.


----------------------------------------------------------------------


Stat mods: +4 spd, +1 lck, -1 str
Basic Attack: Thieves has a semi short ranged attack that can hit anything in a straight line from them up to 3 tiles away.



[h3]Common Archetypes for Thief:[/h3]
Backstabber: these abilities add bonuses to your ability to backstab ( attacking an enemy from directly behind counts as a backstab and yields bonus damage )

Money = Power: these abilities focus on gaining coins and gaining a range of bonuses for doing so. ( coins are used to purchase things from shops or pay off assailants )

Mr. Gone: these abilities help your brittle thief survive combat by dodging, backflipping, and even vanishing from the battlefield.

More DOTS!: these abilities add damage over time ( DOTs ) effects to your attacks, like poison and bleed.




Join us in 2 weeks for a quick post about active / passive abilities and we will introduce you to our team!

till then i leave you with this amazing track from ridiculon, "Eatin Rats" is the Boss music from the alley, the very 1st chapter you guys will be playing when the game releases next year!

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

See ya
-Edmund

so at this point you should know that in mewgenics you:

1. breed stray cats in your house by spending food to pass the days.
   
2. send your cats out on adventures in search of food so you can continue to make progress in your breeding, without your cats starving.
   
3. adventures are composed of turn based combat matches and random events.
   

so now its time to break down the meat and potatoes of mew, the combat!
first lets go over the UI. 

1) Cat info hud.
this shows the active cat or enemies...

1. Class icon
   
2. Name
   
3. Face 
   
4. Hit points ( how much life it has before it's downed )
   
5. Mana ( how much current mana that can be used to activate abilities )
   
6. Coins ( how many coins your party currently has )
   

2) Action hud. 

1. End Turn ( this will pass the current cats turn to the next in turn order )
   
2. Move ( how many tiles this cat will move when this is activated )
   
3. Basic Attack ( your class's unique basic attack )
   
4. Collarless Ability ( the ability your cat is born with, this ability costs 5 mana to use )
   
5. Starting Class Ability ( the ability your cat is given when you choose its class, this ability costs 4 mana to use )
   

3) Turn Order.
this area of the screen shows the turn order of every cat and enemy in combat, mousing over this hud will show what character each tab is tied to.

1. the active cat.
   
2. next in turn order.
   
3. last in turn order. 
   

4) Passive Hud / Extended hud.
this is where your cats passive abilities will go, passive abilities are always active and dont require mana. more abilities will also appear on this side of the hud as your cat grows in power.

5) Info Hud. this hud shows the active cats stats, stats are established at birth and can be bred into future generations, if all goes well. A cats stats affect A LOT lets break them down real quick at their most basic level.


1. Strength: how much damage this cat will deal with their melee attacks and abilities, also affects acts of strength in events like pulling out something's eye or opening a rusted toilet.
   
2. Dexterity: how much damage this cat will deal with their ranged attacks and abilities, also affects acts of dexterity in events like avoiding a mouse trap or climbing a fence. 
   
3. Constitution: how much max hp you can have and how much you can regenerate between battles, also affects acts of constitution in events like surviving being poisoned or eating a really big poop.
   
4. Intelligence: how much mana this cat will regenerate at the end of its turn, also effects acts of intelligence in events like reading a book and solving a puzzle box.
   
5. Speed: how many tiles this cat can move on its turn as well as when this cat will take its turn in turn order, also affects acts of speed in events like running from something and... running from something else!
   
6. Charisma: how much max mana you can have, how much mana you start each combat with and how skilled you are at breeding, also affects acts of Charisma in events like charming a monster or being really good in bed.
   
7. Luck: how lucky you are at doing anything that has odds as well as how much loot/coins you find after battle, also affects acts of luck in events like surviving an impossible battle and randomly winning the lottery. 
   

and now that that's all out of the way let me break down a basic turn for you. 

At the start of each cat's turn they may make 1 movement action as well as 1 attack action in any order. they may also activate any abilities that they have enough mana to use and as many times as they have mana to use them. Once the active cat has finished its turn I click end turn, regen mana (based on my int stat) and pass to the next in turn order.

Example of a turn. 



Its Suda's turn ( our fiery water mage! ) he starts his turn walking into range of a small fly.
he selects his basic ranged attack.




Suda lucks out and lands a critical attack dealing 10 damage erasing the fly from existence!




Suda has 7 mana left and decides to spend it on the ability surf.




Surf is a ranged attack with an area of effect (aoe) that deals small water damage to all inside as well as knocking them backwards. 




Surf deals 3 damage to both pooter flys knocking them around the map and totally destroys that poop!




Suda has moved, used his basic attack and also used up all his mana. he can't do anything else so he ends his turn, allowing the next character in turn order go ( the small flys ).


Mewgenics is a BEAST of a game, and im going to break down every core element as the months pass so once we start showing off gameplay runs it all makes more sense.

anyway ill see you in 2 weeks when ill break down cats classes and what that all means!

till then take a listen to this spooky halloween track we spoiled on twitter in oct. 

see ya!
-Edmund

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

literally every time we post anything mewgenics related someone will always say, you are still working on that? or i thought that was canceled? and i totally understand because both are true, but also somewhat untrue at the same time, so let me take you down memory lane and explain where this whole thing started, where it is and where it's going!


in 2011 the dust had settled on the release of super meat boy, i really wanted to stretch my design muscles a bit and take bigger risks so i started experimenting with designs in short game jam like bursts, the first game jam game was a weird game called Love Sick, about a love starved child who uses his tears to fight off his inner demons, 3 months later this game would release on steam with a new title, The Binding of Isaac. Isaac's release didn't really wow many people, it literally took almost a year to really take off and become the hit you guys would know, and as it grew so did my taste for something new. i had 2 more weird game ideas, one was an FMV game about webcam murders called Camdrome (more on this one in a few years) and the other was a cat breeding sim called too many cats aka, Mewgenics.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

the idea for Mewgenics was basic, you have a house hub where you breed and care for a bunch of stray cats, you take those cats into mini games and grind out coins you use to buy furniture to fill your house and that was that. it was a simple but cool idea that looked cute, gross and funny and that's all that really mattered to me, i LOVED this game. i spent the next 9 months obsessing over every detail, drawing 100s of pieces of furniture, 1000s of cat pieces and slowly creating this little living town full of weirdo npcs who help aid in your progress. i even made a comic about it that was given out at pax to anyone who demoed the game there, things were looking awesome.. sadly not everyone shared my enthusiasm. shortly after showing the game at pax the game was canceled and shelved along with camdrome. unable to work on these IPs I decided to focus my attention back on isaac and its remake, Rebirth. but being forced to put mewgenics down haunted me for years... i loved that world and i loved the core idea of a hub where you breed cats and use them as avatars in other games, i loved the characters ,art style, and phenomal soundtrack by Ridiculon.







around 2017 i left Team Meat, but with me came mewgenics and camdrome. it was a dark time then, but once i finished the projects i had started (The end is Nigh, Bumbo, Repentance, Tapeworm and Four Souls) i swore that i would start again on Mewgenics and that exactly what Tyler and i have been doing for the past few years.

i loved the design and themes of the original prototype, but using the cats in mini games and basic pokemon combat felt lame.. so tyler and i both put our heads together and started experimenting with a "core" game idea, something that could use multiple cats at once and bring every element of what worked before into this new design.

we tried making a brawler



we tried doing it more RTS style



we tried a range of genres...



but finally we tried out a turn based rpg style, like final fantasy tactics...



this design was the hardest to tackle and by far the most in depth. but mewgenics was a feature creep design, at its core the prototype was about endless possibilities, replayability , legacy and everything we were exploring with a turn based strategy game complemented these elements perfectly.

after about a year of work it was clear that this new design was amazing, the more we added the more deep and repayable the game became, this was THE GAME.. this was the thing I've been wanting to make for over 11 years!







and that brings us to now, currently Tyler and i are leading a small team of animators and artists into the future with banners held high. we have roughly 18 months left of dev, but the game is far enough that we have started allowing the press to experience it, and the response is amazing.

so, from here on out every 2 weeks ill be doing a blog post about some aspect of the game, spoiling music , art and even gameplay.

we have a long road ahead of us, bit its super exciting to be this obsessed with a project again and i cant wait to show you how it all works!

see you in 2 weeks
happy new year.
-Edmund

(ps here are some old music spoilers ill leave for your listening pleasure, more on the music later!)

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]