Mewgenics News

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]