Mewgenics News

So, as you may have noticed, Mewgenics has a lot of music... A LOT of music, amazing music that will cream everyone's pants, all around the world! However, not all music is used as you might assume.

Most of the music we have posted is for the adventure. Each chapter of the game has its own unique track and each submenu (map, event, and combat) has an alternative take that we crossfade between.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

The adventure tracks we have shown that feature lyrics are boss tracks. They only play during the final fight for each chapter.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

But, not all songs we have previewed are adventure tracks. Some of them have been house tracks.

House tracks are songs that play during the home hub portion of the game. This is where you'll be tending to and breeding your cats. It's also the place where you will hoard furniture and upgrade the game's many core mechanics.

While you are in house mode, a radio station will play, hosted by a very familiar voice... These radio bumpers are plentiful and randomly selected during play to create the illusion of a living radio station... and it works oh so well.

Here is a final version of an old teased track but with some radio bumpers by Matthias Bossi of Ridiculon.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Currently, 20 house tracks are finished, but I assume a few more will be added by the end of development. I'm telling you, this OST is a HUGE banger!

On a side note, as of June 1st, we will have 12-15 months of dev time left in Mewgenics in order to hit our release goal of summer of 2024. Currently, we are on track, but these long-winded blog posts are definitely cutting a full day of dev time out of my week. So, from this point on, I'm going to keep updates a bit more bite-sized for the next 6 months.

Stay tuned!
-Edmund

Quick recap for everyone in the back:

When a cat is born, they are considered "collarless," pulling their abilities from the collarless pool or from their parents. When you choose a group to take on an adventure, you then choose their class by assigning them a collar. When a cat is collared, it will level up and gain 2 starter abilities from their class's ability pool (a passive and active), and the adventure starts.



Each time you defeat a mob, mini boss, or boss, one of your cats will level up! (The cat with the lowest level will always level up; if there is a tie, the cat is chosen at random).

When a cat levels up, they will gain a +1 stat bonus to one of their class's main stats. Then, depending on what level your cat is, they will also be offered a selection of options to choose from for a larger bonus, and that's what I'll go over now!


[h3]Level 2:[/h3] Gain a new active ability! (Active abilities are actions your cat can take during combat that cost mana or have other resource requirements to be used.)

At level 2, you may choose one new active ability from the 4 abilities shown. These abilities are randomly selected from the cat's class pool as well as the collarless pool. Depending on your cat's luck, you are offered a selection of class and collarless abilities; the luckier you are, the more chances you have to see class abilities instead of collarless ones.




[h3]Level 3:[/h3] Gain new passive ability! (Passive abilities are passive effects that don't need to be paid for to use and are always in effect.)

At level 3, you may choose one new passive ability from the 4 shown; same luck rules apply when it comes to the number of class vs. collarless abilities you get to choose from.




[h3]Level 4:[/h3] Gain a big stat bonus! (Stats give different bonuses to an array of things depending on the stat and action.)

At level 4, you may choose to gain +2 in one of 4 different stats. Luck isn't a factor here; you just choose a stat bonus to apply to your cat. These stat bonuses also come with a full heal, a welcomed relief for a cat that has been taking a beating up till now.



[h3]Level 5:[/h3] Gain a new active ability!

Same as level 2, but you gain another new ability.

[h3]Level 6:[/h3] Upgrade active ability!
Choose one of your active abilities and upgrade it! That's right, every ability in the game can be upgraded! Upgrades range from lowering their mana cost to increasing damage or even completely new effects entirely.

Level 7???
Level 8???
[h3]Level 9???[/h3]

In Mewgenics, each adventure lasts 3 chapters, and each chapter's basic path will feature a max of 6 combats. That means your party will gain 18 level-ups per play session, meaning on average 2 of your cats will reach level 5 and 2 of your cats will reach level 6 by the end of your adventure. But then, how do you see what is beyond level 6? Well, let's check out the map for a second...



As you can see, there are quite a few icons on the map, and we will get into what each of them does in a future update. But for now, all I want you to check out are the 2 major branches of this chapter. You may notice once the path splits, the path that is going downward has "broken skulls" in it. These skulls represent hard combat and feature elite or champion enemies, making for a much harder combat experience. BUT if you have the courage to venture down this road, you will also find it features 1 more combat than the basic path, meaning if you were to take all hard paths in each chapter, you would gain 3 more levels than usual, allowing your cats to level up higher and gain access to stronger level-ups.

But wait, there's more! Since your team all shares the level-ups, if one of them was to fall in battle and have their body consumed by a mob of cat zombies, then that would mean the remaining level-ups would be shared between 3 cats instead of 4. But surviving with less than 4 cats in a world like this is a giant challenge in itself.



As an extra bonus, I've decided to bring back a song from the past! The Mewgenics Title screen theme by Ridiculon!

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

-Edmund

So we have touched on nearly all the major mechanics in Mewgenics, but there is one huge one we haven't fully covered yet: "Events."



In Mew, events are what break up combat as your adventure unfolds. A lot can happen in them that totally changes the game, and these are some examples:

[h3]Random Happenings[/h3]
You have no control over these events; they just happen, and you accept them. That's life!




Blessings: Blessings can range from finding a rusty razor blade to adding a whole new cat to your party.




Tragedy: Tragedies can range from a cat falling down the stairs to experiencing existential dread.




Weather Event: Weather events are global effects that will linger through that chapter of your adventure. There are TONS of weather events, most of them totally changing core aspects of the game, like a rainstorm that constantly douses any flames and causes flooding that slows ground characters, to Garbage Day, where bags of trash appear all over the map filled with possible treasures!




[h3]Choose Your Fate Events[/h3]
These events, usually given by the game's many NPCs, give the player a choice between multiple options that aid the player... or not.



Many of these events will allow you to gain the aid of an NPC, allowing them to ambush their next combat or strike fear in them using intimidation! (The choice is up to you!)



Some of these events have two choices, but the outcomes are unknown, like: Do I press this button or push the lever? One may heal your whole team, but one may stun you for the next combat.

[h3]Skill Events[/h3] The meat and potatoes of the event system! There are TONS of Skill Events in Mewgenics, each one with 2-3 ways to solve them. Here is an example of one.

Skill events are solved using your cats' stats. Here's an example:



As you can see, our Hunter is investigating a cat corpse. If you look at his stats, you can clearly see that dexterity is his best stat, so looting the body will yield the best odds of success. Let's go with that...



We rolled the dice (literally, behind the scenes) and succeeded! Gaining a Disco Biscuit! (That cat partied hard). But what if we were lucky enough to have critically succeeded? Well, I'm not going to spoil those results, but it's totally possible. See, each choice you make in every skill event has 4+ possible outcomes: Success, Failure, Critical Success, and Critical Failure.



Now don't worry, events won't kill your cats... well, maybe one or two, but Mew will feature well over 100 events, each with multiple outcomes. So the chances are low, unless you meet Death in an event. But even then, you can always make a deal with her.

Initially, when we started development, I was worried about events and mostly wanted to use them to paint a better picture of the world you were adventuring through. But once we added them, they quickly became one of the most interesting aspects of the game.

It's hard to explain without experiencing it yourself, but in Mew, sometimes failing your charisma check against a lost spirit wandering the sewers and losing your soul in the process is just as fun as cracking the combo to a safe full of cash. I mean, there are some advantages to not having a soul, right?

Oh, did I mention some events are "legacy events"? Events where the outcome will totally change your game? Well, we have those too.

Overcoming adversity in Mew feels magical in ways I've never experienced before, and I can't wait for you all to feel it first-hand next year!

Don't forget to wishlist Mewgenics! It helps!

See you next time!
-Edmund

Let's take a little break from the gameplay and jump into some graphics stuff – well, half-technical/half-graphics, I guess.

[h3]This is a cat[/h3]



[h3]This is 100 cats.[/h3]



As you can tell by that gif, there are a nearly infinite number of cats in Mewgenics, and that's because the cats in Mew are randomly generated!

If you look closely, you'll notice that each cat is broken up into a few specific pieces: front legs, back legs, body, tail, head, and fur. Each head consists of 2 eyes, ears, eyebrows, mouth, and a "face" (a face changes the placement of these pieces inside the head).





Each of the pieces mentioned above has hundreds of variations that range from common (normal-looking cat features), uncommon mutations (odd but not super drastic features that come with minor stat changes), and rare mutations (very distinct-looking features that add passive abilities or more significant stat changes).

using this setup we can get away with a universal animation system for all cats!





Each time you breed your cats, they will pass on their visual DNA to their offspring, creating kittens that look like their parents.



Recently, we have gone beyond visuals and started doing vocal sets for cats.

A vocal set is a specific set of meows that cover all the cat's possible emotions: happy, sad, angry, neutral, purring, hissing, getting hurt, and dying. When a cat is generated, it's assigned a vocal set, and then that vocal set is randomly pitched up or down.

Originally, we simply asked friends and family to contribute their meows, but once the word got out, we started getting requests from streamers and even a few voice actors. So we decided to go for it and started our great cat cameo search of 2023! Those of you who follow me on Twitter may have seen a few interactions with some very notable voices, and I can say that the past few months, I've been quite blown away by the caliber of cat vocals we have acquired. I don't want to spill all the beans yet, but I think it might be cute to start posting some cat vocals here and there and let you guys guess who they might be.

Here is this month's cat cameo... WHO'S THAT CAT!?

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

As you may have noticed, this specific person did two cat voices, one more cat-like and one more human-sounding. That's because vocal sets also have rarity, so common vocals may sound exactly like a cat, uncommon more like a human doing cat sounds, and some rare sets sounding like totally different animals. Will you acquire that shiny vocal set?

We currently have over 75 meow sets, and the goal is 100. If you know of anyone that you would LOVE to hear voice a cat in Mewgenics, please let me know. The major catch here is they need to know my work, or they simply won't care :)

I'll end this post with another amazing track from Ridiculon, a house or "radio" track called Legend of the Claw. Radio tracks will play when you are breeding your cats / fixing up your house, and there are a ton. Enjoy!

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

-Edmund

In The Binding of Isaac, there are currently 716 items. Keep in mind this was over the course of 10 years and 3 DLCs, but still, that's a number not rivaled by many games out there these days that don't just randomly generate their items.

Currently, Mewgenics has well over 450, and there is no doubt in my mind that by release we will have well over the number in Isaac. But how do items work in Mewgenics? Well, that's what I'm here to explain to you, silly! First, let's break all the items down into categories!

[h2]Weapons:[/h2]
Weapons in Mew fit into your "weapon slot" and allow you to activate them once a turn. Most items have a number of uses before they are depleted but essentially allow for a full bonus attack for any cat holding one. Weapons can range from rocks to sniper rifles, but here are a few examples of some.

Lil Slugger: A melee weapon that, when used on an enemy, knocks them back a max of 10 spaces directly away from you.



Obsidian Chunk: Another melee weapon that gains +2 damage each time it's used and starts with 5 uses, slowly growing sharper with each attack.



Text Book: Use it on yourself and gain +2 Int till the end of the match! Use your brain as a weapon!



[h2]Trinkets:[/h2]
Trinkets fit into your cat's trinket slot and come in 3 forms.

[h3]Passive Trinkets:[/h3] These trinkets act like bonus passive effects on your cat. Their effects are all over the place but designed to support a huge range of archetypes.

The D6: When this cat levels up, you may reroll their level-up choices once.



[h3]Multi-use Trinkets:[/h3] These trinkets can be activated much like weapons, once a turn.

Pawn: When used, move 1 space towards the closest enemy.



[h3]Consumable Trinkets:[/h3] These trinkets have 1 use and are consumed when used.

Large Catnip Baggy: When used, gain +10 mana.



[h2]Armor:[/h2]
Armor comes in 3 categories: Head, Face, and Neck, and has a giant range of properties attached.

Cool Hat: +2 cha (raises your starting mana and max mana), fragile (fragile items break when the cat wearing it is downed)



Cat Hide Mask: +1 shield, regen 1 HP at the end of each of your turns, and gain a 5% chance to spawn a charmed flea at the end of each of your turns.



Barbed Wire Necklace: +1 thorns (melee attackers take 1 damage), +1 damage, and -1 con (lowers your max health).



Most armor in the game is also part of a set, and completing a full set of armor will yield a bonus!

Full Cat Hide Bonus: +5% bonus chance to spawn a flea at the end of each round (bringing that chance up to 20%) and all familiars you spawn gain +1 damage and +1 movement (this goes beyond the fleas you spawn and also combos with any other familiars this cat spawns/controls).



But what are the odds of finding a full set in a run? And what happens to the items when a run is finished? Well, that's where another key aspect of the long play comes into the picture.

When you complete a run in Mewgenics, your cats may come back with some items, and those items will be saved in your house inventory for later use. This allows you to save up items for set bonuses or combos and lets you travel further into the unknown. But if your cats all die, their items go with them. Don't worry, though! There will be mailboxes here and there on your quests that will allow you to send back a few items for safekeeping!

But where the hell do you find items?

Items in Mew are found in a few ways:

Shops: Shops are rare, but each chapter usually features one. They vary in what they carry but usually feature one rare item at a high price and 2-4 other medium to low-cost items. So be on the lookout for coins! They are quite useful here.



Loot Boxes: Treasure boxes are also placed around the map. The harder the branching path, the more loot boxes you may find. These boxes will feature uncommon to ultra-rare items. Your cat's luck and the paths you take will become a factor here.



End of Combat: Each time you complete combat, you will be ranked behind the scenes on how well you did and also factor in the luck of your cats. You will then be given a grip of coins and random loot depending on how well you did and if you killed any "birds."



Items are cool. If you have played Isaac, you know how much I love them. In Mew, they are total game-changers. In fact, they are such game-changers that you may go in search of an ultra super duper legendary item... a unique item so rare that only one exists in your game. And once you lose it, it's gone forever! Will you be lucky enough to find one of these items? And will you have the courage to take it out on an adventure, knowing you could lose it FOREVER? I guess we will see next summer!

See you guys in 2 weeks! Help spread the word!


-Edmund