Mewgenics News

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

Last week we talked in-depth about death dying and the basic injuries that gimp your characters slightly as they progress... but there are many other ways your cats can change during their journey, and today we will go over a few!

[h3]Diseases, Disorders, Parasites oh my![/h3]
These permanent ailments will act as passive effects on your cats, each comes with it a major downside.. and minor upside that will totally change how you play! Lets dive into each one and see how they work!



[h2]Diseases![/h2]
There are a range of diseases your cats can acquire along their journey that will affect them in many many different ways. Diseases are usually acquired by physical contact with an enemy or npc or the ingestion of something contaminated or very very rotten.
One of my favorite diseases is Rabies, mainly because of this really fun run I had where my fighter (Rodney) got Rabies when attempting to loot a dead cat who was actually still alive! Rodney failed his dexterity check and the "dead cat" reared up and, with its last bit of energy, bit Rodney and gave him the rare disease Rabies!



Rabies comes with a straight forward passive effect, your attack becomes a melee attack ( must bite or claw when fighting ) and each time you complete combat that cat gains +1 str and -1 int.. slowly eating away at the cats brain while also making them more deadly as well. seems like a pretty good deal for a fighter who is already limited to melee combat and deals damage based off their str.. but fighters are also notoriously dumb and with rabies its not long before their int hits 0 and their brain turns to mush. so by the end of the 1st chapter my fighter had destroyed just about everything.. but hit 0 int at the start of the first boss fight. when a cat with rabies no longer has a brain not only does he fail to generate mana each turn, but he also fails to take commands.. he simply does whatever he wants.. and all he wants to do is kill! right off the bat Rodney started attacking our mage downing him and spreading rabies to him, I was able to throw Rodney towards the boss and just keep away from him, letting him do what he did best.. murder! by the end of the run Rodney had spread rabies to all of my cats and nearly all had their brains consumed by the disease, the final epic battle consisted of me watching as my cats auto played themselves, I was totally helpless, just watching as the cats would switch from attacking the boss and attacking each other, with the last few turns consisting of them killing one another while the boss destroyed what was left of Rodney... I had lost, but it was one of the coolest losses I've ever had in a video game.





[h2]Mental Disorders![/h2]
Mental disorders are acquired by mental trauma or passed down through genes, seeing the ghost of your mother or being mocked by your team for failing a basic task are a few examples of how you might gain one.

A good and common example of a mental disorder is depression. depression gives you all stats down... but it also gives you a depressive aura. anything adjacent to you also becomes temporarily depressed gaining -2 to all stats as long as they are adjacent to the cat with depression, further ostracizing the sad cat.. but also lowering the damage and slowing down any enemies around it. I've had more than a few runs where I had a healer with depression and holy shields who would just stand in the middle of a large group and tank their attacks while my squishy cats took turns stabbing them all in the back.. good times.





[h2]Physical Disorders![/h2]
These disorders are usually gained by physical trauma, getting your eyeball pulled out by an unseen force or falling down the stairs might causes these.

A good example would be Charred, a physical disorder that gives your cat +4 armor but also gives them bruise 1 ( take +1 damage each time you take damage).




[h2]Parasites![/h2]
Parasites are acquired many many different was in Mewgenics, but joining a cat orgy or eating a really big poop are great ways to acquire them.

Parasites take over one of your item slots, making you unable to use said slot. ( we will go over items and items slots in a future update )

A good example of a parasite would be Pin Worms. Pin worms infest your neck making you unable to wear items around it, give you -2 str and -2 con, but each time you take damage you spawn a maggot familiar that fights along side its mama!




[h2]Mutations![/h2]
Mutations are gained VERY rarely from breeding/strays you find in the wild, more commonly they are acquired by interactions with toxic waste, radiation, or in rare cases, furniture in your house.

Mutations will effect a random piece of your cats visual appearance changing it permanently and embedding itself in your cats DNA forever.

A good example of a Mutation would be something like Ram horns, your cats melee attack gains +1 knock back.



Mutations are the bread and butter of the long play of Mewgenics. Once acquired, mutations can be passed down through DNA to future generations, amassing many buffs and modifications over time.. but you need to be careful not to inbreed your cats because you just might get....



[h2]Birth Defects![/h2]
Birth Defects are very rare... unless you inbreed your cats! cats breeding with close relatives will have a high chance of giving their children birth defects.

A good example of a birth defect would be Webbed Toes, -2 speed but gain water walk ( moving through water tiles doesn't slow you down ).



Birth defects are essentially mutation disorders, usually having a major negative effect with a minor upside.. so you could use them to your advantage if you are creative.



[h2]Curses![/h2]
Curses can range from magical disorders to cursed items.. they can be acquired many different ways but are usually quite rare.

A good example of a cursed item would be A Childs Skull, your attack becomes a short range very low damage projectile called Tear, that you can use twice per turn. this cursed item attaches itself to your head like a helmet also giving you +1 armor.
Cursed items can't be removed.




As you can see, Mewgenics has a lot going on. one of the reasons why I'm slowly covering every major mechanic here is so I can lay the ground work so we can start telling more in-depth gameplay stories and eventually showing gameplay videos later this year and have things make sense. Much like Isaac, Mewgenics is a vast world of complex, but logical interactions. Our current goal is to spoon feed all this info to you as you play and the game unfolds as to not overwhelm the player. Each time I write a post I get more and more excited to show you random footage... we will get there eventually. but till then you can always get snippets of in-game content on my tiktok.

see you again in 2 weeks where we will be going over items! 100s and 100s of glorious items!

-Edmund

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...


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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.


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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.


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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 )


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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.


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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