Edmund McMillen and Tyler Glaiel’s funky cat breeder Mewgenics has meandered back into the kitchen and emitted the first in a series of informative meows that’ll build up to its release next year. McMillen has revealed that “all the big important bits” are now sorted, and to celebrate, has released a 50 minute-long video playthrough.
Mewgenics has been in development for a while, but efforts to finally have it emerge from the carrier have really begun to click into place this year. There have been a couple of trailers and the decision to push the release date back to February 10th, 2026, allowing Binding of Isaac developer McMillen and Glaiel more time to polish their strange fur baby.
Watch on YouTube
That brings us to today, and McMillen’s posting of the above dev walkthrough to his YouTube channel. Cor, he’s even managed to secure a cameo from Edmund McMillen! “This is one video in a series of four that I’ll be uploading every month,” the dev revealed in an accompanying update over on Steam. “And that’s not all! Tyler will also be doing a video series!”
He went on to address any concerns you might rightly have that showing off this much of the game prior to release might not leave much cat breeding/turn-based feline fighting weirdness for you to discover for the first time on your own. “It’s not spoiling much at all,” McMillen argued. “We think these streams will not only explain the gameplay and its depth, but also showcase just how unique each run and save can be!”
Having taken in the first 15 minutes or so of McMillen’s run in the process of pulling this news bit together, I’m even more psyched to start building up my own house of strange pets who keep wandering in or being born. That happens so long as you’ve got enough food to pass the days, with this and other goodies naturally being earned by taking a party of up to four adult cats out on a roguelike run which sees them venture through a string of randomly-generated battles and events. I can see what the dev means about depth, with each cat having an array of RPG stats, abilities, and traits. These grow and change depending on which class you assign them via a collar, which gear you give them, and which options you pick when they level up.
I’m still not sure I’d have guessed, when I first heard its premise, that Mewgenics would go for turn-based battles rather than more Hades-style, fast-paced fights. But that’s likely just personal preference.
Anyway, in the Steam post, McMillen revealed that “EVERYTHING IS DONE! Well, all the big important bits anyway.” So, the run up to release’ll be full of polishing, balancing, adding cutscenes, playtesting, and thickening up the offerings of the game’s thinner sections.
Finally, I’ve saved the best bit until last. If you fancy having your own cat’s name featured in Mewgenics as a moniker that can be applied to its weird moggies, you can submit it via this survey. I’ve just done so for my little weirdo, Maisie. I’ve told her the good news, but she just brushed it off and went back to cleaning. I’m anticipating a letter from her lawyers about naming rights royalties within the week.
