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Mewgenics: Edmund McMillen's Tactical Cat-pocalypse RPG Journey

Last Updated: October 21, 2025

Mewgenics game logo with a group of diverse, stylized cats ready for tactical combat, representing Edmund McMillen's new roguelike RPG.

After more than a decade of myth, speculation, and a complete from-the-ground-up reboot, Mewgenics is finally a reality. What began as a nebulous "cat breeding sim" from The Binding of Isaac creator Edmund McMillen has been reborn as a deep, turn-based tactical roguelike RPG. With a firm release window set for 2024 on PC via Steam, one of indie gaming's most famously long-awaited projects is poised to pounce.

This authoritative guide delves into the game's tumultuous development, breaks down its sophisticated gameplay mechanics, and details everything you need to know about this unique genetic adventure.

A Thirteen-Year Journey: From Hiatus to Rebirth

The legend of Mewgenics began over a decade ago. First teased in 2012, the initial concept—a game centered on breeding genetically distinct cats—immediately captivated the indie gaming scene. It promised a strange, Sims-like experience filtered through McMillen's signature grotesque-yet-charming art style. However, after a flurry of initial blog posts and character reveals, development went quiet. McMillen placed the project on indefinite hold to focus on other titles, and for years, Mewgenics existed only as a "what if" among dedicated fans.

The silence was broken when McMillen announced he was completely rebooting the project from scratch with his trusted collaborator, programmer Tyler Glaiel (The End is Nigh, Super Meat Boy). The core concept of cat genetics remained, but the game surrounding it had fundamentally transformed. The laid-back simulation was gone, replaced by a complex and challenging tactical RPG. This shift explains the lengthy gestation period; the Mewgenics of today is an entirely different beast from the one first imagined.

Gameplay Uncaged: Final Fantasy Tactics Meets Feline Genetics

At its heart, Mewgenics is a turn-based tactical roguelike that draws heavy inspiration from classics like Final Fantasy Tactics and XCOM. Players assemble a team of adventurer cats and guide them through grid-based combat encounters in sewers, back alleys, and other strange locales.

The gameplay loop is a sophisticated blend of combat, exploration, and meta-progression:

  • Tactical Combat: Each cat possesses unique abilities, stats, and a specific class, such as the aggressive Brawler or the nimble Pouncer. Combat is a strategic affair of positioning, managing action points, and unleashing a variety of skills, from simple claw swipes to bizarre food-based magic. Players will face off against rival cat gangs, sewer beasts, and other oddities of McMillen's universe.
  • The Roguelike Core: Your adventures are structured as quests. If your party is defeated, that specific run ends. However, death is not the end—it's an opportunity for evolution.
  • Breeding and Heredity: This is where the game's original promise is brilliantly realized. Surviving cats (or their genetic material) can be brought back to your home base to be bred. Offspring can inherit a vast array of traits from their parents, including passive abilities, combat skills, stats, and even cosmetic mutations. This system of genetic inheritance is the primary form of meta-progression, allowing you to cultivate progressively more powerful and specialized feline warriors for your next attempt. The goal is to breed a lineage of champions capable of tackling the game's toughest challenges.

A Classic McMillen Aesthetic

Visually and thematically, Mewgenics is unmistakably an Edmund McMillen creation. The world is quirky, dark, and comical, with character designs that are simultaneously adorable and unsettling. The game's narrative elements, revealed through quests and interactions, are filled with the same brand of strange, often scatological, humor that has defined his body of work. The art style, now fully animated and vibrant, brings this chaotic world of cat combat to life.

The Road to 2024 and Beyond

The journey from a forgotten concept to a polished, playable game has culminated in a 2024 release window for PC. The official Steam page is live, showcasing gameplay trailers and developer updates. McMillen and Glaiel have been increasingly open, sharing gameplay footage and conducting live streams that offer a transparent look at the game's intricate systems.

Mewgenics's evolution from a simple breeding sim into a full-fledged tactical RPG marks the culmination of one of indie gaming's most interesting development sagas. By combining the strategic depth of a classic tactics game with the endless replayability of a roguelike and a truly unique genetic progression system, Mewgenics is set to deliver an experience that was more than worth the wait. Prepare to fight, fail, and breed your way to victory in 2024.