Mewgenics is finally available on Steam

Edmund McMillen and Tyler Glaiel have officially released Mewgenics on Steam today, ending a development saga that spanned nearly 14 years. The turn-based tactical RPG is available now for $26.99, a price that reflects a temporary 10% launch discount off its standard $29.99 MSRP. You can purchase the game directly through its Steam store page.

For those who have followed the indie scene since the Indie Game: The Movie era, this release is somewhat surreal. Mewgenics was originally announced in 2012 as a Team Meat project. To put that timeline in perspective, the game was first teased when the Xbox 360 was still the dominant home console and Steam Greenlight was considered a revolutionary new idea. After being shelved in 2014 and presumed dead, the project was revived in 2018 with Tyler Glaiel (The End Is Nigh, Closure) taking over programming duties alongside McMillen.

Genetics and dysentery

The final product bears little resemblance to the prototype shown a decade ago. Mewgenics is described by its creators as a "cat lady sim" combined with turn-based tactical combat. Players hoard cats, breed them, and send them out on adventures. The core hook lies in the complex genetics system. Cats pass down physical traits, elemental affinities, and behavioral quirks to their offspring. If a parent has a specific disease or a tendency to panic, the kitten might inherit it.

This isn't Nintendogs. In typical McMillen fashion, the game leans heavily into the grotesque and the morbid. Cats can sustain permanent injuries, contract illnesses, and die permanently. The aesthetic uses the same thick-lined, flash-adjacent art style that defined The Binding of Isaac, though the animation technology has been significantly modernized by Glaiel to handle the procedural generation of the cats' appearances.

The gameplay loop revolves around managing a house that rapidly becomes too small for your population. You have to balance resources (food, space) while trying to breed the "perfect" combat unit. It works like a multi-generational roguelite. Instead of carrying over items between runs like in Isaac, you carry over the genetic lineage of your most successful, or least broken, cats.

A long time coming

The release of Mewgenics closes the book on one of the most famous examples of "vaporware" in the indie sector. For years, the game existed mostly as a recurring joke in the community, often mentioned in the same breath as Half-Life 3. Its eventual completion is a rarity in an industry where canceled projects usually stay canceled.

McMillen has stated in previous development logs that the rebooted version of the game is significantly larger in scope than the original 2012 concept. The game features hundreds of unique items, furniture pieces, and enemy types. It also includes a class system for the cats, allowing players to specialize their units into roles like healers, tanks, or damage dealers based on their stats and equipment.