New Roguelike Game is Blowing Up on Steam

A new Steam roguelike got off to a fast start during its February 10 launch, as Mewgenics already achieved critical acclaim within hours of its release. As of this writing, Mewgenics holds an overwhelmingly positive rating on Steam, and one of the game’s developers stated that the launch has already exceeded their expectations.

The Steam launch of Mewgenics came amid a busy February for the video game industry. The first week of February saw the release of Nioh 3, a soulslike from Koei Tecmo that quickly blew up on Steam during its launch window. Over 88,000 concurrent Steam users reportedly played Nioh 3 on February 8, making it the most-played game in the Nioh series on Steam to date despite some technical issues. On February 27, Steam will cap off the month with the launch of Resident Evil Requiem, the latest entry in Capcom’s iconic survival horror franchise.

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Mewgenics Has Taken Steam By Storm

Despite the loaded calendar of games releasing throughout February, Mewgenics has already won over the hearts and wallets of Steam users. Hours after the launch of Mewgenics on Steam, the latest game from Edmund McMillen and Tyler Glaiel reached a peak Steam player count of 65,893, according to SteamDB. The number continued to climb following the game’s launch at 9:00 AM Eastern on February 10. Along with the high player count, Mewgenics garnered overwhelmingly positive reviews on Steam, with a positive player rating of 96% across 1,683 reviews as of this writing. Speaking to IGN, McMillen stated that Mewgenics sold over 152,000 copies within its first few hours on Steam, which is over three times the amount that The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth sold at launch. McMillen said that, by comparison, day one sales of The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth were approximately 40,000 units.

In short, Mewgenics is a roguelike turn-based strategy game where players are tasked with building “the ultimate cat army” through tactical breeding and challenging adventures through deep dungeons. Players can then assign their feline forces some collars based on role-playing classes like the Mage and the Fighter, which grant them different abilities upon leveling up. As the cats return home, Mewgenics players can then pass down their skills and mutations to build more powerful feline units for future adventures. Given how much control Mewgenics players have over the statistics of their cats, the possibilities for making the perfect feline army are numerous.

McMillen and Glaiel previously worked on The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth, a roguelike praised for its balanced difficulty and gameplay variety. The launch of Mewgenics capped a seven-year development cycle that started after McMillen and Glaiel reacquired the rights to the IP from Team Meat. Mewgenics was initially pitched as a sequel to Super Meat Boy, though Team Meat canceled the project, which had been in development hell before McMillen and Glaiel stepped in.

Mewgenics Has Already Exceeded Expectations

Although fan anticipation was high going into the game’s launch, the sudden success of Mewgenics came as a surprise to the developers. In response, Glaiel said, “So far, this is beating expectations by quite a lot. It’s a bigger launch than any of the Isaac expansions already, and it’s only been a few hours.” McMillen added that Mewgenics had the highest sales day for the games that he made. By comparison, The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth had a peak player count of 70,701 years after its 2014 launch.

Given the success of The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth and other roguelike titles, Mewgenics players can easily lose several hundred hours to make the perfect feline army to lead them to victory. Although Mewgenics is off to an amazing start on Steam, time will tell how the new indie title can keep the momentum going in the weeks and months ahead.