Mewgenics developers reveal they could have easily created a sequel to The Binding of Isaac, which would have quickly amassed millions of wishlists.

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Mewgenics has been in development for over a decade, and early feedback suggests that all that time has led to a uniquely intricate strategy RPG. The developers could have opted for a simpler sequel to The Binding of Isaac, a title celebrated as one of the best roguelikes ever created.

“We both hadn’t made [a strategy game],” Mewgenics co-creator Edmund McMillen shares, “and we knew from the start that it would be a cool challenge, but also incredibly tough. This is hard work, and we were ready to take it on.”

Tyler Glaiel, McMillen’s collaborator, adds, “I’ve been making games since I was a teenager, and I’ve attempted to create RPGs or strategy games before. They’re tricky to nail down because you can’t just rely on reflexes to balance encounters. Reflexes are fluid; you can adjust a fight’s difficulty by small percentages. But in a turn-based game, everything is more rigid. The actions need to be deliberate and well thought out. There’s a lot that goes into it. We both have had our share of attempts.”

McMillen mentions he “tried twice” to create a game in this vein before, but those projects never saw the light of day. Glaiel estimates he has even more unfinished RPGs in his past. “I had about four incomplete RPGs that never made it out there. It’s a tough genre to get right,” he admits.

As development on Mewgenics progressed, Glaiel found that tackling a more ambitious genre felt right. “We’ve made a lot of games,” he explains, “and we learned so much from our experiences, both individually and together. It felt like, ‘Why not give this genre another shot? It seems daunting, but we can do it.'”

“What else are we gonna do?” McMillen muses.

“What else are we gonna do?” Glaiel agrees. “Are we really going to make another platformer? Are we going to create The Binding of Isaac 2?”

“Exactly,” McMillen responds. “We could have just made The Binding of Isaac 2. That would have been the easy route.”

“That would have racked up 20 million wishlists the moment we announced it,” Glaiel estimates.