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Mew-Genics is the next Team Meat game
Team Meat's next game is called Mew-Genics. The game is described as "randomly generated" and will involve cats in some way, purr per Team Meat's announcement blog.Super Meat Boy creator Edmund McMillen said the project is the strangest he's ever worked on, and that platform announcements, gameplay details and screens for Mew-Genics will be revealed soon.
You light up my life: What Steam Greenlight is for indies, from indies
Steam Greenlight isn't for everybody. Literally – five days after pushing Greenlight live, Valve implemented a $100 barrier to entry in the hopes of eliminating the barrage of prank game ideas by people who don't "fully understanding the purpose of Greenlight."Before the fee, it was difficult to know what Greenlight was going to mean for the indie community, since its "new toy" sheen hadn't yet dissipated. It's even more difficult to gauge what Steam itself wanted Greenlight to accomplish, with or without the fee.In its launch announcement, Valve says Greenlight will serve "as a clearing house for game submissions" and "provides an incredible level of added exposure for new games and an opportunity to connect directly with potential customers and fans." If that sounds a lot like Kickstarter, it's because it sounds a lot like Kickstarter. This isn't a bad thing; it equates Greenlight to something that has run the online course and has experienced public showdowns and successes, something known.While a few developers benefit from the high-speed, viral-hinged community vetting of crowd-sourced creative sites, even more have failed. Still, sites such as Kickstarter truly can help raise awareness for a legitimate project, even if that interest doesn't transform into cash. In this sense, Greenlight has an advantage, in that it's not trying to raise money. It only wants attention.Developers want their games to reach astronomical levels of awareness as well, and recently this translates into a fixation on one particular service for the success or failure of their projects – Kickstarter, and now, Greenlight. Hundreds of pitch emails switch from titles such as "Snappy the Turtle, a new indie adventure game" to "Kickstart Snappy the Turtle" or "Vote for Snappy the Turtle on Greenlight." This shifts the focus away from the game itself, in both the mind of the developer and the person receiving the emails.Since most people receiving the emails are video games journalists and potential publishers or fans, it's safe to say they don't particularly care about Kickstarter or Greenlight – they care about the game. So should the developer, more than anything.Those who have succeeded on the development side offer a unique perspective on Steam Greenlight. We asked a few what they think about the service, the $100 and its impact on indies: Adam Saltsman, Markus Persson, Edmund McMillen, Christine Love and a group discussion among Rami Ismail, Zach Gage, Greg Wohlwend and Mike Boxleiter. Their thoughts are below.
Edmund McMillen's Basement Collection arrives on Steam today
Super Meat Boy creator Edmund McMillen is releasing The Basement Collection in a few hours time. McMillen's compilation includes updated versions of Time Fcuk, Grey Matter, Coil, Spewer, Meat Boy, Triachnid, and two other unlockable games. Among the extras is stock footage from Indie Game: The Movie.The compilation comes to Steam (and other portals) for PC and Mac at $4.
The Binding of Isaac in production for consoles, PC as a new game
A revamped version of The Binding of Isaac is crawling to consoles and PC via a mystery publisher and a new team, Edmund McMillen reveals on his Formspring account. This is more than an update to the existing Binding of Isaac available on Steam – it's a brand new game."The remake will be more than just an expansion, it will be a new game with all new graphics, music, etc. It will also feature an expansion-sized pack of all new content, bosses, characters enemies, items etc.," McMillen writes. "And yes, in about a year if/when it comes out, the Flash version of the game will appear obsolete for sure. But a year is a long time and I'll do what I can to make sure the guys who remake it make it substantial enough for you to play through all over again."The new Isaac will have local co-op and is aiming to launch on all platforms; McMillen even gives the 3DS a 50 percent chance. McMillen is "avoiding all the business BS," but the team has been talking to Microsoft for a while, and "they seem to also want Isaac a lot, but only time will tell if anything gets signed."McMillen says he'll ask the investors about selling the new game at a discount for current Binding of Isaac and Wrath of the Lamb owners, but since he's not the one fronting the money he doesn't call the shots.
McMillen's Basement Collection launches August 31 on Steam
Edmund McMillen, best known as one half of Team Meat, has announced a release date of August 31 for The Basement Collection. The bundle is an odyssey through his creative past, which will feature updated versions of eight of his previously released yet less recognizable games. The time-travelling portal of choice will be Steam, on which the compendium will be released for both PC and Mac for $4.Already announced as inclusions are Time Fcuk, Spewer, Grey Matter, Triachnid, Coil, and the less super (but more original) Meat Boy. There are also two unannounced games, one of which will receive a considerable update in the form of "new music, graphics and gameplay." McMillen's website offers an overview of the updates for each game, as well as the announced extras, which include 15 minutes of unseen stock footage from Indie Game: The Movie.
Edmund McMillen's 'Basement Collection' sees new content, Indie Game: The Movie clips
Edmund McMillen's PC Basement Collection isn't just a compendium of his old games – McMillen reports that all of the games in the collection have seen updates. For example, "ALL games in the collection will feature achievements," tracked within the collection, and providing unlocks upon completion of each game.Time Fcuk has a "FULL 33 level 2nd chapter" and a new level editor, Meat Boy and Triachnid have tweaked controls, and Aether has a new soundtrack by Danny Baranowsky. Additional bonuses include footage from Indie Game: The Movie of McMillen talking about the games in the collection, and "a new secret game!... but its a secret..." For a full rundown on the extras in the $4 collection, find a list on McMillen's site.
Edmund McMillen game collection escapes the basement in August, finds solace on Steam
Before he made a game about a boy with no skin and a fetus with a monocle, Edmund McMillen of Team Meat created a game about a young emo boy and his interplanetary adventures, one about a lonely man traveling through time and another about puking, along with a few others. Eight of these titles will be available on Steam in late August as a bundle called The Basement Collection, for $4.The Basement Collection will include Time Fcuk, Aether, Spewer, Grey Matter, Meat Boy (flash prototype), Triachnid and a locked, secret title updated with new content, soundtrack, difficulty modes and achievements. Each game will come with bonus content such as development sketches and early prototypes, and The Basement Collection will feature four "very large bonus unlockables that should make fans of my work quite happy," McMillen writes.The Basement Collection will also come with a free soundtrack with bonus indie remixes. Try out (i.e. "play") all of these titles for free via McMillen's Newgrounds page now, if you can spare a moment for puketastic, interstellar, time-traveling fun.
The Binding of Isaac ties up 700,000 sales
"Who would have thought a game about an abused child fighting off his mother with his tears could ever sell 700k copies in less than a year?" The Binding of Isaac developer Edmund McMillen wrote in an email blast last night. "Not me, that's for f*cking sure."Thanks to Isaac's Wrath of the Lamb DLC, released in late May, the game passed its latest sales milestone, with the expansion selling a fifth of the overall sales in less than three weeks, according to McMillen.McMillen says the DLC's rocky launch left a bad taste in his mouth, so the team decided to do another content update. Wrath of the Lamb v1.3 adds more "items, bosses, enemies, music, secrets and a very hard to attain final ending cut scene that should shed some light on the games story even more."The update is free to all owners of the expansion. McMillen concluded, "700k is a big number... maybe its time to bring this thing to console ;)"
PSA: Watch Indie Game: The Movie now on Steam, other places
Indie Game: The Movie has come full circle, first covering games as they limped their way to their first platform launches, only to end up on one of those very platforms itself. Indie Game: The Movie is available on Steam for $10 as the first feature-length film to ever be hosted on Valve's service.The full documentary is also now available via iTunes and on its official site.
The first taste of Super Meat Boy mobile art
Edmund McMillen of Team Meat has so far been coy about what the mobile version of Super Meat Boy is, but he's fairly vocal about what it isn't. Super Meat Boy: The Game won't be a shallow, easy-to-play money-making machine like so many other mobile titles today, McMillen writes in his latest update. He even tells us a little bit about what it will be: "We want to make a game that WE would love to see on the platform, a feature-length reflex-driven platformer with solid controls that doesn't manipulate you with business bullshit in order to cash in. We want SMB:TG to show the player we respect them, not only by not manipulating them, but also by understanding they want a real challenge and they want a real sense of fulfillment when they have achieved something that's difficult... you know, like real games do."Team Meat has also revealed the first bit of art from Super Meat Boy: The Game, the chapter screen for The Green Hills you can see above. McMillen assures us that even though there are only eight visible level pads, the mobile title "will rival the original" and have dark worlds.
The Binding of Isaac's Wrath of the Lamb begins May 28
"Wrath of the Lamb," the enormous expansion to The Binding of Isaac, has been assigned a release date even more specific than the "late May" window it previously had: it'll be on Steam May 28, creator Edmund McMillen told Joystiq.McMillen also reiterated his claim that Wrath will be the sole expansion for Isaac. "Development for Super Meat Boy: The Game has started full time and once it's moving I won't be looking back!" In the meantime, you should look up – at the new, terrifying trailer for Wrath of the Lamb.
Binding of Isaac's Wrath of the Lamb expansion is huge, due in late May
The Binding of Isaac expansion we heard about back in January, titled The Wrath of the Lamb, is almost here. Creator Edmund McMillen announced in a series of tweets that the expansion will arrive in late May, and that it is jam-packed with content: new challenges and achievements, over ten new bosses, over 100 new items, a new character, a new ending, and tons of other new material. "What I'm getting at is there is a lot of extra shit in this damn thing," tweeted McMillen. "We have been working on it longer than the actual game."The latest screens of The Wrath of the Lamb are in the gallery below. For all of that content, the expansion will only cost three bucks. McMillen also said there's a trailer on the way, but he's busy right now, working with Steam on release details and testing and polishing the game itself.%Gallery-154164%
Mobile Super Meat Boy may look something like this, may not
Above is the first proper look at the prototype, "probably going to change a lot" vision of Super Meat Boy on iOS. No, this isn't an April Fools' joke, unless Team Meat have decided to reveal sensible, already-announced information as part of its months-long ruse to get everyone excited for mobile SMB before stripping it away entirely -- a plan they decided to ditch once they realized what a genuinely good idea that is. However, we really don't think that's the case here. In February Team Meat's Edmund McMillen divulged the first details of SMB on iOS, saying that if the idea was good enough, they would create it as an entirely new game without the "shitty touch controls" standard in most mobile touchscreen titles. Looks like the idea was good enough. Mobile SMB is "a feature-length touch-controlled platformer SPECIFICALLY designed for Touch devices," McMillen wrote today, continuing to say it isn't "a shitty port of an existing game with non-tactile buttons spread all over the screen blocking the player's view and making for frustrating controls" or "the Super Meat Boy you're used to: There are aspects of Super Meat Boy in there, obviously, but this is a brand new game with new art, new sound, everything."
Super Meat Boy's super boys explain what it means to go mobile
Yesterday Edmund McMillen and Tommy Refenes of Team Meat dropped a gigantic, raw bomb on Twitter (gross), announcing their plans to strip down Super Meat Boy and rebuild it completely for mobile touch devices. They were vague on details apart from an intent to create a brand new game in the Super Meat Boy universe, and that they definitely wouldn't use "shitty touch controls."We thought they were being coy, but it turns out they don't know much more about the touchscreen version than we do. It's still in the engine phase of development, McMillen told Joystiq, and they're pretty much winging it, playing with things that work and throwing out ideas that don't -- even if that includes the entire game."I mean, honestly, this is simply a challenge for us," McMillen said. "It's easy to poo-poo a new system because of its horrible use of touchscreen on ported titles; it's harder to attempt to try and figure out a design that works and make something worth checking out."So that's basically what we are doing -- no idea how it will turn out -- but Tommy and I wanted to jump back into dev again with something that isn't going to take a year-plus to make, so prototyping this idea seemed most appropriate and inspired."
Super Meat Boy to be torn apart, rebuilt for touchscreen devices
Super Meat Boy has seen success on Xbox Live, PC and Mac, but as is often the case while playing SMB, Team Meat have decided that's not good enough. Edmund McMillen and Tommy Refenes of Team Meat announced via Twitter today that they're rebuilding Super Meat Boy from scratch for a potential launch on mobile touch devices.In a six-part tweetfest, Team Meat disclosed the following details: The touch title will be remade from scratch and won't play like Super Meat Boy; it will be a larger, more traditional game, unlike titles such as Doodle Jump; and they promised it won't use "shitty touch controls.""if you liked SMB im sure you will enjoy this (if its good enough to continue on :) ) we just had a few cool ideas and wanted a challange," one of Team Meat's tweets reads.Team Meat said that if the project fails and turns out to not be any fun, they'll scrap it and move on to the next idea, which we can only assume is a Super Meat Boy live-action point-and-click adventure title in 3D. Those adventure things are all the rage these days, we're told.
'Everything's happening now:' Indie Game: The Movie at Sundance
In many ways, documentaries are not truly tools for documenting events. Instead, many documentaries choose to delve into the minds of their subjects, presenting not documentation, but something else entirely -- an up-close trip into the human psyche.During one such moment from Indie Game: The Movie, which I caught at a screening at the Sundance film festival, game designer Phil Fish states that if he couldn't finish his long-awaited game Fez, he would commit suicide. The camera remains on him for an awkward moment, and the line draws a number of uncomfortable chuckles from the audience. He seems to rethink his outrageous statement and then states once more: "I will kill myself."This attitude for the most part represents the majority of the film. Focusing primarily on the development and production of Fez and Super Meat Boy, Indie Game is really the story of obsessed developers pouring their insecurities and hearts and souls into a game, without leaving much, if anything, for themselves.%Gallery-145969%
The Binding of Isaac closing in on 450K sales
Edmund McMillen's The Binding of Isaac, a dark, "Roguelike" exploration of childhood trauma, is close to selling 450,000 copies."It's just ridiculous, there's no reason for this game to have done well. It's nice for everyone involved," McMillen said in an interview with IndieGames."When I started development on Isaac, I wasn't even sure if I should charge for it, because I didn't think people would want it, in all honestly. I had to shop it around to a bunch of different developers, and say like 'Do you think I could sell this?', because I thought it was way too weird, I thought the content was too disturbing and creepy. I thought it would just rub too many people the wrong way and I thought the design was just too hardcore for any kind of mass amount of people to enjoy."Due to the success of Isaac, McMillen and crew are currently working on The Wrath of the Lamb expansion, which will be $3 and launch "when it's done."
The Binding of Isaac: Unholy Edition splats across UK retail shelves March 16 [Update]
The Binding of Isaac: Unholy Edition is a DRM-free PC and Mac version that includes a free Steam gift key, the full soundtrack, a poster and a 40-page art book. Developed by Edmund McMillen of Super Meat Boy's Team Meat, The Binding of Isaac premiered on Steam in September along with an adorable plush from the Team Meat Shop on Etsy.If you don't yet know why that darling doll is crying, go ahead and pick up The Binding of Isaac on Steam for $5, or wait for the Unholy Edition to launch in Europe at an unknown price. Or you can just listen to this song, whose recurring line is "To the basement, people, to the basement / Many surprises await you / In the basement, people, in the basement / You hid there last time, you know we're gonna find you."Update: Merge Games, the publisher behind Isaac's Unholy Edition, is based in the UK. While it doesn't list the retail version specifically as UK-only, we assume that is, in fact, the case. All you North Americans can just crawl back into your basements now, thanks. We've reached out to Merge Games for clarification.Update 2: Merge Games has confirmed The Binding of Isaac's retail launch for the following regions: UK, Ireland, the Nordic countries, the Benelux, Italy, the Czech Republic, Greece, Turkey and South Africa. Merge Games also handles publishing in Australia and New Zealand.
'The Wrath of the Lamb' will be The Binding of Isaac's only expansion, planned for inclusion with 3DS release
Edmund McMillen anticipates a release of The Binding of Isaac's first and only expansion, "The Wrath of the Lamb," at some point in "the next 2 - 4 months." At least that's according to Mr. McMillen himself, speaking with Joystiq in an email exchange last evening. "If we land the 3DS port, it will include the expansion for sure," McMillen added. As for the planned Nintendo 3DS version, McMillen doesn't have much in the way of solid news just yet, but the project is moving along. "The only news I have on the 3DS is that it seems possible but it's still going through higher ups to make sure there won't be an issue with the 'religious' aspect," he said. And if the 3DS version doesn't work out, there are apparently other plans in the books. "If we don't land the 3DS, the publisher I'm talking to has expressed interest in other digital platforms and is currently contacting them as well about the port." Considering the game is already available on PC, Mac, and Linux, we're presuming that means ... somewhere else (XBLA, PSN, Vita, and mobiles come to mind). He also offered some details on the upcoming expansion, including the news that it will contain "about 50 percent more content." McMillen said the content comprises, "enemies, alt chapters, bosses, items, characters, challenges, new happenings and mechanics as well as a ton of other little details," and after that "nothing else" can be done with the game, "so I'll close the book on it." Which is rather fitting, considering the game's thematic inspiration, no?
The Binding of Isaac expands with 'The Wrath of the Lamb'
Tired of endlessly replaying Ed McMillen's latest title, The Binding of Isaac? You probably shouldn't be, as that's kind of the point, but there's an expansion on the way should that be the case. McMillen revealed the title of the update via Twitter, naming it "The Wrath of the Lamb," and offering roughly zero details about its content. He did note that he pulled the name from the Catholic Bible's Book of Revelations, and that "whoever wrote this part of the Bible has a profoundly epic imagination." The only info we've got so far is that it'll cost $3 and will apparently feature a whole mess of new items (over 205), including something called "trinkets" that will passively buff your character. No specific release date is given either, but it's intended to launch at some point in 2012.
