New Roguelite Cat Game on Steam Promises to Keep You Busy for 200 Hours

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The upcoming tactical RPG, Mewgenics, aims to bring a darker, more unsettling style to the genre, and early signs suggest it will succeed. Developed by Edmund McMillen, known for Binding of Isaac, and Tyler Glaiel, the game is expected to launch in February 2026 and appears to be exactly the kind of unique and unconventional experience players would expect from these two creators.

McMillen and Glaiel previously co-developed 2017’s The End Is Nigh.

As you’d probably guess from a game by Edmund McMillen (and its unusual title), Mewgenics is a very strange and surprisingly dark experience. It combines two main types of gameplay: tactical battles and…cat breeding. The battles are turn-based and played on a grid, similar to games like Final Fantasy Tactics and Into the Breach, but the cat-breeding aspect is much more disturbing and perfectly fits McMillen’s style. So, what can players expect from this crude and unsettling game, which McMillen himself has called his strangest project yet?

What’s Mewgenics All About, Anyway?

Create a powerful team of cats by carefully breeding them, then lead them on exciting turn-based quests. Discover and equip special abilities and items, and shape your cats’ traits over multiple generations.

  • Mewgenics release date: February 10, 2026.

Beyond its unique and somewhat unsettling character designs, Mewgenics offers traditional turn-based RPG gameplay. Battles take place on a grid, emphasizing strategic positioning, a well-rounded team, and careful planning. Success isn’t just about choosing attacks; where you and your allies stand on the battlefield is crucial.

What sets Mewgenics apart from other tabletop role-playing games is its focus on long-term character development and lasting consequences. While many games, like Baldur’s Gate 3 and Fights in Tight Places, feature the possibility of losing characters, Mewgenics goes further by introducing permanent effects like brain damage and mutations. These mutations can even be inherited by future generations, adding another layer to the gameplay.

Mewgenics’ Cat-Breeding Systems Explained

What makes Mewgenics truly special – and very much in line with the designer’s style – is how you breed cats. After each run, your collected cats return to a home base. You can have up to four cats go on a run at a time. By placing two cats in the same room, they can breed, and their kittens will inherit traits from both parents. These inherited traits are based on the changes your cats went through during runs – things like mutations and upgrades.

In Mewgenics, breeding cats is central to improving your base and unlocking new features between gameplay runs. As you get more cats, you’ll need to manage your food supply carefully. Breeding allows cats to inherit traits, so it’s helpful to breed often to get rare and powerful types. You can then trade unwanted cats to characters in the game’s hub area for rewards like more inventory space or a bigger home. This system of building relationships through cat-trading feels similar to the bond system found in games like Persona.

However, the cat-breeding in the game is surprisingly complex. Edmund McMillen has detailed in Steam posts how cats can inherit genetic disorders and the problems that arise from inbreeding. Interestingly, the inbreeding system is based on actual research from a paper in the Journal of Heredity about calculating inbreeding coefficients. This shows the game’s cat-breeding mechanics will likely be very detailed and realistic.

You’ll Be Able to Sink North of 200 Hours into Mewgenics

Beyond the fun of breeding different cats, Mewgenics promises a lot of content to keep players engaged. The developers, McMillen and Glaiel, say it will offer even more than just that variety. In fact, the game’s Steam page claims a main story that could take over 200 hours to complete, along with other exciting features.

  • 10+ character classes with 75 unique abilities each
  • 900+ wild items
  • 200+ enemies and bosses
  • Roguelite progression: never experience the same game twice.
  • Choices at every turn. Money! Items!! And genes!! All matters.

Similar to the game The Binding of Isaac, Mewgenics promises a huge amount of variety in how you build your character, but with progress that carries over between playthroughs. With tons of different items, enemies, and abilities, combined with randomly generated levels, it looks like a complex and engaging game. Considering the unique style and surprising design choices of its creators, Edmund McMillen and Tyler Glaiel, Mewgenics has a lot of potential to stand out in the crowded gaming market of 2026.

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2026-01-10 20:06