SuperMeat Boy creator's new game, The Binding of Isaac, coming to Steam soon

Edmund McMillen, one of the two men behind Super Meat Boy who also worked on Braid, announced yesterday that his new project will be available on Steam next month. The Binding of Isaac already has a placeholder page, and McMillen said via Twitter that the game will cost $4.99 when it launches sometime in that 30-day span.

The game is an action-RPG with a globular hero named Isaac and randomly generated dungeons inspired by The Legend of Zelda. The combat system similar to Smash TV and Robotron, and the unique level-up system is based on acquiring stackable items that change Isaac's form and grant him powerful abilities. It looks like The Binding of Isaac has the same combination of reverence to retro gaming and grotesque humor we loved in Super Meat Boy, but a darker mood %26mdash; certainly darker colors, as the dungeons we've seen don't stray far from brown and gray territory.

The story is oddly a bit biblical. It has to do with Isaac escaping to the basement when his own mother receives word from God that she must make a sacrifice to prove her faith. When Isaac learns that sacrifice happens to be him, he escapes to the basement where must battle his way through the various dungeons under the floorboards defeating his lost brothers and sisters, and eventually becoming powerful enough to face his mom.

Though McMillen has been hard at work on this new game, it's technically a side-project. He's still a 100 percent Team Meat at heart, and working on an unannounced, probably super-cool, super-secret project that we don't know anything about, but we're sure we will soon, and then we'll let you know %26mdash; promise.

Aug 11, 2011