More Details on “The Binding of Isaac”
The Binding of Isaac is the newest venture from Edmund McMillen, half of Team Meat, the duo that brought you the retro, PETA-black listed, bloody yet somehow adorable and RipTen GOTY 2010 – Super Meat Boy. McMilllen just unleashed a host of new details on his blog, including information about gameplay and special items.
“Isaac is a roguelike shooter based on the dungeon structure of Zelda (nes),” writes McMillen. “At its core it controls like Smash TV / Robotron in a randomly generated semi RPG world filled with powerup items and special abilities.”
According to the blog there are currently 6 “dungeons,” multiple bosses and enemy types, with hopes to expand up to 8 “dungeons” and even more enemy types. There are currently 70+ special items, not including pickup items that “can be used in different ways to acquire special items, gain access to shops and hidden areas, kill enemies and also affect gameplay in many other ways.”
In an interview with IGN, McMillen expanded on the title and the dark theme, which references the Biblical story in which Abraham is told by God to sacrifice his son Isaac. “The game has minor biblical themes,” said McMillen, “based around Abraham going to sacrifice his son to prove to god that he believed in him – which is dark in itself. So you’ve got this kid whose mum wants to kill him, and he escapes into the basement to get away from her and eventually -maybe- conquer her.”
The Binding of Isaac is expected to drop sometime in August on Steam, with a soundtrack by my awesome boyfriend Danny Baranowsky (Super Meat Boy, Canabalt, Cave Story 3DS) and programming by Florian Himsl (Coil, the C Word, Triachnid). No price has been set yet, but McMillen has said it definitely won’t put a strain on anyone’s wallet. Even if it did, judging from the new deliciously bloody screencaps and presence of exploding flies, it would still be worth it.
Yes Edmund, we see the Zelda influence.
Stay tuned to RipTen for more on The Binding of Isaac and Edmund McMillen.
