Edmund McMillen, and some of his team behind Super Meat Boy, has announced his next game. And it’s for PC. The Binding Of Isaac is “a roguelike shooter based on the dungeon structure of Zelda (NES)”, and is due out on Steam this August. There are more details below.

McMillen describes the game as having controls like “Smash TV / Robotron, in a randomly generated semi RPG world filled with powerups, items and special abilities.” And then it only gets more interesting to grasp. I’m quoting directly, because, well, read it.

“There is not a traditional leveling system in Isaac, instead we used an item system. Every level will have a treasure room, shop, boss and other secret/special rooms that might contain unique items. Special items come in 4 sets, Usable items, Special Weapon upgrades, Passive upgrades and stat boosters. 90% of items in the game stack, so as you progress your character will change into a monstrous powerhouse not only in stats and abilities but also in appearance.”

He continues,

“Aside from these core items, Isaac uses its pickup items as resources in what i call micro puzzles. The core resources in the game are Coins, Bombs, Keys, Hearts, cards and pills each of these pickups 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.”

At this point the game has six dungeons, with three chapters and six bosses. There’s also over thirty enemy types, and what McMillen calls “tons of dynamic happenings”. Danny B is once more on board for music, and right now my thought is: interesting, but this doesn’t seem like a Edmund McMillen game. Don’t worry.

“Florian just made it so neutral flys are attracted to piles of shit and if they eat too much of the shit they get fat and become bloated flys that poop blood at you… I’m very happy with this game so far.”

Thank goodness.