The Binding of Isaac Message Board

Quick, the RPS hivemind has retired to a snoozing chamber in London to absorb more knowledge into the glorious whole, so let’s have a party. It’ll be full of blood and guts and dead animals and religious subtexts! Not your sort of party? You probably haven’t played enough Binding of Isaac, the gory 2D roguelike from way back in the mists of time, 2011. It was one of the first in the long line of every-run-is-different action games from the past few years and (particularly with the DLC) is *crag*ing brilliant. Since we last heard from dev Mr. Edmund McMillen, he’s been hard at work on a remake/expansion and putting updates on the game’s blog. The main purpose is to get away from its Flash trappings so it will run acceptably on a larger number of machines, plus allow some console ports. However, there’s also been music, item and enemy reveals, the best of which I’ve hunted down, cried at until they died and hung the corpses of on the wall below.

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What happens when one half of a development team goes on holiday and leaves the other, slightly agoraphobic half at home? In a roundabout way, it ends up in The Binding Of Isaac. That’s the origin of the game, the very moment that sent Edmund McMillen down into the basement to confront elements of his religious upbringing in a Flash game. Isaac’s odd story is told in this interview from the makers of Indie Game: The Movie. Want to hear about how Ed’s Team Meat partner Tommy Refenes’ holiday turned into a game of contradictions? It’s posted below, and it’s absolutely fascinating.(more…)

After Ed McMillen quietly announced The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth last year, the snazzy, SNES-style remake of the disturbing rogue-like has been fairly quiet. Almost as if it were locked in a basement, hidden from the judgmental gaze of society who wouldn’t be able to just stare at the awful, lumpen horrors it possesses. But it turns out I’m applying the game’s fiction to the development process, which is a huge error. I’ve still to see the game in action, but the atmosphere of the live-action trailer they’ve just released is pitch-perfect. Low-fi and utterly horrible. Please watch it with the lights on.(more…)

Vlambeer is making yet another videogame like it’s their job or something. They have probably lost their minds, but we may as well reap the rewards. Originally a quick and dirty Mojam prototype dystopia-’em-up, Wasteland Kings is now evolving into a full-on action-roguelike (or “roguelike-like,” as designer JW Nijman describes it) with heaps of characters, procedurally generated locations, and of course, guns. In practice, that means you run from area to area, dodging and blasting circles around enemies in a desperate bid for survival. All the while, you mutate new, largely randomized powers and pick up better, stranger weapons. Sounds a bit like fellow action-roguelike The Binding of Isaac, doesn’t it? And while the inspiration is certainly there, Nijman insists that Wasteland Kings is millions of cracking, sun-parched miles away from a carbon copy. 

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I suppose it’s only fitting that, just as one of the holliest, jolliest, holiest of holidays begins to descend upon us, we’ve suddenly struck a blood-and-pus-spewing vein of Binding of Isaac news. First there was a completely mad (in a good way) looking Team Fortress 2 mod, and now Edmund McMillen himself has reclaimed the stage to present a hellish heap of details about the upcoming Binding of Isaac remake. In short, Nicalis – they of the recent Cave Story console remakes and NightSky – are handling the heavy lifting while McMillen cracks the whip from the lead designer nightmare throne. Non-Flash graphics, local co-op, and a Wrath-of-the-Lamb-sized expansion are the standout features, but it wouldn’t be Binding of Isaac without a million-billion other gleefully gruesome things. And on that front, McMillen and Nicalis intend to deliver.

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Even though Team Meat is actively working on it second game, we have not seen the end of The Binding of Isaac, Edmund McMillen’s roguelike-inspired, religion-parodying surprise success story. At the end of a Gamasutra postmortem on the game, McMillen revealed he’d signed a deal with Nicalis to “remake” the game for consoles.

The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth will sport 16-bit visuals, a second expansion that wasn't technically possible in Flash, and local co-op.

“I love consoles as much as the next guy, but dealing with the business end of console development wasn't something I wanted to dive back into at this point,” said McMillen.

The Binding of Isaac was not a Team Meat game, and created in the span of three months after Super Meat Boy.

Team Meat was publicly critical of Microsoft after the release of Super Meat Boy on Xbox Live Arcade, and for a while it sounded like the duo might not deal with consoles ever again.

McMillen, one half of Team Meat, told Nicalis he wanted nothing to do with the business deals, and just have the opportunity make the game he wanted to make. Nicalis agreed to McMillen’s demands.

“The Binding of Isaac was a huge personal achievement,” he said. “I was able to talk about something personal and meaningful in a way I felt comfortable with, and I was able to get my feet in the water with the roguelike formula and random generation.”

It’s unclear what consoles The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth might come out on, but the original game was famously rejected from appearing on 3DS because of its religious content, and McMillen hopes the updated art style might change that. All platforms are on the table at the moment, including an iPad version if it makes sense.

No, no, it’s not what it sounds like. Edmund McMillen hasn’t suddenly decided to beat the record for fastest “HD” remake treatment ever. This remake, to hear McMillen tell it, is very, very necessary. In short, have you ever noticed how Binding of Isaac occasionally chugs even on machines powered by blazing tech and unholy sacrifices to Shan’thulex, bloodlord of the night (and a small chain of mom ‘n’ pop PC hardware stores)? Well, that’s because it runs on Flash, and McMillen thinks it’s high-time that changed. That, however, is only the beginning of this remake.

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Despite the constant flow of new games to try, be they the sort of grand strategy that devours weeks or tiny flights of fancy, there are some games more than a fortnight old that I still find time to play. The Binding of Isaac is one. Short, decidedly sour and extremely attentive to my desire for carefully controlled randomisation and odd loot, every journey into the basement has something to offer. We knew an expansion was on its way and now we know it’ll be here on May 28th. According to the trailer, it’ll also contain ‘more’ of just about everything.

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We won’t be seeing Edmund McMillen’s The Binding of Isaac on 3DS, unfortunately. McMillen revealed over Twitter that Nintendo has denied the game’s possible port over religious concerns.

“Attention: After a long internal debate Nintendo has decided NOT to allow the Binding of Isaac on the 3ds. :(“ said the designer. “As many assumed the reasons were due to the games "questionable religious content". Thank GOD Steam exists!”

The Binding of Isaac is not the next game from Team Meat, McMillen’s other outfit that produced 2010’s Super Meat Boy. Team Meat is working on another project, and McMillen made The Binding of Isaac as a post-release breather. The game’s best described as, well, a Zelda-inspired roguelike.

You should really play it.

I still haven’t done everything there is to do in The Binding of Isaac and it’s one of the few games that I’ll happily revisit for achievements and items. I want every item and I want to kill every boss with every character. That’s why the news of an expansion fills me with pleasure and anxiety, although not in equal measure. The anxiety is tiny and might just be the standard white noise of dread that hums in my ears whenever I’m awake. The pleasure is immense. I always hoped Isaac would continue to sprout growths and the free Halloween update was ace. The next will require a small payment – it’s going by the name The Wrath of the Lamb and according to Edmund, it adds about 50% new content. More details below.

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