The hottest indie game about raising cats with ADHD and dyslexia

when Myogenics The team announced in 2024 that it had added autism to the list of disorders the game’s cats can inherit, said developer Edmund McMillen – best known as one of the game’s co-creators. Super Meat Boy – He wasn’t ready to react.

“This has been the most positive response I’ve ever gotten to anything I’ve posted,” he says. on Reddit and Tik Tokfans expressed their gratitude and excitement for his inclusion. “Everyone was like, ‘This is the perfect representation of autism,'” McMillen says. I feel seen, etc., etc.’ “I felt like someone opened the door and said: ‘Come on, come on, do what you want.’

Myogenicswhich launched for PC on February 10, is the first surprise indie game of the year. Announced in 2013originally titled Team Meat by McMillen and Tommy Refenes; McMillen rescued the project after it stalled. A deceptively funny and complex cast of adorable characters, roguelike gameplay, and tactical role-playing, Myogenics It is, as the name suggests, a game about breeding and bloodlines. It’s currently Steam Best selling game this week. Co-created by Tyler Galilee He said IGN McMillen says it took less than three hours to recover development costs Edge The game’s sales are already expected to reach 500,000 units sold. “It goes beyond anything I’ve ever done by a mile,” he says.

The game arrives in the year 2026, when Misinformation about disorders Such as autism is common and Pro-eugenics Attitudes Many, frighteningly localized, albeit occasional. To be clear, McMillen is not creating a deliberate commentary on the state of the world. “I hate politics,” he says. “It’s a game about fucking cats, you know what I mean?”

There are a large number of mutations and disorders that cats can inherit in the game – from bad gas or kidney stones to ADHD and depression – that affect their stats. ADHD gives players only seconds to make decisions or the cat will start acting out on its own. Autism involves accelerated intelligence but less charisma; A cat will naturally be very good at the abilities they were born with, but other skills may be a bit more difficult. “I’m very familiar with this,” McMillen says. “I have two children on the spectrum, and I have a wife who is on the spectrum as well… It’s been a big part of my life for the past 10 years.”

Myogenics It includes more than 100 perturbations — name one, McMillen says, that’s probably in the game — but each has its own upside. The goal is not to immediately eliminate cats with certain disorders, but rather to value them. “I want people to play and read between the lines,” McMillen says. “I want you to have an autistic cat, and instead of getting rid of her, recognize her strengths and embrace the challenge and potential that cat will have.”

Myogenics It is a personal project for McMillen, one that he pursued for years when it was unfinished. “I fell in love with the characters, I fell in love with the world, and I fell in love with the things that I thought were interesting and fun in terms of the genetic side of it,” McMillen says. The game took more than a decade to develop; After their success with Super Meat BoyHe originally conceived the project with Refenes. While the original project was about cat breeding and genetics, it wasn’t actually just a game. “It was like a game, a little idle game where you pet your cats, and then you use your cats in little games,” McMillen says.

However, after 18 months of development and public display at PAX, McMillen says Reviness’s enthusiasm for the project has waned. “It was very clear that I was the only one who wanted to continue working on the project,” McMillen says. “And I can’t force someone to keep working on something.” The duo decided to pause the project to work on another project Super Meat Boy project.

To McMillen’s surprise, he received an email from Steam expressing its condolences about the game’s cancellation. McMillen says that after speaking with Revenes, that became clear Myogenics That would never happen while he was working for Team Meat. When McMillen left Team Meat in 2016, he took over his position Myogenics With him.

After teaming up with Glaiel, the two spent another six years remaking it into the massive game it is today; Jalil conducted a great deal of research into the field of reproduction – and inbreeding – to come up with the finer points of the game’s main mechanics. Cats can be sexually active, and sometimes how their relationships progress is beyond the player’s control. “They can be very negative,” McMillen says. “They can have rivals. They can fall in love. They can be rejected.” connected, He said The game will take most players over 200 hours to finish.

writing Myogenics It made McMillen look at some of his earlier work differently. Specifically refers to Bind Isaac and its themes of nature versus nurture and “how nurture can really fuck a child.” However, some struggles in life are inherited.

“The game has definitely become more about the kids — the experience of raising kids,” McMillen says, reflecting on how fatherhood changed his perspective on the game from its inception to its release. “The legacy you leave, the genes you pass on to them and curse them with. I’m starting to write more from that perspective.”