Indie developer Edmund McMillen and Tyler Glaiel have released Mewgenics, a roguelite strategy game featuring cats in turn-based battles. Critics are hailing it as the first legitimate contender for 2026's game of the year. The title draws comparisons to XCOM while incorporating unique breeding and trading mechanics centered on feline characters.
Mewgenics, developed by Edmund McMillen and Tyler Glaiel—the creators of The Binding of Isaac—presents players with a squad of cats embarking on roguelite adventures through environments like caves and sewers. In turn-based combat, cats navigate grids, using movement, attacks, and mana-powered abilities to battle vermin and horrors. Each run ends with cats retiring to a house, where strays can join and retired cats mate to produce kittens inheriting traits useful in future missions.
A distinctive upgrade system involves trading cats with townsfolk: retired cats for house expansions, kittens for ancestry knowledge, or even dead cats for other benefits. Breeding emphasizes passing on combat traits, with rooms influencing mutations, healing, or ability inheritance. Further progression unlocks class abilities like healer or archer, enabling multiclassing.
Combat mechanics expand beyond XCOM's two-action system, incorporating dozens of abilities—such as healing attacks, positional maneuvers, or knocking enemies into space for self-damage—and passives that counter threats like exploding mines. Environments add depth: cover from masonry, elemental interactions with water or fire, and shifting sewer pools. Items, including collars denoting classes and armor like paper variants, further customize cats.
The game's art features thick felt pen lines on greys and blacks, evoking McMillen's style, while the soundtrack includes brilliant original songs. Early playthroughs, around nine to ten hours, reveal a vast scope with evolving classes, items, and breeding ramifications. Polygon describes Mewgenics as an indie roguelike receiving glowing praise, positioning it as 2026's first true game of the year contender.