The Binding of Isaac | Cheerful Ghost

The New Binding of Isaac Four Souls Game Is A 4-Player Card Game On Kickstarter!

Edmund McMillen is one half of the old Team Meat that made Super Meat Boy and he's recently gone off to work with new teams on projects such as The Binding of Isaac Rebirth, The End is Nigh and now with his brand new Kickstarter project The Binding of Isaac: Four Souls. Four Souls is a neat looking group card game where funding it at $25 gets you the base game and upping your pledge gets you more. Not really sure from the video how the game plays but it looks like fun and if it's anything like the base game, it's difficult, dark and features lots of poop and tears. Which, you know, sounds awesome.

Florian Working On Binding of Isaac Wrath of the Lamb Update

Florian Himsl is the incredible other half of the team that brought us the original Binding of Isaac. In a bit of awesome news he is updating the original Wrath of the Lamb update with even more content. Now that The Binding of Isaac Rebirth is out I wasn't expecting more content for the original, but I can't say I mind it!

This is one part of Indie Game Development I appreciate as it's fairly rare for this to happen on the other side of the house.

Edmund Talks: The Binding of Isaac Origins

The folks that made Indie Game: The Movie have released this excerpt from the special edition focusing on Edmund and The Binding of Issac. It's a really great 30 minute doc short on why Edmund decided to make the game and it getting huge in the YouTube Let's Play community.

I really appreciate Edmund's honesty and his though process that went into making this really compelling game. It surprised me to learn that the game only took 3 months start to finish.

I think if the Indie Game: The Movie people keep interviewing and releasing indie game videos the universe would be a little bit better for it.

Northern Lion Interviews Edmund McMillen

Awesome new Northern Lion with Edmund McMillen about The Binding of Isaac and its upcoming sequel Rebirth.

A few awesome bits:

Rebirth is being made by the VVVVVVV guys and is in a very early staged programming wise. The game is being made to work on all manner of handhelds, Steam, Windows and Mac. Edmund really wants to support Linux.

Rebirth will include all of the Isaac content and some balancing changes. Many features could not be included in the game due to limitations of Flash and they will be including many of those missing features.

Edmund talks about how he feels people should play Isaac by going in blind and experiencing how things work without any kind of... Read All

Live Stream! Tonight!

Hey guys.

Me and some of my goofball friends will be live streaming some Binding of Isaac tonight at 9PM pacific. Come join us!

http://www.twitch.tv/watchoutforfireballs

So I started a Binding of Isaac Let's Play

Here goes! I'm trying to come at this from a "how to" or "guide" angle because I feel like my 360 hours of this game should be good for something. Let me know what you think.

jdodson Admin wrote on 01/05/2013 at 03:08am

Wow Gary that was fantastic, that really helps me understand the depth of the game and some basic strategy that I didn't quite get by "armchairing" Isaac.

Watching this game is hella awesome but I realize how far I have to go to actually beat it in a run as it gets REALLY hard later on. Awesome though, looks fun.

jdodson Admin wrote on 01/05/2013 at 03:10am

I just wanted to say again, more of these please :D

Gary_Butterfield Post Author wrote on 01/05/2013 at 03:58am

Thanks, Jon! I think I might be addicted. I recorded another one tonight. Upload happening right now!

jdodson Admin wrote on 01/05/2013 at 05:05am

Awesome, the public demands more Issac. And by public I mean me.... But I mean you pumped over 300 hrs into this game and it shows.

Personally I am interested in a bad Isaac run and if you can complete it.

Gary_Butterfield Post Author wrote on 01/05/2013 at 07:54pm

I'm going to put one up each friday, I think, til I get sick of it. Stay tuned!

jdodson Admin wrote on 01/05/2013 at 08:27pm

I think that's a good idea. Haven't seen the newes yet but it looked like it was another good run.

Here's to a bad one for the cameras!

jdodson Admin wrote on 01/06/2013 at 01:54am

Just made two Isaac runs. Nowhere as beefy as you were by floor 3. That and floor 3 stopped me each time. Used your strats to find the secret rooms and bombs blowing two spaces. Helps quite a bit, way more powerful that I was starting Isaac totally fresh.

That said, I unlocked Magdeline and she seems not as good as Isaac. Recommend?

Gary_Butterfield Post Author wrote on 01/07/2013 at 12:35am

If you find yourself taking a lot of damage, Maggie can be really helpful until you unlock Cain. Try Maggie a few times. More health, as much damage, yum heart. The only disadvantage is she's slower but speed upgrades are plentiful.

jdodson Admin wrote on 01/07/2013 at 12:45am

I have noticed speed upgrades are pretty plentiful. I dig Issac because he is Isaac but I find I really do appreciate the speed boost to start. Ill incorporate her more into my play though.

Gary_Butterfield Post Author wrote on 01/07/2013 at 01:41am

Cain is sort of by the books next steps. Cain is a straight upgrade in every way other than starting with only 2 health, which you can make up quickly. The other Maggie strategy is to liberally make deals with the devil. 4 hearts can make a huge difference there. An early brimstone can make or break your run.

jdodson Admin wrote on 01/07/2013 at 02:59am

Awesome, thanks Gary.

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Isaac Rebirth News & Mewgenics Update

Edmund McMillen of the Super Meat Boy & Binding of Isaac fame dropped some news on The Binding of Isaac Rebirth. Recently he had a Formsping Q&A on his blog and you needed to be made aware of the details. Your welcome in advance.

"-Rebirth is a totally remade game based on the flash version of the binding of isaac + wrath of the lamb.

-The game is being produced and developed by Nicalis, the guys who did all the cave story remakes and the VVVVVV port.

-Nicalis is working on the port for Ps3/Vita and PC (steam) and is also currently talking to MS and Nintendo about releasing on their platforms. we are also looking into an iOS version if its not garbage.

-The remake... Read All

Travis Admin wrote on 12/06/2012 at 02:50am

Oh hey, I didn't know he did both of those. I should have guessed based on the art though.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 12/06/2012 at 05:23pm

Right. He is pretty busy right now. Isaac remake, Mew-Genics, Meat Boy Mobile and something else... But I don't rightly remember right now.

Gary_Butterfield wrote on 12/06/2012 at 11:54pm

Get out of my dreams and into my car! My only misgiving is the no online multiplayer. Anyone on the Watch Out For Fireballs steam group knows I have put a whopping 350 fucking hours into isaac. Now, maybe 50 of this is idle time but this remains my go to comfort game.

New Isaac is very, very good news for me.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 12/07/2012 at 12:41am

Have you done a lets play with Isaac? 350 hours means you must be good at it and id like to see someone awesome play that game because its all real life tears when I play it.

Looking forward to this version.

Gary_Butterfield wrote on 12/07/2012 at 12:52am

I hate to brag but I'm actually awesome at it. The problem is my let's play software thing needs a program to export in direct x to work.

Gary_Butterfield wrote on 12/07/2012 at 12:53am

I really wanted to do a one-off let's play/beginners guide for it. It's been done to death but I've personally given out like 10 copies of that game.

Gary_Butterfield wrote on 12/07/2012 at 12:55am

What do you use for Let's Plays? Wanna send me a email?

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 12/07/2012 at 02:08am

I will.

beansmyname Supporter wrote on 12/07/2012 at 10:50pm

This is awesome news. The flash version runs horribly for me on almost every machine I've tried it on. In fact, the Linux port from the Humble Bundle runs worse. Fullscreen's not an option, so maybe this rebirth will allow me to finally finish the game.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 12/07/2012 at 11:41pm

Yeah, it seems like Rebirth is written in something non Flash to help out there.

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Bought this game a few months back and have played much more

http://29.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lu4k85uRPu1qe9bi5o1_500.png

Bought this game a few months back and have played much more recently. The unforgiving game play of the first few play throughts didn't win me over. I loved the art style and game tone but the lack of save really hampered me on it.

Started it up again recently and immediately unlocked the Magdaline character. I played through as Magdaline and did much better than I had previously. The play control is the same, but Magdaline starts with a Heart item that allows you to recover one heart every so often. After a bit the play control seemed to gel more and I did much better. Still lost but I went further in the dungeon and it didn't seem like a complete annihlation.

That or I... Read All

AutoCat1000 wrote on 05/01/2012 at 01:50am

Minecraft! (duh)

Tungsten wrote on 05/01/2012 at 09:36pm

Tribes

AdamPFarnsworth wrote on 05/01/2012 at 11:27pm

Pong.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 05/02/2012 at 01:29am

Pong. Awesome. Missile Command is pretty good too. Seriously though it is :)

AdamPFarnsworth wrote on 05/02/2012 at 04:28am

Missile Command was great!

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 05/02/2012 at 04:33am

One Of my Atari 2600 favorites.

Tungsten wrote on 05/02/2012 at 11:04am

Pole Position

Gary_Butterfield wrote on 10/12/2012 at 05:39pm

This is some thread necromancy but I will generally take any opportunity to evangelize my GOTY. Roguelikes work in an iterative fashion rather than linear, right? You get a little further each time and the way you make "progress" is through player knowledge. That's not strictly true in Isaac where you also unlock new items in play but it's the main form of progress. You get better as you get further as you get better as you get further. Unlocking new characters is actually a really sly way of handling a difficulty curve. Maggie is the easy mode for when you're starting and later, that becomes Cain (try to get 55 coins without spending any in one run). This then unlocks the challenge characters and eventually, through an unlock, Isaac becomes the most powerful character in the game. I'll have a more cogent examination of what I think makes this special in my own post at some point but I would urge anyone turned off by the difficulty to power through. When it clicks, it clicks hard (I have hundreds of hours logged on this game).

Tungsten wrote on 10/12/2012 at 11:05pm

I still pick it up now and then. It's still fun and horribly frustrating.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 10/13/2012 at 07:35am

I come back to this off and on. It's fun and I get a little father each time... But wow... It's hard :D

Tungsten wrote on 10/13/2012 at 11:32am

I think I got to mom just for the first time the other day. She kicked the crap out of me.

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I saw this game as I was making my way through some video

http://cdn.steampowered.com/v/gfx/apps/113200/ss_e06e09cbd2fa66dc8d35ede3620a4865ebf2e033.1920x1080.jpg?t=1317759692

I saw this game as I was making my way through some video game conversation. A few words stuck to me "zelda rouge-like" and "disturbing." I was interested in both topics because I don't hear about many disturbing games these days. I had also heard the game had some religious overtones and it was released by some Indie developers. So I checked out a demo.

First off I think it warrants mentioning I don't like games that are very hard. Since this game is a rogue-like expect that you will die. A lot. Basically you need to crawl X amount of dungeons to go head-to-head with Mom, beat her and win the game.

After playing a few days in a row I never got further than floor 4.

I... Read All

burn wrote on 02/29/2012 at 05:41pm

"I don't like games that are very hard"

awww

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 03/01/2012 at 04:13am

Yeah, its the punishing nature of some kinds of games. I dig games that offer a fun challenge, but these days I am looking for a rad awesome time, not getting my ass kicked over and over again :)

Tungsten wrote on 03/03/2012 at 12:46am

Steam says I've only played this game for 5 hours, but it feels like much more. I guess it kind of leaves you on edge. I like how when you are down to one heart you piddle on the floor every time you walk into a room.

It's pretty fun though, and every once in a while I'll pick it up for 15 minutes and then get extremely frustrated and rage quit.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 03/03/2012 at 05:36am

I hear you on the Rage quit. And the time does fly by when you play it.

I didn't notice the piddle, interesting find.

I found the binding of issac wiki helpful in understanding what all the items did as there are so many and the effects are so varied.

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