Edmund McMillen’s successful cult classic, The Binding of Isaac, returns with a Kickstarter project. But this time, Isaac will be playable as a physical card. The crowdfunding campaign for The Binding of Isaac: Four Souls was revealed early Wednesday, and –given the fan adoration of the rogue indie title – was 100% funded in a mere hour and a half. At the time of writing, the project currently has a staggering $320,000 pledged with more than 4,500 backers, completely outperforming the initial goal of $50,000. With 29 days to go, it’s hard to imagine the card game not achieving all of McMillen’s planned stretch goals.
The original indie dungeon crawler saw immense success, giving rise to both an expansion and a definitive version on modern consoles. Players and online streamers alike fell in love with its addictive and accessible mechanic, immersive and quirky game design, and the complexity and difficulty of the randomly generated level patterns. Though the game can be punishing at times, players are encouraged to try again given that every playthrough is unique. With so many different weapon and power combinations possible, the replay value for such a deceptively simple game is incredibly high.
Four Souls, on the other hand, involves two-to-four players working together via dice rolls to defeat bosses and collect loot, and all the while stacking card combos. Fans of the game will undoubtedly be familiar with many of the cards that are pulled from its software counterpart, from returning characters and monsters to items and powers. In an interview with Polygon, McMillen expressed that he has always wanted to create a physical project. And now he has the chance to release one publicly with the help of several artists, one of which is his wife Danielle McMillen, the producer of the campaign and designer of its many reward tiers.
The planned release date of the card game is expected to be “the end of this year or early next”, as stated by McMillen. Around 12:00 PT on Wednesday, June 27, the game creator hosted a Launch Day Livestream and Q&A session on the Kickstarter page to answer potential questions by backers, and a prototype version of the game was also revealed.