The Binding Of Isaac Sells Almost 450,000 Copies

The Binding of Isaac, the 2D action-adventure game created by Super Meat Boy co-designer Edmund McMillen, looks like it will be replicating the success of SMB. Thus far the game has sold close to 450,000 copies.

"When I started development on Isaac I wasn't even sure if I should charge for it, because I didn't think people would want it, in all honestly," McMillen told IndieGames. "I had to shop it around to a bunch of different developers, and say like "Do you think I could sell this?", because I thought it was way too weird, I thought the content was too disturbing and creepy, I thought it would just rub too many people the wrong way, and I thought the design was just too hardcore for any kind of mass amount of people to enjoy."

Players take on the role of a child named Isaac. Isaac's mother wants to sacrifice him to God to prove her faith so the boy flees into the basement. The basement, however, is crawling with monsters. The top-down dungeon adventure looks similar on its surface to Legend of Zelda. The actual gameplay is closer to a "roguelike," a role-playing game with randomly generated environments and perma-death.

"It's just ridiculous, there's no reason for this game to have done well. It's nice for everyone involved," McMillen added.

McMillen and co-designer Florian Himsl are now working on an expansion to the game. The Wrath of the Lamb DLC will add new items, trinkets, and alternate chapters. It's priced at $3 and is being prepared for an unknown release date.