12 years since release, The Binding of Isaac is getting proper online co-op soon

The best roguelike about a child escaping from their murderous mother is getting online cooperative play soon. The Binding of Isaac has had local cooperative support for a very long time, but it looks like you won’t need to jerry rig online support using Steam Remote Play for much longer.

The Binding of Isaac’s executive producer Tyrone Rodriguez posted a screenshot of the matchmaking screen today, corroborating fairly obvious evidence from earlier this year that the functionality was in development. It’s probably no coincidence that today marks the 12th anniversary of the roguelike’s initial release on Steam, back when it was a moreish Flash game designed to help co-creator Edmund McMillen get to grips with roguelike game design for the purpose of developing Mewgenics.

McMillen recalls as much in a TikTok video posted to celebrate the occasion, describing the then-not-easy process of getting a lil’ old flash game on Steam. He also teased a “big” update coming to the Binding of Isaac Repentance, all but confirming the online cooperative feature with both a screenshot of the matchmaking and the admission that “a lot of you know what it is already”.

Here’s Rodriguez’ tweet:

Twelve years is a long time to spend developing a sole game, but it has parallels in the indie sphere: Terraria and Stardew Valley keep growing and growing. Meanwhile, poor Mewgenics still hasn’t released, but is expected to arrive some time in 2024.