Edmund McMillen facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Edmund McMillen
McMillen at the Game Developers Choice Awards in March 2012
Born	(1980-03-02) March 2, 1980 (age 45) Santa Cruz, California, U.S.
Occupation	Video game designer, artist
Known for	Super Meat Boy, The Binding of Isaac (Rebirth), The End Is Nigh, The Legend of Bum-bo
Spouse(s)	Danielle McMillen (m. 2005)
Children	2

Edmund Charles McMillen (born March 2, 1980) is an American video game designer and artist. He is famous for creating games with unique art styles. Some of his best-known games include the fast-paced platformer Super Meat Boy (released in 2010). He also made the popular game The Binding of Isaac in 2011, which was later remade as The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth in 2014.

Early Life and Inspiration

Edmund McMillen was born on March 2, 1980, in Santa Cruz, California. He grew up in Watsonville, California. From a young age, he loved to draw, especially monsters. His grandmother was a big supporter of his artistic talents. She even kept all his childhood drawings. Many of these drawings can be seen in one of his games, The Basement Collection.

His childhood experiences, including his family's strong religious beliefs, greatly influenced his game ideas. He often uses his games to explore complex feelings and ideas he had while growing up. This is especially true for The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth.

Game Development Career

McMillen started his career by creating independent comics. While he mostly focuses on video games now, he has made comics featuring characters like Meat Boy. This character is from his popular game Super Meat Boy.

Some of his early well-known games were made using Adobe Flash. These include Meat Boy and its sequel, Super Meat Boy. Super Meat Boy was released on PC, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 4. Other notable games he worked on are Gish, Aether, The Binding of Isaac, and Coil.

Gish won the "Adventure Game of the Year" and "Indie Game of the Year" awards in 2004. His game Coil was nominated for an "Innovation Award" in 2009. McMillen also helped create the game Braid as the original character artist. Braid won many awards, including "Best Platformer" from GameSpot.

Super Meat Boy

Edmund McMillen and programmer Tommy Refenes formed their own game company called Team Meat. They wanted to release games without needing a big publisher. Their first game, Super Meat Boy, came out on October 20, 2010, for the Xbox 360. It was also released on Steam for PC on November 30, 2010. A version for the Nintendo Wii was planned but canceled due to file size limits.

The making of Super Meat Boy was even shown in a film called Indie Game: The Movie. In 2017, it was announced that McMillen would not be working on the sequel, Super Meat Boy Forever. This sequel was released in late 2020.

The Binding of Isaac

The Binding of Isaac is an indie game designed by Edmund McMillen and Florian Himsl. It was first released in 2011 for Microsoft Windows. The game's name and story are inspired by a Biblical story. In the game, a boy named Isaac runs into his monster-filled basement to survive. Players control Isaac and other characters through different levels. They fight monsters and collect items to defeat bosses.

McMillen created this game to share his thoughts on religion, based on his own experiences growing up. He released it on Steam in 2011. The game quickly became popular, partly because many people made "Let's Play" videos about it online.

Because of limits with the Adobe Flash software, they couldn't add many more features to the original game. So, McMillen worked with developer Nicalis to create a remake called The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth in 2014. This new version added many more features, improved graphics, and was released on many different systems like PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Wii U, Nintendo 3DS, and Nintendo Switch.

The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth has received three big expansions:

• The Binding of Isaac: Afterbirth (2015)
• The Binding of Isaac: Afterbirth+ (2017)
• The Binding of Isaac: Repentance (2021)

Each expansion added new bosses, items, and areas to explore.

In 2016, McMillen announced a game that takes place before The Binding of Isaac, called The Legend of Bum-bo. It was released in 2019 and later came out on iOS, Nintendo Switch, and other platforms.

The End is Nigh

The End Is Nigh is a challenging platform adventure game. Edmund McMillen developed it with Tyler Glaiel. It was released in 2017 for Microsoft Windows and later for macOS, Linux, and Nintendo Switch. Many people see it as a game similar in spirit to Super Meat Boy.

The game's themes were inspired by McMillen's own life experiences around that time. He wanted the game to make players think about whether their efforts would be rewarded in the end. He described the main character's journey as a "life falling apart."

Works

Upcoming Games

Images for kids

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  A robot for kids

See also

In Spanish: Edmund McMillen para niños