Popularium’s Chaos Agents game gets pre-alpha playtest

18.10.2023 - 15:35 / venturebeat.com

Richard Garfield, the creator of Magic: The Gathering, started a game studio called Popularium and now the company is showing off its title Chaos Agents.

Popularium is now taking Chaos Agnets into its pre-alpha playtest phase. The game is coming from a team led by Garfield and other veteran game creators Skaff Elias, Arka Ray and Jon Bankard.

The playtest will be conducted in collaboration with Gen Con TV, a popular streaming platform for gaming enthusiasts. This milestone marks an exciting step forward for Chaos Agents, which aims to empower gamers to develop their own unique playstyles.

The pre-alpha playtest will be streamed on Gen Con TV, starting at 9 a.m. PT today (October 18). The stream will showcase an initial playtest tournament that took place earlier in October in Seattle, further building anticipation for Chaos Agents.

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The team showed me a demo of the gameplay, which is like taking a MOBA or battle royale game and then breaking it down into a turn-based strategy game. Rather than rely on super-fast reactions, the game caters to gamers who are more like thinkers. They can come up with strategies to outwit other players in a battle royale match, and then see their decisions play out in gameplay segments that last about 20 seconds each.

I saw a match with four players. Eventually, the game may pack about 64 players into a match. As you fight and grow your character, you can purchase more skills with the points you earn. The game proceeds on a turn-based basis. You see the action run for 20 seconds, then you issue commands and buff your character for another 20 or 30 seconds. You can do things like go collect more resources or attack. When you attack, you can issue a command to retreat after you take 25% damage.

“We’re ready to expand to pre-alpha playtest through our new Chaos Broker Trainees – as they are better known,” said Garfield. “These playtesters have been selected from thousands of applicants eager to get their first taste of the Chaos Agents Universe. We’re embarking on quite an adventure and Skaff and I are excited by where we’re headed.”

You can look at your character and inspect the skill tree. And when you choose certain skills, the color of the character will change to reflect the choices you’ve made. In that sense, the colors of the characters will be a clue to rival players who are challenging you in the arena.

During the stream, Peter Adkison, the founder of Wizards of the Coast and chair of the board at Gen Con, will join Garfield and Elias to discuss their vision for