Chaos is Here
Chaos is Here
Chaos is Here
Chaos is Here
Support Richard’s vision and by investing in Popularium’s equity crowdfunding campaign on Republic.
Own a piece of Chaos Agents and Popularium and get “forever access” to Chaos Agents: full access to Alpha, early access, the full game, and all post-launch content.
Investors also get priority access to the Alpha, the chance to own limited edition Chaos Agents art worth $300 - $10k, and exclusive in-game Chaos Agents and cosmetics.
Chaos Agents Commits to Being a “Forever Multiplayer Game” Through the Magic of Dedicated Servers
“You own a copy of the game to the extent that you used to own a disc that you could go and buy,” Ray says. “The goal from day one was to build Chaos Agents in a way where we could essentially promise our players that regardless of whether we are around, we are supporting the official servers or not, you will be able to play the game.”
Richard Garfield Works His Magic
Three decades later, can Garfield repeat this success? With Popularium, a new gaming studio founded by Garfield and three other industry veterans (Jon Bankard, Skaff Elias, and Arka Ray) he is about to find out as he launches the game Chaos Agents. Instead of being set in a fantasy world, this one exists in a space-opera-esque science fiction world, a kind of mish-mash of some of the more celestial Marvel comics but also at home with the texture of Larry Niven’s “Known Space” shared stories and novels.
World Invitational Finals: Highlights
The first Chaos Agents World Championship took place at Gen Con in August 2024 - see the highlights here!
Chaos Agents as a “Forever Multiplayer Game”: Part 1: The Announcement and Motivation
I have waited several years to write this post.
How long? Well, we can go back at least to 2021, when I started discussing the possibility of building games together with Richard Garfield. We both very quickly agreed that letting players have their own unique Agents, and giving them assurances that their money was well spent—that they would be able to enjoy their Agents for a long time without having to worry about the game “going offline” or “being killed”.
Chaos Agents as a “Forever Multiplayer Game”: Part 2: Roadmap and Technology
This will let a registered Chaos Agents player with access to a server that meets the minimum requirements—either a physical or virtual server—to run their own instance of the Chaos Agents Server (MSA) - dedicated server version. Clients will be able to connect to these dedicated servers to find and join (initially unofficial) matches.
Who are Chaos Agents? Why do they need your help?
A new batch of Chaos Agents are ready for recruitment and willing to fight for your House.
They await your orders to begin.
Answer the call, and get ready for the adventure of a lifetime.
Read up on the history of the Firmament, the universe of Chaos Agents… and play Chaos Agents to become a part of its everlasting history and lore.
Popularium was founded by Richard Garfield, Jon Bankard, and Arka Ray to build a playground-lab hybrid from which the next generation of innovative gameplay experiences would emerge, with a focus on player choice, empowerment, and having fun. Chaos Agents, our first game, is the world’s first Autobattler-Royale, combining the best of Autobattler and Battle Royale games with globally unique heroes. Each Chaos Agent is unique in the way they look, play, and win, and only one player at a time can play with that Agent. Every player has the chance to become the global expert on playing their Chaos Agents, and building the greatest Brokerage House the Firmament has ever seen.
From the creation of a rich, detailed story universe to the building out of valuable IP, along with great development and design progress, we are incredibly grateful to our amazing team, player community, friends, family, investors, and advisors who have supported us every step of the way.
We’re so glad to have you with us on this journey.
Let Chaos Reign!
Altareth River Valley
Chaos Lore Highlights
The universe of Chaos Agents, known as the Firmament, is vast and varied in its planets, species, cultures, and their motivations. Chaos Shards govern and shape many aspects of the socio-political and economic events of the Firmament, making Agents and their Brokers—such as you—key players in this ongoing cosmic theater. Every faction and species have their own motivations when it comes to Chaos Shards, and you should be aware of them all. Here are some of the latest news and rumors from across the Firmament, with a lot more of its history recorded on the Chaos Lore page.
Breaking: Chaos Brokers earn a clean sweep in the Xandrian Challenge, stir controversy by offering to “donate” Wins to the Xandrians
Breaking: Merchant City, Altareth: The highly anticipated Xandrian Challenge was a resounding success, attended live by over 220,000 spectators at the Altareth Chaos Battle Arena, and streamed by over 3.1 billion households across the Firmament. Viewership ratings were highest across Convocation-member planets such as the Massieu homeworld of Prevarus. Surprisingly, the Xandrian world of Moufette, not known for their enthusiastic spectatorship of Shard Battles, had the third most viewers across all planets.
Leaked Communication from the Padoccia Trade Union to MrThrifty Reveals Incentives Behind “Xandrian Win Donations”
The Red Sun News Brokerage can exclusively reveal from trusted sources that the Padoccia Trade Union offered several incentives to Chaos Brokers participating in the Xandrian Challenge that led to the offer of “donating” Win Conditions to the Xandrians.
Titus, Scion of the First Honor
The Brothers nodded, still tired, but willing to follow Titus to the last. It stirred his heart, and gave him a foolish idea. Calling on the old ways, he summoned the Breath of his own life and focused it into a radiant touch. Passing slowly from one Brother to the next, he placed his calloused hand on their heads and shared what Breath he could.
Chaos Agents Events Highlights
We are building Chaos Agents with the help and input of our player community, so keeping our community informed and engaged is very important to us. Below are highlights from some of our community events, with a lot more available to stream on our YouTube page.
World Invitational Finals: Highlights
The first Chaos Agents World Championship took place at Gen Con in August 2024 - see the highlights here!
Chaos Agents - Roadmap Reveal for 2024: Playlist
May 13, 2024 — Arka Ray from the Popularium team welcomes MVP community members to the Chaos Agents 2024 roadmap reveal and the topics that will be covered in today’s session.
Chaos Agents Game Design: Fireside Chat with Richard Garfield - Gen Con 2024
Richard Garfield and the Popularium Team discuss Autobattlers and the game design behind Chaos Agents.
Chaos Agents Dev Diaries - A Look Behind The Curtain
Chaos Dev Diaries Episode 1: The Phantom Timer Menace
January 27, 2024 — The Chaos Agents dev team wanted to give you an inside look into the many trials and tribulations along the exciting journey to shipping v1.8.6, while also providing you with a classic example of how software development, despite best intentions and efforts, can sometimes devolve into a domino of causes and effects that, while being painful for us devs, can provide wonderful entertainment for the rest of the community. So grab your popcorn and get ready for a ride!
Chaos Dev Diaries Episode 2: Attack of the AI Agents
February 12, 2024 — What kind of logic do Chaos Agents use to carry out your directives during a battle? Or is it all simply chaos and madness? Learn how order leads to Chaos as we deep-dive into the AI-powered mind of a Chaos Agent.
For 1.8.6, we’ve made substantial updates to the “SURVIVE” AI Strategy, specifically in how an Agent calculates its “Escape Vector”.
As a result, we wanted to give our Chaos Agents community a closer look at how their Agent’s AI works, so that they can make more informed decisions during upcoming matches and Tournaments with a deeper understanding of the Agents’ decision-making process and logic in any given scenario.
Richard Garfield Works His Magic
Magic the Gathering’s Creator Wants to Create an Even Better Game
Since bursting onto the scene in the mid-1990s, Magic the Gathering has become one of the most popular games of all time, with millions of players collecting cards to battle each other in an imaginary fantasy realm. But Magic’s early success came with a problem: the price of the game’s most powerful and rare cards surged along with its popularity. Eventually, Magic’s creators worried that the game would become too expensive and was at risk of becoming a short-lived fad. So, how do you pop a bubble in collectibles without completely alienating collectors? In this episode, we speak with Richard Garfield, the creator of Magic the Gathering, and Arka Ray, a long-time game developer at Microsoft who’s now CEO of Richard’s new gaming studio, Popularium. They talk about the surprising parallels between MTG and central banking, what they’ve learned from Magic, and how they’re applying those lessons to Chaos Agents, Popularium’s first new gaming launch.
Richard Garfield’s new strategy game will generate a unique character for every single player
As names go, Chaos Agents might seem a little vague. However, there’s nothing vague about Popularium Games’ ambitious plans for this distinctive upcoming free-to-play strategy game. This bold hybrid of auto battler and battle royale aims to offer a novel experience, where players master their own uniquely generated characters.
Battle royale titles are known for their mass combats, where only one player can walk away victorious, while auto battlers have players select strategies that their units will then carry out without their direct input. Both genres are titanic features of the video game landscape, but never before have the two met quite like this.
Jonathan Bankard - Back in the Game
“The nice thing about our industry is that it’s a very kind industry,” Bankard said. “All of our friends are out there helping us connect to people, friends of friends, and all of that is very collaborative and wonderful. It’s a big change from the big companies I’ve worked at in the past in just how much all of these indie studios are trying to help each other out.”
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To go even deeper, you can get access to Chaos Agent trades, Discord only-rewards, invitations to exclusive events, and in-depth discussions with the Chaos Agents community by joining us in our Discord.
Hope to see you there!