For the team at Popularium, the foundation of “Chaos Agents” lies in the concept of “uniqueness.” Elias pointed out, “I can confirm that Richard [Garfield], for about 30 years now, has been interested in this unique deck thing. When we were first playing Magic, all the decks were unique […] every deck really did feel different. Magic [then] moved into this space where people were constructing their decks [instead of using random ones]. The uniqueness of what you own gets lost because you’re building towards this sort of internet-optimized build.”
In essence, “Chaos Agents” is positioned as a response to metagame-heavy titles like “Diablo 4” and “Overwatch 2.” Garfield emphasized that while “Chaos Agents” introduces unique characters, “it’s not like Diablo because in Diablo, everybody’s got particular character classes, and they can exploit it. Here, your characters will actually be unique; they have their own skills, and you will become the world expert in managing your character.”
This focus on character uniqueness represents one of the “three principle pillars” of the game. The other two foundational elements are deeply rooted in the design principles of both battle royale and auto battler genres.
Elias highlighted the allure of auto battlers, stating, “The idea that you could get the richness of a computer interaction and all this detailed gameplay, but, as a player, not be bound by twitch and [be] able to participate at all levels of skill – that’s a really appealing thing […] It’s [also] very good for handling lots of players.” This is where the battle royale component comes into play.
In a hands-off preview of an early build of “Chaos Agents,” the game showcased an isometric arena where players alternate between planning phases and battle phases. In the planning phase, players strategize and choose abilities for their character, which the AI then executes in the battle phase. These phases rotate every 20 seconds in what Garfield referred to as the “lean forward and lean back loop.”
