Magic: The Gathering creator Richard Garfield has founded a new game studio, alongside veteran developers from Hearthstone, World of Warcraft, and Halo.
The new studio, known as Popularium, has already begun work on its first title. As the name implies, the studio takes a community-centered approach to the development process. Taking a leaf from the community-oriented development cycle of titles like beloved ARPG Hades. Popularium aims to incorporate “ongoing community involvement” into the design process, according to the studio’s official website.
Popularium goes on to describe its ambitious mission statement. “Even in the earliest stages of [our games’] development, we will provide you with the means to impact both the gameplay and the asset-creation in all our games. Our aim is that all of our games be as fun to watch as they are to play.”
In addition to Richard Garfield, Popularium also includes industry veterans Skaff Elias, Aarka Ray, and Jon Blankard who have contributed to projects ranging from the ever-changing World of Warcraft to online trailblazer Xbox Live.
Popularium has already announced its first project: Chaos Agents. Though very much in early development, Chaos Agents promises to be a “genre-bending” title, taking the form of a multiplayer strategy game “that pits 60+ unique heroes in a chaotic battle for primacy.” A quick look at Popularium’s website reveals a distinctive art design, reminiscent of Overwatch 2, yet possessed of its own unique flair.
In an interview with Gamesbeat, Garfield stated his intention to create an “auto battler royale”. In recent years, Garfield developed an interest in auto battlers which he is striving to bring to Chaos Agents. “It showed one of the directions you could go”, he said, “it solved a lot of the issues which often face games where you have either a constructible element or a strategic element… the gameplay is very relaxed, very broad, that is, there’s no twitch in it, there’s no speed element… which [can] often limit your audience.”
Organized chaos
It remains to be seen as to whether or not Chaos Agents will be able to overcome this hurdle. Either way, the promise of a modular, strategic battle royale from such an esteemed team of game designers has me excited. It’ll be fascinating to see what these veterans can come up with in the context of community-collaborative development and modern gaming sensibilities.
The trading card game landscape owes a great deal to Garfield, as does its forays into the video game world. Juggernauts like Magic: Arena, Legends of Runeterra and even Hearthstone take much inspiration from Garfield’s original 1993 card game. In all of these titles, the modular nature of the design allows new sets to introduce interesting new mechanics without undermining the core rules set that makes the game fun.
The modular approach is part of the reason why Magic: The Gathering has lasted 30 years and is still going strong.
The significance of modular design also applies when considering Popularium’s commitment to community-driven design. This approach would allow players themselves to bring new mechanics forward while operating in the same design-space as the developers.
This approach is part of the reason why Magic: The Gathering has lasted 30 years and is still going strong. However, even the old paper juggernaut occasionally shows its age. Speaking on Magic: The Gathering in his Gamesbeat interview, Garfield lamented that “when magic was first designed everyone had their own treasured collection, but those treasures became commodities, and we lost some of that magic… since then I’ve been trying to figure out how to get back to that. Now digitally, we can bring back that unique collection idea with Chaos Agents.”
It remains to be seen as to whether or not Chaos Agents will be able to overcome this hurdle. Either way, the promise of a modular, strategic battle royale from such an esteemed team of game designers has me excited. It’ll be fascinating to see what these veterans can come up with in the context of community-collaborative development and modern gaming sensibilities.
