Chaos Reborn materialises on Kickstarter, is not an illusion

Those purple trees are a Shadow Wood that can attack adjacent creatures. Oh god I’m a huge Chaos nerd.

Julian Gollop is a chap who you can thank for a whole lot of innovation in turn-based tactical games. He’s the fellow behind Rebelstar Raiders, Laser Squad and Chaos. Those names might not mean anything to you, but this one should: X-COM (Or UFO: Enemy Unknown in some territories.) Not the recent remake (great though that was,) but the original. Today, right now, Gollop is revisiting Chaos under the name Chaos Reborn.

Chaos: The Battle of Wizards (to give it its full title,) was released in 1985 and pit up to eight (human or AI) wizards against one another in a single screen area. The turn process was pretty simple; everyone could cast one spell per turn and move their wizard and summoned creatures. Last wizard standing wins. There was more to it, like the nature of the universe tipping more lawful or chaotic depending on which spells had been cast, and the fantastic ability to auto-cast a creature as an “illusion” that could be “disbelieved” by paranoid foes. But its heart was clean, simple and addictive as hell to young, ZX Spectrum owning me.

Anyway, now it might be coming back, with “Procedurally Generated Realms, Online Multiplayer, Co-op and a Huge Single Player Campaign.” Gollop needs $180,000 USD to finish off what he’s already developed and that total (at the time of writing) is at $26,000 USD.

You can see footage from the playable prototype in the video below, as well as listen to Ken Levine getting excited about the prospect of another Julian Gollop game.

$20.00 USD is the pledge threshold to get a copy of the game when it’s released, but this being Kickstarter there are some more elaborate and expensive reward tiers too. For example, you can drop $5,000 USD and get (among other things) an invitation to the launch party in London and name in the credits as Supreme Benefactor. Come on Mr. Levine, you know you want to.