The day has come, and I am incredibly proud to present to you The Idles - a game that I have spent the last seven years making. The Idles is the first title for our publisher Unair Games, and there’s so much I want to share with you. If you are not the reading kind though, you can check it out in our website, download the PnP through our platform or jump into the TTS mod.

We will shortly be following up with the preorders on the 4th of February, but I was itching to give you guys a glimpse of the game already.

What is The Idles?

The Idles is a two-player asymmetric card game that pits an employee versus a supercomputer managing a company in a rather dystopian way. It’s a reflection on the American Dream, modern capitalism, consumerism, and AI. It's in many ways a highly experimental game, but it’s also a continuation of Caper: Europe somehow. It takes the same quick, highly interactive, and competitive nature of Caper, and grows from there. This project is an evolution, both of me personally and as a game designer. The theme, the gameplay, and the moment in time just felt right for this. If you liked Caper, then I encourage you to give this a try. I think you will like it.

The Idles is also a homage to a game that rekindled my imagination years ago, Android: Netrunner. It was discontinued for reasons unknown to me, but even before that happened, it inspired me to create this game. You could say this is my take on some of those ideas. If you play Android: Netrunner, then your heart is probably taken. Still I’d encourage you to give The Idles a shot, even if it's just to say that Netrunner is better. More importantly, if you found Netrunner too obscure, too much of a drag or too daunting, I really think this one might click with you.

But don’t take my word for it and check it out on TTS or print those decks!

What is Babll?

I still remember the first days of the internet fondly. There was a sense of community, a youth of sharing music and ideas. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the videogame modding scene. The idea of engaging players, making them connect, and produce new content for their video games is amazing to me. Blokes willing to spend their time creating content out of the goodness of their hearts for others to enjoy. A game, after all, is made up by those who play it.

In that spirit, quite uncapitalistic and definitely out of fashion, I created Babll. Babll is a web app that will let you create decks for The Idles (both identity and constructed), share them, receive living rulebook updates, meta balance changes, and lore segments, but more importantly, contribute to it. With Babll, anybody will be able to easily create and share their own card packs, not needing any technical knowledge. We used it ourselves to make the game, and can’t wait to see what you will come up with.

Babll is also a vision of what I believe board games should be about: sharing, connecting, and building a community. It’s no secret that my favorite game is Blood Bowl, a game that has been kept alive by the community forty years after its release. That passion is a major inspiration for me. We are rolling it one game at a time but I really hope that soon more games and indie creators find their home in our humble tower.

I guess what I am trying to say is: folks, you take the driving wheel now. I need a break.

AI Disclaimer

We have put an extensive disclaimer detailing the use of AI in the development of The Idles. If this is a topic that interest you, we strongly encourage you to take a read - and engage with it in this forum.

Ultimately, The Idles is a work of love. Calling it a solo project would be a disservice to all the people that have helped me over the years, but it's fair to say I have put my all in here. The Idles is also a form of activism, but above all, it’s the kind of game that I’d like to play. And therefore, it’s a game I want to share with you all.

Unai & The Unair Games team