A scaleable 1-12 Player Dice and Card Game with several modes of play including Solo, Tag Team, Multiplayer, and Versus!
Latest Updates from Our Project:
Overseas Return and Ready to Go!
about 8 years ago
– Mon, Oct 03, 2016 at 12:34:08 AM
Hello Capes and Villains,
I've been away but have returned with good news. After vigorous playtesting the past month and a half, we've made tweaks to all the decks to make them balanced and flow better. Many of you have helped with this development and thanks to you, the game is where it should be!
After receiving an invitation to go overseas to visit the factory that will print Capes and Villains, I spent about a week there to go over with them the deck and box builds to make sure they know what the final product should be. I was very impressed at all the games they've produced, and after seeing the factory and speaking face to face with our rep, I am confident that this will look spectacular. While in China, I play-tested with a few of their employees to see if they could understand the game between our slight language barriers, especially since some of the terms from Capes and Villains are tributes from comics. They caught on quickly and enjoyed a few sessions.
Following, I stopped by my hometown in Japan and visited a couple hobby stores there to get a few stragglers to try it out. It seemed that they enjoyed it though they weren't familiar with some of the more obscure story arcs from American comics and didn't understand the references. They did enjoy the charging and allocation of the dice plus the variety each turn gave them. To a few of them, it felt like it was a cross between comic books and arcade games (which to me was a huge compliment.)
Project Development
In the comment threads and updates, we discussed the possibility of doing 2 waves of shipping, one of the core game and expansions, the second for backer created items and the rest. At first I also believed that one print run would be best - for costs as well as for component quality. After speaking with the factory, I am assured that the quality will be the same and they showed me some products they've done that had expansions come a year later and the colors of print, paper stock, and overall feel was spot on. They would also give me a 2-part cost discount so that having the second print would be considered a long extension of the first one if we send them the files within 6 months. I don't want the game to be delayed any further so I agreed.
For a quick schedule, now the printer has 100% of all the game files (core game and all expansions) as well as the final box design. They are giving me until the end of October (third week would be preferable) to finish the rulebook and submit it to them for printing. So while I'm working on backer creation, I need to knock this out ASAP and have it proofread even after all graphics are updated before submitting. I want this to be a one-shot deal to get right.
I had admittedly been focused on rebalancing the game, so there hasn't been much progress with backer creation. I didn't feel right to continue backer gameplay creation until the core mechanics were down to where I'd like them to, especially since we'd have to just rework them if I tweaked the main gameplay in any way.
So those who've been waiting for me to get on with the Backer Creation, I'll start up this week. Thank you for your waiting during this month and a half for me to get things back in order. I know you've all been getting worried and wondering what's going on. At this point, I look forward to continue to bring you good news.
- Ayumi Takahashi
In the thick of Gameplay
over 8 years ago
– Mon, Aug 15, 2016 at 08:54:13 PM
Hello Capes and Villains!
And like the blur from a speedster, it's the middle of August. The beginning of this month I took an amazing opportunity to visit Gencon. Not for sight seeing, but to get Capes and Villains in front of playtesters and a few publishers who could give us their opinions and tweaks. To be honest, after taking over this project I went full steam ahead towards production assuming that all the cards were balanced as it was, especially since the PNPs for each of the main character decks had been released. I'm very fortunate that some of you had given the PNPs a shot and sent over input on some specific cards and decks. Because of this, I've been on a mission to give Capes and Villains vigorous playtesting on my watch, with every deck and card. Fortunately there hasn't been a huge number of edits, but because of the great input from Gencon, I think we're going to have an even more solid of a game.
Backer Created Cards
We are still working on backer created cards. My original goal is to have them with the same print run as the rest of the cards. There's still a possibility but I would rather not delay the game's production any further if I can help it. There's only 2 of us here on my team at the moment so our bandwidth is a bit tight. I'm going to give us until the end of September to try to knock these out.
If we can't finish them (gameplay/artwork for backers), then I will just put them in a second print run. As a second print run, they would come from the same manufacture and be of the same card stock as Capes and Villains. Following, we would ship them separately, going from our manufacture to our shipping partner's international and domestic hubs (we are EU, AU, and CAN friendly per what our shipping partner suggests). But preferably, I would like to see them printed together if at all possible.
I'll be sending the updated card files to the printer this month regardless of the backer created content just so we don't waste any time and that the printer can create proofs of them quickly.
Production Schedule
Because of the delays this month from playtesting (I plan to continue having playtest groups go through the cards up until the manufacture sends us proofs), the goal is to turn all non-backer files in by August 31st. Let's say backer content if finalized by the end of Septemember, this would give us final proofs by mid-October and final printing by mid-November. Of course with Thanksgiving and the December holidays we might be fulfilling sometime in mid-late December. At least, that is my current projection.
This includes Capes and Villains, the expansions, stretch goal card and exclusive card unlocks. What it won't include are the dice bags, posters, art book and player mats since that is a whole other issue I'll need to figure out. I'm not sure how we were going to contact you all about these selections, but I will figure out a way after the game is fulfilled. These items will be a Wave 2 no matter what.
Updated PNPs and Rules
During the next couple of weeks, I'll have the dropbox and google doc updated with the new files for anyone who wants to give them a go or help us proof the content. Thanks once again for the tremendous help so far!
- Ayumi Takahashi
Capes and Villains Update: Sidekicks and Henchmen
over 8 years ago
– Mon, Jul 11, 2016 at 12:05:38 AM
Hello Capes and Villains! The past few weeks I have been working on 2 main things, backer creation as well as playtesting.
My intention for Capes and Villains is to have all of the core game, expansions, stretch goal cards, special dice, custom card sleeves, and the Apocalypse Engine deck in the same production. That will save us all a lot of heartache in the long run for shipping, costs, and chances for mess-ups.
For the backer creation cards, I have 2 plans of attack. My first goal is to try to finalize these for the same print run. But if that isn't likely, it will be in the second wave which will be produced in the US along with the dice bags, art book (because it's dependent on the backer creations), player mats, and posters (saving us all on production time as well as costs since the quantity for the non-card related items are relatively small).
Another thing I want to be completely candid about is that since Capes and Villains is now a part of me, I want to make sure that the gameplay mechanics for each card and deck plays as it should from my perspective and gaming experience as well as what it initially was. When I was helping out before, I didn't have this amount of access to the game. There were a few backers who had pointed out some cards that were too scenario specific and I completely agreed. So after rigorously playtesting with several groups, we've been spending a lot of time to tweak and balance cards to make decks feel great no matter which Cape or Villain they challenge. There weren't huge changes, but certain abilities needed fine-tuning so that all cards would be useful in the deck. We'll continue to playtest the next few weeks and if you're also playtesting the PNPs, I'll make sure to replace the old versions with the newer ones.
To wrap up the production part of this update, the bottom line is that I believe that realistically I'll have all final files to the printer by the beginning of September. This includes the box art, rulebook, and all cards. My goal is still August, but I have a feeling that with the gameplay re-test, to feel comfortable it is most likely September. I don't want to just rush it out the door and at this point, a few few more weeks won't make as much difference as long as it's for a better player experience.
- Ayumi Takahashi
Henchmen
These are specific for Villains only, and they must be “called in”. A player will call a Henchman by playing them first sideways (they can not be attacked or used at this time) then turning them vertically one round after a player played them, during the Strategize Phase; They can be used at that time.
Henchmen have health points (which are very low) at the top right and their individual special moves on the bottom, which can be played at any time a player would play a tactic card as long as they are in play. A player may use multiple henchmen abilities per turn. Henchmen can be used by Villains as a defense against an attack, though it might kill them, much like a shield. If a Henchmen is killed, they are removed from the game unless its owner stuns all of their unused dice this turn (the owner must have at least 1 die to stun); The Henchmen will be placed in the discard pile instead.
Sidekicks
These cards are played exactly like Henchmen cards except these are specifically for Capes and and not Villains.
Shingo No More
over 8 years ago
– Sun, Jun 12, 2016 at 09:30:33 PM
Hi All! I don't even know how to begin to write this but I have both possibly bad and very good news to tell you which you may or may not have guessed based on the very misleading title of this post.
After reading through the comments and seeing what was once a campaign of excitement and energy deteriorate into a the state things are in now, I'm saddened.
Well no more.
In short, Capes and Villains is now something I will be leading into fulfillment and beyond. No, not like before because I was just hired on to help as a freelancer. Instead, we are looking at a new tomorrow as Capes and villains is now a part of Crystalis Games, a company under my sole helm. Shingo Games and Henry will no longer own this IP nor will be a part of this project as this decision is something I feel will be better for everyone. I feel a lot of passion for the lore and characters Henry created (he did put a lot of heart into it) but I think he really needs to spend time with his family and let go of having this be just his hobby. Let's bring this around to being about the game and no longer about personal lives. No joke.
I think I'm pretty much caught up with everything here and I hope to bring things back to where things should be, especially since I believe in structure and organization. I will be contacting some of you for some much needed help in giving me some perspective of things that I may not be aware about, such as the state of backer creation and promises during the campaign that need to be honored. Of course, I'm going to make mistakes but I hope that they will be based on my lack of information rather than my inability to follow through on things.
So with this "Rebirth", let's see what the box of the game will look like:
Conceptual Box Art for Capes and Villains
After speaking with the manufacture, the box intended for the game will be 7.6" x 11.2" x 3.2" inches, reminiscent of the Sentinels of the Multiverse Enhanced Box edition. I will have dividers made for the box and it will fit sleeved cards as well.
As for the current state of the rules, I've gone through and made some updates to your last edits. Since ownership has changed, please find the updated rules here:
Take a look and together we will continue to make the rules flow like they should. There were a LOT of great comments and I hope I reflected them in the current rules update. Once we're there, I'll lay them out in the actual rulebook that will go in the game box with diagrams/graphics.
For those who played or reviewed some of the decks, I haven't looked through your previous comments to make the edits but I think the expansion material has yet to be released. I'll make sure that continues so we can see what needs fixing before printing.
Okay.... lets do this. Let's get this done and let's make Capes and Villains what it should have been. I'm probably not going to openly discuss Henry or Shingo Games just to keep our focus on what should be important.
I'm excited and can't wait to work with you all, hands free and NOW.
6 New PNP Characters!
over 8 years ago
– Wed, Mar 23, 2016 at 12:06:11 AM
Hello Capes and Villains! In this update, we'll take a look at 6 of the remaining decks for Capes and Villains.
The Dhino
A ferocious beast of an anti-hero, The Dhino gains strength by allowing his power to sap his energy giving him buffs with mighty payoffs.
As a character, his power is simple and works exceptionally well with his cards making his sacrifices well worth it.
As Dark Carnage his hyper senses make him perceptive to moves by letting him draw cards playing into his abilities.
Exuberation Lee
Exuberation has a deck that's great for beginners yet very versatile for the more experienced. Having trained as a Shadow Ninja, she's all about speed and utilizes FLASH to put her move always ahead of her enemy. As a mutant with a bit of bubblegum pop to her, she has creative moves like the Psychic bubble that can make an enemy's move their own nightmare.
Using her deadly techniques, she can cripple her enemy's energy reserve to go in for the kill. As the Crimson Blade, her agility allows her to be even quicker and even perform her tactics at a rapid fire rate.
Lady Jester
Her deck is a lot of laughs, introducing Equipments (cards that act as items that stay in play until used), and causing her enemies to bleed enough to take an extra hit after being damaged. Her deck has a bit of everything, from capturing civilians, poison, and even creating a spectacular magic show with killer bunnies.
With her skills in magic, she can wipe out an enemy's hand and cause havoc on the battlefield. As Lollipop, the tricks she has up her sleeves make her one sadistic rival.
Catastrophe
With his advanced scientific knowledge, Catastrophe is able to re-create the powers of his enemies from their DNA and boost them with Tech and his own abilities. Though making him more vulnerable to trait specific moves, his copycat powers are strong enough to take down the most skilled enemy.
Catastrophe matches the energy level of his enemy, pairing the DNA and causing him to become stronger. But beware going up against him as he strives to reach his final form and create a delta bomb in order to decimate all those that stand in his quest for knowledge.
What better way to ensure that your DNA aligns with your enemy than to have the ability to tamper and re-create it yourself? As Judgement, he becomes a very OP super villain with increased defense, health gain and unblockable free damage.
Mr. Bones
Mr. Bones is a strong, defensive villain. His attacks can mess with an enemy's fortification but better yet, his bones can reinforce other moves, making them stronger and deadlier. He plays out the long game so you'll want to pace yourself when playing as him and take out your enemy when they're weak.
For every card discarded, there's a way to get them back. With the ultimate recycle move, get all your discarded cards back may it be as Mr. Bones or Dark Marrow.
Rabid Skunk
He was our flagship character that ended up changing the most. He's one of the best characters to start off with and to master. With the ability to take down certain traits and get more deadly as he makes his enemy's bleed, this feral beast is well rounded until he unleashes his Rabid Rage.
As a master strategist, Rabid Skunk's card ability continues to provide solutions against any of his enemy's moves, shutting them down as they present themselves.
As The Raccoon, he quickly turns into a killing machine, tearing apart his enemies with sheer power and ease.
Print and Play!
Now for the good stuff! To try out these decks as well as the rest of the 14 Exciting characters, you can find them here!
