Cat Capers

Project 2015-04-28 15:21:12 +1200

Catching a rat, summoning the fire department, and sneaking into someone’s house may not be your idea of a good time-–and in the latter case may even constitute a felony….

unless you are playing Cat Capers! In this family-friendly board game you are a cat, your owner is away at work and the world (well, your block anyway) is your oyster. Unfortunately, a big dog named Rex and the other cats keep trying to prevent you from experiencing all the feline fun your neighbourhood has on offer. Still, with careful allocation of your four paws and crafty use of special cards, you can be the one who emerges from this cat fight with the lion’s share of the points.

The game is played in six rounds. At the beginning of each round, colour-coded activity cards worth 2-4 points are displayed at each house on the block. Players secretly allocate each of their paws to a house to contend for its activity card. Or any number of paws can stay behind in the basket; each will earn an extra cat card at the end of the round. Certain cards are worth a bonus point to particular cats, which helps guide choices. After players lift their screens, reveal their choices, and move paws to the appropriate houses, cat fights break out, as competing players use cat cards to try to outnumber or outmanoeuvre each other and win the card and its points.

At the end of the game, the player with the most points is the winner.

Two to four people can play Cat Capers, it's intended for people age 8 and up, and games take about 20 minutes.

Cat Capers was developed by Claire Ahuriri and James Dunning of Sky Bear Games. Auckland's Cheeky Parrot Games is providing production assistance and expertise and will publish the title under its label with Sky Bear listed as the designer. Cheeky Parrot Games is an established card and board game designer whose existing titles include Granny Wars and Raid the Pantry; Cheeky Parrot also distributes its own and other games to about 60 retail outlets throughout New Zealand.

Cat Capers has been playtested by a wide variety of people and its prototype has been on tour this year, appearing at events such as Board Games by the Bay and Wellycon. People are saying:

Straddles the line between 'game for kids' and 'game for adults' really well.

As a family, we very much enjoyed this.

Quick and easy to play but requires strategy to win well.

CATS!

We will use manufacturing and logistics companies Cheeky Parrot has dealt with on other projects. Claire and James are prepared to cover some of the costs and in fact, they have already invested in professional artwork for the game. Over time, Cheeky Parrot expects to be able to sell copies via its existing retail network and distributors, but a successful PledgeMe campaign enables us to set the recommended retail price at an affordable and competitive price for families. We also hope the campaign generates excitement and awareness about the game prior to its release. Finally, the funds we raise will enable the inclusion of three extra features: a modular board, a one-piece magnetic closure box, and the Dog Dilemmas expansion.

Time frame: we expect to initiate manufacture by early August and to have the games in New Zealand by late October, which means you should have your copy well in advance of Christmas.

Thank you for your consideration; we appreciate any pledge you can make to support our project!

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