Case Study - Third Year Studio Project, 2024

Catapol

Five cat families. Twelve districts. One throne over a noir 1940s city.

Type: Board game - strategy & competition
Table: 3–5 players · 45–90 min · 16+
Components: Board, cards, standees & dice
Status: Completed · publication ready

The Game

Catapol reflects a gloomy, dangerous era: a city where illegal business keeps the lights on, and where the mafia cat families who maintain its order fight each other for power, money, and ambition.

It was my first major project designed to publication standard a full board game with its own world, factions, and economy, in a box.

How you win

Complete the five mission levels in order - 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 - then defeat the Boss. The first family through the sequence becomes the most powerful family in Catapol.

Catapol box mockup: the front cover with cat eyes over the skyline, and the back listing box contents - game board, resource cards, quest cards, family pawns, resource buildings, boss cards, and dice

The Fall of Arthur Banks

Arthur Banks, leader of the Sweepers Family, ruled the city alone with absolute power and for as long as he did, everything stayed in balance. Then, one morning, he died. Suddenly, and without explanation.

The balance died with him. Rival families the Clawers, the Yarnballs, the Sandmen, and the Bonefishers began a relentless struggle to control the city. And in that chaos, the Trashmen Family, unable to accept their leader's death, decided to return and reclaim the power they had lost.

Five family crests held up by cat silhouettes: the Sweepers' broom, the Clawers' claw marks, the Yarnballs' yarn, the Sandmen's shovel, and the Bonefishers' fishbone

"An experience full of power, passion, betrayal and collaboration." Catapol's core promise

Systems on the Table

Three resources

Authority leverages your influence to get things done. Money constructs buildings in your territories to grow wealth. Pawpower raids rival regions to seize control.

Twelve districts, three degrees

From Goldenbazaar and Azurepaw Harbor down to Bloodscratch and Clawthorn Grove high income districts yield more but hold fewer pawns; low income districts run the other way. Every claim is a trade-off.

Mission ladder

Quests are drawn strictly in order from patrolling the streets to owning the biggest catnip business in town until the Boss himself: Carlos "El Tigre" Ramirez, thirty Pawpower of him.

Standees, deliberately

Pawns and buildings are standees rather than molded pieces compact, and far cheaper to produce. A publication decision, not just an art one, and one that stays open to future upgrades.

Catapol's three resource icons: Authority as a throne, Money as a pawprint banknote, Pawpower as a red clawed paw

The Catapol game board: a mosaic-style city map of twelve colored districts in three wealth degrees, beside the Blacksand Sea, with a skyline silhouette behind

Standee designs: five family pawns in each family's color, and three building standees over the city skyline

Quest cards from level one to five - Patrol the Streets, Steer Secret Shipping Network, Organize a Big Gamble Night, Gain the Support of Wealthy Bankers, Own the Biggest Catnip Business in Town - and the Boss card, Carlos 'El Tigre' Ramirez

Where It's Going

Catapol is finished as a design and built to be published box, board, cards, and standees. What remains is production: print files, and finding the right table to land on.

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