Homebrew Release: Warnel Chawpiovs v1.0.0 (PC, Nintendo Switch, MacOS), adds “The Rise of Red Skull” cards
Hi everyone, I’m happy to release a new version of my homebrew “Warnel Chawpiovs” for PC and the Nintendo Switch. This new release (1.0.0, up from 0.1 last time), adds 2 new heroes (Hawkeye and Spider-Woman) as well as 5 new villains, all of which are from the “Rise of Red Skull” box of the original board game. Version 1.0.0 also adds “Adventure Mode”, a game mode in which you have to win games in order to unlock heroes/villains. There are also a bunch of minor bug fixes and improvements.
This is a fan-created work and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Fantasy Flight Games. All characters, settings, and related elements are the property of their respective owners.
Update: a MacOS build is now available on the download page
What’s Warnel Chawpiovs ?
Warnel Chawpiovs, aka WC, is a homebrew game for multiple platforms (included, but not limited to, Nintendo Switch and Windows), based on the popular cooperative board game Marvel Champions. WC lets you play a card game with full rules enforcement.
Screenshot from the Nintendo Switch version
See, I’m a huge fan of Marvel Champions to play solo, but the amount of rules in this game fries my brain. I badly needed a way to play with a computer doing the heavy lifting for me, so that’s what WC is about.
Please note that Warnel Chawpiovs doesn’t hold your hand. Although it automates all of the gameplay, you will still need a basic understanding of the original rules to know what’s going on. The rules can be found here if you’re interested: https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/products/marvel-champions-the-card-game/ (scroll down to the support/rules section and download “Learn to play“)
You can play on your own with one or multiple heroes, and there’s also a multiplayer mode, although I need to emphasize once again, multiplayer doesn’t exactly work*
I have binaries available for Windows and (hacked) Nintendo Switch, but this should work on Mac and Linux, as well as any other Godot compatible platform, as far as I know. Just needs someone with enough motivation to compile for these platforms.
Warnel Chawpiovs – What’s new in 1.0.0
- Adds support for “The Rise of Red Skull”:
- New heroes : Spider-Woman and Hawkeye
- New villains: Absorbing Man, Crossbones, Taskmaster, Zola, Red skull
- “Adventure Mode” is a new gameplay feature (and now the default) in which you have to win games to unlock heroes/villains. It can be deactivated in the options to unlock everything directly
- The game is now much more “verbose” with popups that give details on what’s going on. These can be dismissed for a given game by selecting “don’t show this tip again” or entirely deactivated in the options (Options > Gameplay > Notifications > “Expert”)
- “Text mode” is now considered playable. This allows to play if you can’t or won’t download image files. You might want to open the settings.json file and set “load_cards_online”: false to avoid the game trying to download image resources on startup. (Note: you still need the set definitions to be downloaded from marvelcdb)
- Caped FPS to 60FPS
- Various bug fixes
How to install – Windows
Download the binaries below or on the github page:
(alternatively on github)
extract anywhere on your computer, then run the WC.exe file
How to install – Nintendo Switch
You will need a hacked Nintendo Switch to run this game.
Download the binaries below or on the github page:
(alternatively on github)
extract the WC folder inside your switch folder on your SD card.
Launch the homebrew Menu in “full speed” mode (not in applet mode). This is done by pressing the Right Should button (R) while launching a cartridge game.
From there, you can run the game
How to install – Mac OS
Download the binaries below or on the github page:
(alternatively on github)
The Mac OS app isn’t officially signed, so in order to run it you can ctrl + click and select “open”
Running your First Game
On your first run, unless you already have the appropriate “core.zip” file (that file is included on the packages hosted on my website, but not on github), the game will attempt to download images and other resources. You will need internet access for that step. This step can be pretty long, in particular on the Nintendo Switch (roughly 15 minutes in my experience). Again, that step is not needed if you have the appropriate “core.zip” file.
Once you’re in the game select “Sivgle Player”, then choose one hero and one villain, then click on launch.
Check the Videos below for examples of gameplay
Status of the Switch port
The Switch port is… slow. You might want to overclock your console when you play the game. I know it’s not ideal, but it makes the gameplay much more comfortable.
I would not recommend playing with more than one hero at the moment, if only for performance reasons
Troubleshooting, bug reports, etc…
I do not have a dedicated forum or discord in place for this game yet. You can open issues on the github, or contact me by email, but please understand that I might dismiss or ignore most of those depending on free time and interest.
If there is enough interest for this little game, I might open a discord or something eventually.
Known issues
- Multiplayer should basically be considered broken for now.
- Switch port is slow. You might want to overclock your console
- There are still lots of issues with specific cards, but feel free to report issues you find on the github
Want more details?
check the Readme on github
What’s next:
There is still lots of work to do with this game. There are obviously lots of bugs whether from a rule enforcement perspective, or simply crashes/memory issues that I want to fix. The original game also offers many, many more cards that can be added. But in the long run, my dream would be to have multiplayer working somewhat consistently.
If by any miracle you are looking at my code and can help, in particular with multiplayer issues, please submit a PR on github
Download
Or on the project’s github page
* If you badly want to play Marvel Champions with friends online, the Marvel champions digital edition, another unofficial fan game, does a great job at it.
