Villainous is a tabletop game developed by Prospero Hall and published by Ravensburger. The game is playable by 2 to 6 players, each of whom take the role of villains from Disney’s animated films. Prospero Hall are a Seattle-based games design company and have worked with Ravensburger on several games that use well known IP, including games based around Jaws, Harry Potter, Jurassic Park, Wonder Woman, and Footlose.

Villainous was workshopped by the Propsero Hall team to ensure the Villain’s deck felt right and expressed the character’s goals from the movie. The designers watched Disney’s movies several times, and had extensive discussions on how to capture the characters, particularly about how they could brainstorm possibilities for Villain objectives and card abilities. When selecting the villains, Prospero Hall wanted a mix of villains that would be iconic, like Maleficent, as well as more obscure villains, such as the Queen of Hearts.

The game is deliberately visually appealing to older players. Prospero Hall have said that they did not want the game to look like a children’s game, although it is still a family game marketed at players 10+. Each Villain and Fate card is illustrated on the back. Moreover, the scenes which are depicted on the cards are not stills from the films but are illustrations created specifically for the game. There are 138 original pieces of art for the game, and every villain deck was illustrated by a different artist. The Villain movers are also elegant totemic style pieces which represent the villains, rather than being miniature figures.