Comments on: SpyParty @ GDC 2010, Prelude

By: checker

checker — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 21:32:19 +0000

Okay, fixed! A little photoshop prestidigitation, and I’d been meaning to adjust the logo fade part as well so I did that at the same time.

Thanks again for the heads up!

By: checker

checker — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 20:37:35 +0000

Yikes, no, do you mean in the logo image at the top of the page? That’s a magenta triangle, and it’s the (prototype graphics) highlight for the Ambassador. There’s a green one and a yellow one too! You can see the others on the images page: http://spyparty.com/images/

Thanks for the heads up, I’ll change it!

By: Gay Davy

Gay Davy — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 19:42:03 +0000

What’s with the inverted pink triangle — is someone on your team having a good old Nazi laugh at the expense of homosexuals gunned down during the holocaust, or is this just a doozie of a gaffe?

By: jordy

jordy — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 08:55:42 +0000

Rock-Paper-Sciccor translated to information could be as followed, tho a bit crooked;

Knowing> Not Knowing

Not Knowing> Falsely Knowing

Falsely Knowing> Knowing

For example:

I choose to know his goal, if he picks for me to hide his goal I get to know his goal. If I don’t want to know his goal and he picks a false goal I win, cause I will obviously not be distracted by his attempt to mislead me. If I want to know falsely his goal and he picks me knowing his goal I win cause I will be presented with 2 goals 1 obviously false and the other true thus I both know his goal and wich kind of “action” he choose, namely for me to know his goal.
Other way around, if he picks Knowing and make his goal available for me to see and I pick not to know he wins cause I don’t get to see his goal. If he picks not to show his goals and I pick to know falsely I loose cause I will be presented with a false goal. If he picks for me to Falsely know and I pick to know he wins cause I get presented with an false goal of his.

Ofcourse goals can really be replaced with anything.

By: jordy

jordy — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 01:56:03 +0000

Cause this game reminded me somewhat of the psychology of rock-paper-sciccor, ofcourse tis games seems much better then that, I did some research on that. What I found is that there is a World Championship for Rock-Paper-Sciccor and also tournaments with prize money.
However to get to my point, an important part for the players in these tourneys is to prepare for there opponents by studying there statistics, like how many times do they throw a hand, in what order and what not. Also there is quite some psychology involved apperently, wich is quite interesting, plus people look for sign on what hand someone might throw, looking for twitches or tells, like I said it seems that RPS has some features in common with SpyParty.

But well here is my point, since this game is about human psychology and trying to figure out your enemy and get under his skin, it would be cool if you could get some background information about how he plays.
They way I imagined it is like this:

Say you got statistics that a player over all his games has played 80% as a man, 70% as a white person, 17% as that or this specific character, 45% choose this goal etc…
This could be well incorporated into your gameplan, and to not make it dry as in that you have too look into a chart with statistics before the game starts you could incorporate these kind if information into the party gast conversations, or something. And not in a direct way, wich would rune the atmosphere of the game, but more like subtle hints.

The fun about this could be that, say that you do pick 80% of the times a male, your opponent will most likely need to watch male figures, but on the otherhand, you might just now throw him off and have choosen a woman. But then again, if you choose too many times a woman your statistics will drop and you’re lost you tool to manipulate with it. But then all together, maybe he’ll never pick up that specific clue…
Could make for some fun meta-gaming maybe.

By: Paul

Paul — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 01:32:05 +0000

I always wanted to play the Mission Impossible level since I read about it years and years ago. Only remembered early last year when the suave Gravity Bone came out.

I’ll be keep a close watch on this development the ideas are really exciting. Your suggestions of where you might take this, large mansion parties with lots of simultaneous, dynamic events… well wow.

And I never played beyond a short go at the demo, but how do you feel this relates to something like The Ship that came out a few years ago?

By: checker

checker — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 11:41:17 +0000

It’s peer-to-peer, sort of. Well, it negotiates a peer connection, but then the spy always acts as the server, so as the players switch between spy and sniper, each game is client-server for sniper-spy. Not sure what will happen in the long run. It will need lots of testing over the real internet once I get NAT punchthrough working. Luckily, the design is quite robust in the face of latency.

By: Jason

Jason — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 10:43:37 +0000

Saw this little gem off of Gizmodo and just listening to him describe how the game works had me foaming at the mouth. I love these kind of games. If I had the money atm I would definitely donate towards this cause. Even looking at the alphas you have up, I would love to get my hands on a working copy. Even if it’s not the prettiest (In my opionion gameplay surpasses graphics any day.). Also if you need a small army of playteseters (Over 150 active users) that all have playtested for a major game at one point and would enjoy this game. Our site is the website I listed. I’ll see if I can’t get attention brought to this game. And just like me, I’m sure they’ll love it to.

By: Joe

Joe — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 02:06:20 +0000

I came across this gem reading an article on gizmodo.com and became very interested! I’m a big fan of your work in Spore (IMO, the only thing that game had going for it was the creature creator!) and I’m a huge fan of board game-esque multi-player games because those provide the best quality entertainment. So please add me to any play-tester list!

Also, what are your thoughts about making a 3 player mode? One spy, one sniper, one assassin? The spy does his thing, the sniper takes out the assassin, and the assassin takes out the spy? You could even do a 4 player mode where there are two snipers, one for the assassin and one for the spy… Oh man, that would be intense! Just an idea!

Goodluck with this Chris and I will definitely be keeping on eye on you!

By: Karthik

Karthik — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 01:45:09 +0000

Hey Hecker,

I read some articles that others have posted about Spy Party and I am really interested. I think this is a brilliant idea and I am glad that this game is being made. I think this will definitely change people’s view on multiplayer, and it surely changed mine. I am wondering if you are willing to answer a few questions regarding the game I would like to ask. Also would be able to do a podcast? Please contact my email or post a reply. Good luck with the game and I can not wait to try this out. Hopefully you will be able to get it on PSN XBLA and WiiWare. That would be sick. Please get back to me when you can.

Thanks